Success Stories
A Windsor Region Success Story
Red Piston Inc.
Three young Windsor entrepreneurs turn adversity into a dream job
Faced with sudden unemployment, local entrepreneurs Andy Kale, Jakub Koter and Ali Al-Aasm made a bold move to do something they love: design applications for various mobile phones.
The three young men used to work in the advertising industry on interactive projects for a major car manufacturer. But when the car company recently ended its relationship with their ad agency — and their employer closed — they decided to do something they’d always dreamed of.
Jakub Koter, Andy Kale, Ali Al-Aasm
of Red Piston
Photo credit: Trevor Booth Photography
Self-funded with their own savings they launched Red Piston Inc. 
To take the company to the next level, they turned to the WE-tech Alliance , a member of the Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE) . WE-tech provided hands-on assistance through its Entrepreneur in Residence program — hooking the trio up with executive mentorship as well as networking opportunities with industry leaders in the gaming and digital media space.
Through WE-tech, Red Piston met and received some great advice from gaming industry giant, Wolfgang Hamann. Hamann’s company — Koolhaus Games Inc. — has worked on video games for sports organizations like the NHL, NFL, NBA, and FIFA, as well as TV shows like CSI and The Simpsons to name a few.
With this incredible support and expertise behind them, Red Piston has already launched some 65 high-quality mobile medical and gaming applications that are achieving huge downloads around the world.
The digital media “scenesters” have worked on projects for late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel, helping create an innovative project for his football Fantasy League that allowed fans to play along on YouTube. And, they’ve also worked with top Warner and Universal recording artists to create fan-based applications.
Recently, Red Piston released its first full-feature game designed for the iPhone: Banzai Blowfish . The game is jam packed with 40 levels of hand illustrated graphics spanning five unique and challenging worlds. Banzai Blowfish was featured by Apple Inc. in the New & Noteworthy section of its App Store, and Red Piston's applications have been downloaded over 300,000 times.
For Andy, Jakub and Ali, the future is bright.
“We live in a great community with a small-town feel, and every major sport, art, culture, recreational activity, etc. is within an hour’s drive in any direction” says Kale. “It’s our dream job, and it’s right here in our hometown.”
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