Tech entrepreneur taps tyke for creativity

David Rajala doesn't need to look far for inspiration. The serial entrepreneur and software developer got help from his then 7-year-old son Jared Rajala to design a new mobile app that will hit the digital stores just in time for Christmas.

The game, Tires of Fury, took just more than a year to develop with the help of the young Rajala's sketches. “(Jared) wanted to make a cool racing game, and we didn't see anything like it on the market,” David Rajala explains. “I thought that was really neat.”

Though Jared Rajala is getting key lessons in game design and exploring a creative outlet, David Rajala got a new company out of the app. Rajala recently incorporated Ignotus Games LLC, a nine-employee game design firm based out of Tampa, to market Tires of Fury along with another game called Burger Fury. The latter game channels the inner fry cook for those not lucky enough to work in fast food.

Rajala plans for Ignotus to be a long-term project aimed at biting into the burgeoning mobile app market.

David Rajala, who has founded and sold three companies, has taken care of the paper work for the new business, but a developing family drama is another hurdle. Rajala's youngest son, Evan, is waiting for his chance to create a game. “He designed one of the trucks in Tires of Fury,” David Rajala explains. “Now that he's around the age Jared was when he designed Tires of Fury, I think he's ready.”