Skavengerz (Ogden, UT) is a real-world adventure app that gamifies exploration, helping users unplug from screens, connect with others, and turn everyday environments into interactive quests that spark curiosity, movement, and joy.
Ogden, UT - May 23, 2025
Most apps are designed to keep you staring at your screen. Skavengerz is doing the opposite — it’s built to make you want to put your phone down and step into something real.
The idea came from a bold question: What if an app actually made people want to live more — not scroll more?
That question stuck with Nate Alder, Co-founder of Skavengerz, a serial adventurer who’s lived on three continents, speaks several languages, and has chased adrenaline across dozens of countries. After years abroad, he moved to Utah for college and was stunned by how many locals had never been skiing — despite living minutes from world-class slopes. Later, in San Diego, he encountered the same pattern: “I couldn’t believe how many people had never tried surfing, even though they lived right next to the ocean,” said Alder. “It hit me — people weren’t avoiding adventure because they were lazy. They just didn’t know where to start.”
The deeper problem, he realized, was more universal — and more recent. “Screen addiction has made it easier than ever to stay inside and scroll life away. Especially after COVID,” Alder said. “Most people have never explored more than five blocks past their usual Starbucks.”
That’s when the idea for Skavengerz clicked: a mobile adventure platform that turns the real world into a gameboard — part Pokémon Go, part The Amazing Race, designed to reward curiosity and get people moving.
“We’re not here to trap you in a screen,” Nate Alder says. “We’re here to break you out of it.”
Alder, along with co-founders Brandon Osmond and Dr. Gary Rhoads, refined the Skavengerz concept until it caught the attention of John and Tyler Richards at Startup Ignition Ventures. Recently, the Skavengerz team secured a $100,000 pre-seed investment from the firm—marking a major milestone in bringing their real-world adventure platform to life.
"I met Nate when he was an award-winning student entrepreneur at BYU," said John Richards, Managing partner of Startup Ignition Ventures. "He has a winning track record and he practices lean methodologies and is tenacious. I also worked alongside Dr. Gary Rhoads, Nate's co-founder, for years as professors of entrepreneurship at BYU and Gary is just a great person and a great entrepreneur. We are in the trenches with this team and are proud to be associated with them."
Built from a Real-World Misfire
The original inspiration for the platform didn’t come from a product roadmap — it came from a frustrating family outing. Alder and his wife loaded up their kids and drove an hour and a half chasing a riddle-based treasure hunt with a $30,000 prize. What they found instead was an unmarked trail, pouring rain, clouds of mosquitoes, and — unnervingly — a dead sheep carcass.
Worse, a pickup truck began circling the area, raising safety concerns. “There were no witnesses, and $30,000 on the line,” recalled Alder. “We packed up and left. When we got home, my wife looked at me and said, ‘I only get one Friday a week, and I wasted it.’”
That moment became a guiding principle for the team: every quest in Skavengerz has to be worth doing — even if there’s no prize at the end. “It was brutal feedback,” admitted Alder, “but exactly what we needed to hear.”
Gamifying Real Life — Not Replacing It
Skavengerz isn’t about sitting still. It’s about rediscovering your own city, park, or neighborhood as a playground of possibilities. Users complete “quests” — real-world challenges ranging from visiting an obscure mural or hiking trail to sampling a local eatery or solving a trivia riddle on-site. Each completed quest earns coins, unlocks more content, and — more importantly — gets people moving.
But the app also flips the script on social engagement. Unlike most platforms, it avoids infinite scrolling or algorithmic feeds. “We intentionally designed Skavengerz to get you off your phone and into the world — fast,” says co-founder Brandon Osmond, who spent 18 years in experiential marketing before helping launch the company.
“Most digital products are built to hijack attention,” he adds. “We’re the opposite. We’re building a platform that makes your real life feel more rewarding than your screen.”
A Better Way for Brands to Connect
Skavengerz isn’t just a consumer product — it’s also a platform for cities, schools, tourism boards, and brands to design their own real-world quests. Whether it’s The North Face encouraging trail exploration or a local electric surfboard company offering a product trial, each experience becomes part of the game — and an authentic point of contact.
“People don’t want to be sold to anymore,” says Osmond. “They want experiences. With Skavengerz, we help brands stop interrupting people’s lives and start enhancing them.”
The app also features “Daily Doubles” — flash quests that temporarily boost rewards and draw a crowd. It’s a mechanic that gamifies serendipity, creating pop-up moments of community in unexpected places.
Not everything makes the cut. “We had someone pitch us on doing quests for estate sale clean-outs,” said Osmond, laughing. “That’s not a Skavengerz vibe. If it’s not fun, it doesn’t go in.”
Gary Rhoads, Chairman of Skavengerz, brings a wealth of entrepreneurial and academic experience to the team. A longtime professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Brigham Young University, now emeritus, Dr. Rhoads was once Nate Alder’s mentor in the classroom and later served on the board of Alder’s previous venture, Kylmit. He holds a Ph.D. in Marketing from Texas Tech University and has co-founded several companies, including Allegiance and Xvoyant, both aimed at improving customer and employee engagement. With decades of expertise in sales performance and startup leadership, Rhoads lends both strategic vision and a deep understanding of human motivation to Skavengerz’s mission of getting people off their screens and back into the real world.
When asked why he was eager to reunite with Alder on this latest venture, Rhoads stated:
“I wanted to build an app that would inspire my grandkids to look up from their screens, step outside, and rediscover the thrill and beauty of nature—the magic of human connection, and the joy of exploring the world around them, one step, one laugh, one discovery at a time.”
The Deeper Purpose
At its heart, Skavengerz is about something deeper than quests or points — it's about helping people reconnect with the world around them. Whether it's rediscovering a local park, laughing with friends on a scavenger hunt, or finding the courage to try something new, the app invites users to step away from screens and back into their own lives. It's not just for the adrenaline junkie or the ultra-outdoorsy. It’s for burned-out professionals craving real emotion, for kids who’ve never wandered beyond their neighborhoods, for lonely adults longing for connection, and for curious minds needing a place to start.
“We made Skavengerz to help people rediscover real life,” said Osmond. “To feel wonder, connection, purpose, and adventure in a world that too often trades meaning for mindless scrolling.”
Parents use it to get their kids off the couch and into the wild. Friends use it to turn a lazy weekend into a memory. Some users come for the novelty; many stay for the unexpected joy of doing something — anything — together. In every case, it’s about making real-life memories, not just content.
“We’re kind of like the anti-Metaverse,” added Osmond. “IRL starts here.”
That ethos runs through everything the company does. Skavengerz is driven by the belief that life gets better when you lead with curiosity. Its quests reward those willing to try something different — to follow a hunch, take a side street, or solve a riddle that leads to an overlook or a mural they never knew existed.
“Life feels more alive when you’re in it with both feet,” added Alder. “Challenge should be fun, not fear. And the real world is still the most exciting place on Earth.”
Ultimately, Skavengerz is less about escape and more about return — return to presence, connection, and the simple joy of doing. Whether you’re tracking down a Kaibab squirrel in Arizona or riding an electric surfboard in San Diego, it’s not about collecting likes. It’s about collecting life.
The company, based in Ogden, was founded in January 2021. “We’re just getting started,” noted Alder. “Adventure is out there. You just need a reason to go.”
For more information visit skavengerz.com, check out their investor brief, and view overview video:
