Management
Zobmondo!! Entertainment President: Randall Horn
Although Randy Horn began his post-collegiate career in the container shipping industry, he currently finds himself, years later, an MBA, lecturer, published writer, creator and executive producer of his own TV Show, and a seasoned entrepreneur in the entertainment industry. His experience crosses industries and includes toys, games, television, wireless entertainment, publishing, and licensing. After graduating from U. C. Berkeley with an Industrial Engineering degree, he worked for three years as a Project Leader in the Industrial Engineering Department for Matson Navigation in San Francisco. Randy primarily managed the implementation and design of new technology in Matson’s shipping terminals. He also has experience in process improvement and operations. Furthermore, Randy has valuable sales experience. Apart from his years of sales with Zobmondo Entertainment, he spent one year as a sales representative for Matson in Northern California, and worked at J.P. Morgan’s Private Client Services division as his MBA summer internship. As a 1997 graduate of UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Business, he concentrated on marketing and strategy in an entrepreneurial setting.
In 1996, Randy was awarded Anderson’s Price Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies Graduate Fellowship. Through the Anderson School, he worked closely with successful entrepreneurs in the hopes of acquiring as much entrepreneurial experience as possible. The Zobmondo!! Business Plan was awarded third prize at the 1997 Knapp Venture Proposal Competition and the Zobmondo!! concept was featured in the June 13, 1997 edition of the Wall Street Journal as well as many other prominent print, television, and radio features since, including Smart Money, Playboy, Esquire, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Maxim, CNBC, and Fox Cable News. He was also the only full time student asked to speak at The Anderson School 1997 Commencement.
Randy formed Zobmondo!! Entertainment in 1997 after graduating from the Anderson School. Although still a young entrepreneur, his history of success is a rare one. First, Randy invented the board game Zobmondo!!, "Would You Rather...?". He single-handedly developed the entire product from shaping the artwork and packaging to every single piece of question content in the game. Additionally, Randy managed the creation of all marketing and sales material for Zobmondo, including writing most of the copy. He was also the front man on all PR and has done many radio and TV interviews, as well as many newspaper and magazine pieces. Finally, he was successful in managing the designers, publicists, and sales reps that assisted with all of the above. Zobmondo!!, That Crazy “Would You Rather” Game was manufactured and distributed by Randy’s company, Zobmondo Entertainment, in both 1998 and 1999 before Randy signed a worldwide distribution deal with Hasbro in 2000. Zobmondo!! games are now back in house, currently manufactured and distributed by Zobmondo!! Entertainment.
His company, built around this innovative new idea for a social conversation game for adults, has garnered much praise in its early years. With only about a $20K public relations budget and $0 spent on advertising, the company’s board game Zobmondo!! was The Game Keeper Chain’s #2 seller in 1998, its first year on the market. The Zobmondo!! concept sells itself. It can currently be found on mass market and specialty store shelves across the country. Based on the Zobmondo!! concept, Randy has also received interest from the television, online, interactive game, publishing, calendar, greeting card, and gift/novelty industries among others.
Randy single handedly negotiated and inked a licensing deal with Workman Publishing for books and calendars that has since proven to be quite fruitful for both companies. Randy’s first book titled Zobmondo, The Outrageous Book of Bizarre Choices, has a whopping 132,000 copies in print and is currently on its sixth printing.
Randy also secured a non-exclusive deal with Motorola/CodeOnline for wireless entertainment which has resulted in a Zobmondo wireless entertainment product for mobile phones in Finland, The United Kingdom, South Africa, The United States and more. Randy has played an integral role in the design of all of these global products and is pleased that through his wireless entertainment products, Zobmondo!! is currently available to more than 15 million consumers in the UK and Finland and countless more around the world.
Randy also negotiated a TV deal with Universal's Studios USA Television. After finalizing the deal, Randy assisted with the hiring of prominent producers Stone Stanley Entertainment and played a key role in developing the Zobmondo TV Show. A pilot episode was shot as a result of their successful efforts. At present, the Zobmondo TV rights have reverted back to Zobmondo!! Entertainment and the concept is currently being shopped to network, cable, and syndication buyers in nationwide.
In addition and most impressive of all, Randy inked a world wide licensing agreement with Hasbro for the distribution of Zobmondo!!, the first product he has invented and developed. It is believed that Zobmondo!! was the first party game licensed off of the specialty store shelves, by Hasbro, in over a decade. In fact, when Hasbro decided to keep the name Zobmondo!! as the brand they would promote, Randy was complemented on his ability to build a brand name in such a short time with so few resources. In his first product, Randy was able to do what many inventors hope to do for their entire lives … license his product to Hasbro, the dominant player in boardgames.
Randy has been featured on many radio and television programs due to his entrepreneurial accomplishments. He has been personally featured in the Wall Street Journal, Smart Money Magazine and was named one of America’s Top 50 “Up & Comers” by Point of View Magazine in October of 1999. Randy has also been a featured speaker at the Anderson School at UCLA and at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.