Welcome to our first blog, person on the internet. We’re glad you’re here! Hopefully, this post will be one of many in the months and years ahead. If you’ve found this, chances are you came across something we made that you really liked and wanted to learn more about us. That’s exactly what this particular blog post covers.
We can answer that. We’re going to answer that. We’re literally doing that next.
The What
Hungry Minds is a decentralized creative studio and publishing house. The “decentralized” part means we don’t have an official headquarters where all of our colleagues work together. In short, we have no office culture, because there is no office. Our growing team is spread across the globe, contributing to our exciting projects from home, co-working spaces, or on workation; wherever they feel most comfortable and productive.
We have social media experts, marketing strategists, graphic designers, PR specialists, writers, researchers, and more. People from all walks of life and backgrounds. While we may be scattered about, we collaborate closely, and even find time to meet up in person. Most recently, the Hungry Minds team gathered for a month-long “workation” in breathtaking Bali, Indonesia, where we planned our roadmap for 2025 and beyond. And, of course, explored the island together. Work and play are both essential to our company’s DNA. It’s what helps us conceptualize and bring to life the creative artifacts we share with the world.
As of this writing, you were probably brought here by our first publication and Amazon bestseller, The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding Civilization, or the beautiful, brain-bending Octopolis Puzzle, the latest addition to our cabinet of curiosities.
The puzzle is a challenging, visually striking experience we can’t wait for people to enjoy. The Book, however, is where Hungry Minds began.
The Who and the How
The 2020 global pandemic was a difficult time. It was existentially jarring for many to see how quickly the world as we knew it ground to a halt. What everything would look and feel like on the other side was very unclear.
It was in those early, uncertain days that the idea for The Book began to form, on the quiet Japanese island of Naoshima. There, future Hungry Minds co-founder Seva and his wife were isolated while the world settled into lockdown. They spent their days wandering the almost vacant island, and their nights in an empty hotel. The stillness gave them space to think. One question kept looping back again and again.
What if this really was the end?
Not in a dramatic or panicked way, but in a thoughtful, almost philosophical way. Seva wondered what would be left of humanity if we didn’t make it through, and more importantly, what could we leave behind? If something as imperceptible as a virus could bring society to its knees, maybe we needed something tangible to tell the story of how we built civilization in the first place.
The seed of The Book was planted.
Seva reached out to Timur, his longtime friend and collaborator, and explained the broad strokes of the idea. They began brainstorming. It would be a genre-bending tome about starting over. Not a dry survivalist guide, nor a traditional textbook, but a blend of science, history, technology, philosophy, art, and more, filtered through pop culture and brought to life by hand-drawn illustrations meant to inspire as much as instruct. The goal was to create something that could stand the test of time, even in a post-collapse society, while still being fun and fascinating for readers here and now.
There was much to discuss and decide. What would this book include? How would it look? How could they make something both practical and beautiful? And as important as anything, how would they bring this entire project to life?
Kickstarting a Crowfunding Giant
First, they needed an artist to help make their shared vision a reality. Timur and Seva found this in Lev Kaplan, a veteran illustrator with a timeless, distinctive style. It took months to complete a single illustration all were happy with. Ten more followed, each shaped through long calls, endless revisions, and obsessive attention to detail. By the end of 2020, they had a 15-page draft of The Book. Now, they needed a way to create a fully realized version.
The next piece of the puzzle was Artur, a fundraising expert and their future third co-founder and Managing Partner. Their initial goal was simple: raise 300,000 USD on Kickstarter and make something they could all be proud of. On December 2, 2020, their crowdfunding campaign went live.
Within a week, the project had surpassed 1 million USD.
Suddenly, The Book wasn’t just a passion project. Thousands of people believed in what they were creating, and with that came a new sense of responsibility. By the end of the crowdfunding campaign, they had raised over $3 million across Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
That support gave them room to grow. New experts came on board. More ideas were debated, challenged, and refined. Over the next year and a half, the team poured everything into the book. Every word, image, and decision was carefully considered, debated, and polished. Finally, on January 1, 2022, The Book was published, a 400+ page guide to honoring a world often taken for granted and a heartfelt celebration of human ingenuity.
By the way, you can buy it here. You know, if you haven’t already. It’s super good.
To date, The Book remains the third highest-funded campaign for a publication in Kickstarter history, and has sold close to 300,000 copies worldwide, and counting.
It’s our greatest achievement so far, and the foundation for Hungry Minds as a company. Without The Book, there is no Hungry Minds. While its creation came out of a tumultuous and uncertain time, it has gone on to bring joy, curiosity, and touch the imagination of thousands of people around the world.
Timur, Seva, Artur, Lev, and project manager Ann brought our first publication to life could not be more proud, and we’re only getting started.
Much More to Come
As a creative studio, we have big ambitions across media, from games and toys, to home decor, and quite a lot more. We have exciting plans for future collabs with creators, and endeavors in charitable work and partnerships with people and organizations working to make the world a better, more equitable place. We can’t wait to talk about these, but in the meantime, we have new additions to the Hungry Minds stable of publications on the way.
The Last Book: The Anthem to Humankind is arriving in 2025. It’s the story of Noah Kaplan, the last surviving earthling, rocketing through the cosmos in an alien spacecraft, chronicling all the human highlights he can recall in his encyclopedia-inspired journal.
We’re also gearing up to begin work on The Black Book: The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Inventions, which explores inventions that could have reshaped history. It raised over 460,000 USD during its Kickstarter campaign in October 2024. We have big plans for the leadup to the Black Book, and its eventual release in 2026.
By the way, you can still contribute as a Late Pledge.
Until Next Time
We hope this first blog has given you a small window into who we are and what we’re about. Of course, this only scratches the surface. In future posts, we’ll feature team profiles, guest entries from collaborators, contributions from our founders, and updates on what’s happening at Hungry Minds. There's a lot more to share.
Staying authentic, we reveal the magic of the world, inspiring curiosity in all.
Team Hungry Minds
