# Harlan Crystal

> Harlan Crystal is the San Francisco-based co-founder and chief technology officer of Pocket Gems, the mobile entertainment company he started with fellow Cornell computer scientist Daniel Terry in 2009. An engineer and self-described "guy who loves to make things," Crystal helped the young company choose cloud infrastructure early, scale hit games with a tiny server team, and grow from Tap Farm into the contrasting worlds of Episode and War Dragons. Pocket Gems says its products have surpassed 500 million downloads and $1 billion in revenue.

- **Role:** Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Pocket Gems
- **Organizations:** Pocket Gems, Smartleaf, The Blindsight Corporation, OurTaste, Inc., Harvard University, Cornell University
- **Education:** B.A. in Computer Science; later pursued graduate study in Computer Science, Cornell University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Pocket Gems in 2009 and has remained its chief technology officer., Helped build and release Tap Farm, Pocket Gems' first iPhone title and an early chart success., Chose Google App Engine early, enabling Pocket Gems to handle tens of thousands of hits per second with one server engineer through June 2011.

## Career timeline

- **2006** — Founded OurTaste, Inc.
- **2007** — Worked as a computer vision research engineer at The Blindsight Corporation.
- **2008** — Served as a teaching assistant at Harvard University and moved into engineering leadership at Smartleaf.
- **2009** — Co-founded Pocket Gems with Daniel Terry and released the company's first iPhone game, Tap Farm.
- **2010** — Pocket Gems partnered with Sequoia Capital after raising $5 million.
- **2011** — Pocket Gems ranked among the five leading iPhone app publishers by gross revenue for the first half of the year while operating with one server engineer through June.
- **2014** — Pocket Gems launched Episode, its interactive storytelling platform; Crystal hosted a TechCrunch video tour of the company's San Francisco office.
- **2015** — Pocket Gems released War Dragons and received a reported $60 million investment from Tencent.
- **2017** — Tencent invested an additional $90 million; Pocket Gems reported 300 million downloads and record 2016 players and gross bookings.
- **2025** — Pocket Gems launched Episode: Reality Stars while continuing Episode and War Dragons.
- **2026** — Pocket Gems identifies Crystal as founder and CTO; the company reports more than 500 million downloads and over $1 billion in revenue.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Pocket Gems in 2009 and has remained its chief technology officer.
- Helped build and release Tap Farm, Pocket Gems' first iPhone title and an early chart success.
- Chose Google App Engine early, enabling Pocket Gems to handle tens of thousands of hits per second with one server engineer through June 2011.
- Helped guide Pocket Gems from early tap games into Episode and War Dragons, two products with different audiences and technical demands.
- Pocket Gems reports more than 500 million downloads and over $1 billion in revenue across its products.
- Pocket Gems raised $155 million across investments from Sequoia Capital and Tencent.

## Latest updates

- **2025-12** — Pocket Gems launched Episode: Reality Stars late in 2025 alongside Episode and War Dragons.
- **2026-09** — Pocket Gems continues to list Crystal as founder and chief technology officer and reports more than 500 million downloads and over $1 billion in revenue.

## Links

- Website: https://www.pocketgems.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harlancrystal
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/harlancrystal

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/harlan-crystal
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-28