Smith Alumnus Nominated for Rising Star Inventor of the Year

Dominic Crapuchettes, MBA ’04, bet his future on North Star Games, a board game company he created in 2004 with Satish Pillalamarri, MBA ’04. Now you can find his games — Wits & Wagers, Say Anything and Cluzzle — in your neighborhood retail stores. He's won numerous awards in the past six years and he's nominated for "Rising Star Inventor of the Year" in the Third Annual Toy and Game Inventor Awards, presented by the Chicago Toy and Game Group and sponsored by Hasbro. His competition is movie star Daryl Hannah, and he needs our support! The deadline for voting was Wednesday, Nov. 17.

Crapuchettes talked with us two years ago for a feature story in SmithBusinessmagazine. He said that North Star Games is the fulfillment of a long-time dream. As an undergraduate, he captained an Alaskan fishing boat during the summers, using what he earned during the long days and nights of fishing to pay for school. But all that time he had a dream job in his head. After graduating from college, Crapuchettes worked for a dot-com company and did some programming, but what he really wanted was to start his own company. He thought about starting a dot-com venture, but his true passion was for board games.

So he took a risk, deciding to return to business school to learn the skills he knew he’d need to start his own business. Crapuchettes came to the Smith School as a Dingman Scholar, which gives scholarships, mentoring, office space and expert assistance to budding entrepreneurs through the school’s renownedDingman Center for Entrepreneurship. One of the first things on Crapuchettes’ to-do list was searching for potential prospects for a business partner. He found his match in Pillalamarri, who was smart, dedicated, ambitious, and a fellow games enthusiast. Together they took the first giant step: they developed and began marketing their very first game.