Ryan Wanger

Ryan Wanger is a Senior Software Engineer at MapQuest and an Organizer for both Boulder Startup Week and Ignite Boulder. Ryan earned a B.A. in Computer Science from Hamilton College and a Game Design Certificate from the Academy of Game Entertainment Technology. His journey to Boulder included stops in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles.

“If somebody gave me back all of the time that I have spent on the internet, I definitely wouldn’t spend it the same way! I think that people who succeed in the next 10-20 years are going to have the self discipline to get stuff done and not be consumers of media.”

His experience with Everlater

“My favorite time at Everlater, in retrospect, was when I was doing support. I could read support emails and fix a problem in 5 minutes. That would just blow people’s minds! We gained passionate users one at a time.”

Speaking at Ignite

“I really like the challenge of coming up with a presentation. There are very strict restraints for it, which in some ways makes it easier. It keeps you focused on entertaining, making people happy, and making them think about something.”

On gaming

“I grew up playing games with my family. We played hearts, spades, scrabble, and boggle. I hadn’t thought about chess in 5-10 years and then suddenly I was seeing new things and thinking about the game differently from my experience with these other games.”

Who is Ryan inspired by?

“Nate & Natty are interesting because they are finance people who taught themselves how to code. They are the nicest guys ever! Twice during Boulder Startup Week I ran into people who accredited them as the reason that they moved to Boulder. That is almost a better benefit to the individual people out there than some company that raises or makes a bunch of money and becomes a success.”

Regarding pinball

“Something that I had known about and ignored my entire life suddenly became this obsession for me. It makes me excited about the future! What else have I missed? The moral of the story is: try new things.”