‘Mission Match’ Hopes to Match Future Leaders with Careers
Alexandria, VA – Entrepreneur and Marine Corps Partnerships Head Timothy Gick has helped head six different startups. Now, he’s bringing his A-game to his own startup, a game called Mission Match. This colorful card deck puts a U.S. military-themed spin on your typical memory game. As players match up pairs, they score ‘‘mission cards,” each themed after a different branch of the Armed Forces.
The game’s twist comes via QR codes on its mission cards, which show players ways to get involved with said branch. “It’s a very fast-paced game, and people want to continue playing, which is always the benchmark for success,” Gick said.
Gick’s idea came about during his time volunteering for Toys for Tots. As a Marine volunteering for the charity, he acted as a middleman between toy-collecting businesses and non-government organizations that distributed the toys to underprivileged communities.
During this work, Gick said he recalled being taken aback by the lack of quality control with toy distribution. “It’s like [a] ‘wow, we’re giving these out’ kind of deal,” Gick said. “So I thought, why can’t I just create my own toy?’” Even though his idea officially got off the ground in November 2022, Gick said the blueprint for Mission Match has been in the back of his mind for a while, making it a personal project.
Collaboration is in Mission Match’s DNA, with Gick noting that his collaborators are spread worldwide. Gick first met his colleague, Gio Zlobin, while piloting a popular burger joint in Tbilisi, Georgia. While Zlobin now lives in Spain, Gick says his longtime collaborator was responsible for pitching Mission Match’s memory game format. Other team members include a Colombian cartoonist, and even Gick’s own college roommate, who he credited with coming up with Mission Match’s unique rules.
While the game is officially due to release in late August (as of The Zebra going to press), Gick says he’s grateful for the game’s early traction among military-adjacent communities. “I was in the USO (United Service Organizations) recently, and I placed some of these games on the counter for a moment,” Gick said. “And when I came back, these tour ladies were talking and they said, ‘Oh yeah we love Mission Match, our granddaughter plays it.’”
Gick also recalls demoing the game at the Marine Corps’ Family Day event and watching a kid so competitive he sat with the game for an hour, determined to win. Gick says moments like these remind him of the importance of his work.
Gick hopes Mission Match’s QR code pathways will help familiarize kids with service groups that aren’t attached to “name brands.” While he respects the value in recognizable names, he says more grassroots organizations offer similarly useful experience. He recalls attending a high school event in Prince William County run by a group called STEAMBridge, which allowed students to create and program their own drones. “That is the exact organization that people need to hear about, but they would never hear about, unless on the off chance that they get this information,” Gick said.
Even though his game challenges its main demographic to consider career pathways that wouldn’t otherwise have come to mind, Gick said he is confident that Generation Alpha (birth years 2010-2024) will be “the most entrepreneurial generation of our time.”
The final version of Mission Match hitting shelves later this month includes information cards about topics like fitness, nutrition, and mindfulness, which Gick believes are relevant to future leaders. Despite the vast amount of information introduced, Gick said he always tries to keep it playful over preachy.
“I’m not going to push people one way or another,” Gick said. “I’m simply going to provide the information [so] they can make their own informed decisions.”
