Game to Fame, Inc. owner and operator of the HowFamous web site, is a privately held corporation headquartered in Huntington Beach, CA (aka. "SurfCity, USA"). The HowFamous online contest was invented by entrepreneur and IT Consultant David Ho in June 2003 as a quiet, personal experiment of his tinkering with the tremendous power of the Internet to connect people. By January 2004, David's experiment was proving successful and so Game to Fame, Inc. was founded to keep up with the game's growth and evolution.

Management Team

David Ho - Founder & CEO : ho@howfamous.com

David Ho is the inventor of HowFamous and creator of the game's first online contest, then known as "GameToFame". David is also an IT Consultant who helps bring the features and benefits of large business Information Technology services to local small businesses allowing them to run more efficiently, maximize existing resources and ultimately to be more competitive. Previously, David produced nearly a dozen retail children's educational software titles for toymaker VTech, designed IC chips as an engineer for Rockwell International and developed animated media for television. David earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from UCLA.

Warren "Wizbang" Chao - Co-founder : warren@howfamous.com

Warren helped David launch the company in 2003 and has watched with fascination as the HowFamous site has grown. Warren and David believe that a good idea coupled with a passionate community makes for a new way of making friends and expressing one's creativity. HowFamous.com is our proof of this concept. We built the initial software engine in 2003, refined the contest idea over the last three years, and have largely left the site in the hands of our users to grow, promote and build the friendships and relationships that underpin HowFamous.com.

Advisory Board

Lee Cooper - Professor at The Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA and Founder of Strategic Data Corp.

Mr. Cooper is currently a Professor of Marketing at The Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, where he teaches market assessment and product strategy in the digital economy. His research interests include technology enabled marketing and developing analytical models for Internet data. He is the principal investigator for "Project Action: Planning for Radically New Products," supported from 1996-1999 by grants from Intel Corporation. Mr. Cooper is also the founder and Chairman of Strategic Data Corp., a venture-funded company providing ad optimization technology for use by web publishers, ad networks and advertisers.

Don M. Griffith - Chairman, President & CEO of First Coastal Bancshares

Don Griffith has been Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of First Coastal Bancshares, a registered bank holding company, and First Coastal Bank, N.A. since 1996. Mr. Griffith is also Chairman of DataTech Management, Inc., a data outsourcing company, and the founder of D.M. Griffith & Co., an investment firm started with the financial backing of Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. From 1979 to 1989, Mr. Griffith was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of First Interstate Bancorp. A Los Angeles native, Mr. Griffith earned an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, an MA in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA in Political Science from Stanford.

Tim Hanlon - Partner, Eighth Hurdle Communications

Mr. Hanlon is the founding partner of Eighth Hurdle Communications, a marketing and communications firm whose clients include Allen & Co. and Yahoo. Mr. Hanlon has extensive experience in building online communities through his prior roles as the Chief Marketing Officer at Priceline.com/Walker Digital and as Vice President of Marketing at WiseNut and LifeMinders.com. Mr. Hanlon began his career at Nike before spending 14 years at Bozell where he served as Worldwide Account Director and created advertising campaigns for Freschetta, Lipton, and Merrill Lynch.

David Mandel - Screenwriter, Producer

David Mandel is a screenwriter and producer based in Hollywood, California. His recent credits include serving as one of the directors, producers and screenwriters for the recent movie Eurotrip, and as a screenwriter for Cat in the Hat, starring Mike Myers. Mr. Mandel was also one of the writers for “Seinfeld,” authoring many memorable episodes including ‘Bizarro Jerry.’ He also was a writer for Saturday Night Live. Mr. Mandel received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and was a member of the Harvard Lampoon.

History

In June of 2003, David Ho was observing America's then latest addiction to such talent/reality TV shows such as "American Idol", "Survivor", "Fear Factor", "Star Search", et. al. where legions of talented people try to enter into a televised contest in an attempt to gain fame and fortune. Because millions of people enjoy watching and voting in these shows, the contestants on the show get tremendous exposure. The end result is that they become widely known. In other words, they become famous. (The fortune follows shortly afterward.)

Seeing those long audition lines, David saw a problem: Too many contestants were auditioning but only a very few people get a chance to play. The vast majority of hopefuls are turned away to languish in obscurity until the next open-call. Sadly (but realistically) most people will never get a chance to play.

"While that's not fair, is that the way it has to be?" David asked himself. "If being famous simply means that your name and picture is widely recognized by millions of people, shouldn't I be able to use the Internet to give everyone a chance to play for fame?" In trying to answer his own question, David spent the next two, sleepless weeks writing the code and setting up the first website that he would call the "GameToFame". It would be an online contest where everyone would have a chance to compete for fame. By cleverly constructing the gameplay, everyone on the site benefits from the activity of everyone else playing the game thus helping everybody increase their exposure and publicity. What started off as a quiet, personal experiment for David in his spare time as an IT Consultant has turned into a bustling online community. In January 2004, Game to Fame, Inc. was incorporated.

This unique online contest has produced four winners so far and given those four a tremendous boost in their quests for fame. Meetings with industry professionals, parties with today's reality television stars and guest appearances on TV sitcoms have been previously arranged for our winners with the prizes getting bigger and better. In November 2005, the web site was re-named to "HowFamous".

Contact Information

HowFamous
c/o Game to Fame, Inc.
20101 McKinley Lane
Huntington Beach, CA 92646
(714) 968-5404
info@howfamous.com

David: (714) 651-8155

Warren: (310) 227-3798

Press Relations