Nice to meet you. I’m Johnny Monsarrat. I was recently written up in the Providence Journal.
I’m an artist and aspiring author best known for founding Turbine, Inc., which became the largest privately held computer games company in North America and was acquired by Warner Brothers for $160M. After Turbine, I got an MBA and ran a strategic consultancy helping startups grow bigger.
Today my passion is running Hard Data Factory. We sell market research data, like competitive pricing, sales leads, and business intelligence. We also supply events listings like theatre shows and concerts, from anywhere in the world, to newspapers and other firms that need to monetize their Web traffic. (Our Event Listings + Your Web Traffic = Arts Calendar = Ticket Revenue.)
Working professionally in events means knowing a lot about New England and I love to explore. I’m always seeking new activity partners. Check out my blog on events, Events INSIDER, which is the most popular events blog in New England.
The Wheel Questions project is just the latest in a series of fun projects that started small and took on a life of their own. At MIT it included playing the school mascot, dancing around in a huge beaver suit. At Brown University it included filling my advisor’s office to the ceiling with balloons, and sneaking a hot tub onto campus during final exam week. In October 2009, I worked for the Samaritans organizing a themed charity walk with costumes called the Boston Monster March.
For The Wheel, it takes about an hour a day to collect the question cards, write answers, take photos, post the cards online, and select one for the daily blog. So far it’s been fun and a great adventure. I’m working now to find a public park or commercial for a bigger and better Wheel which I’ll apply for a grant to build.
It means a lot when people drop me a note. Contact me to say hello or volunteer to help the project, or stop by the Wheel wherever it is touring and leave a question card in the box. Your answer will go up online in a few days. Look in the website archives for your answer. The Wheel is far too small for all the questions submitted!
