I can’t quite believe that almost a whole year has passed since I appeared on Dragon’s Den! It feels like just yesterday that I was sat nervously on the sofa with Chris, laughing again at Deborah Meaden’s amazing Randomise acting skills and watching through my fingers as the version of me on screen tried to negotiate a business deal with Jenny...
As you may remember, I turned down Jenny’s offer in the end (it just didn’t suit the way we want to do business) and as I left the den, Peter Jones exclaimed ‘She’ll live to regret that!’. One year on, I’m delighted to say that this prediction has proved to be totally inaccurate! 2019 has proved to be a year of doing good, having fun and selling plenty of games! With our Christmas Special due for a re-run this Sunday (BBC2 8pm) I thought I’d give a little update on what happened next and share some lessons from my experience.
Now, firstly I will say that expanding internationally has been a challenge, and we are now looking at collaborating with other games companies who may be able to help us reach worldwide audiences. But, our success in the UK has been even better than we hoped. At the time of writing, we have sold more than 100,000 games and we have just won the Amazon Small Business of the Year award. Every week, we hear new stories of how our games have helped people connect and laugh together and we couldn’t be happier about the way we are doing business.
We are a unique business, and as the year has passed we’ve realised more and more that not having any external investors really allows us to be ourselves. For us, business is not just about profit - it’s about doing good, making the world a better place and having fun while we’re doing it. As well as releasing two brand new games - Jibbergiggle and Frozen Unicorns - and adding Dave to our dream team, this year we’ve donated thousands of pounds to charity, given away hundreds of games to good causes and have sought to look after our team well in all sorts of ways. While we believe that these things are ultimately good for business, and very compatible with having a profitable business, we don’t have to prove the ‘cause and effect’ to anyone. And this freedom really allows us to take risks, give generously and act from the heart.
So, in summary, can investors be helpful to a small and growing company? Of course they can. But, there are plenty of other places to get input, advice and support. And for us, the freedom and flexibility that comes from being independent of investors brings huge benefits. While investment can be helpful, I’d encourage any young company to think twice, and consider where they can find other sources of finance, knowledge and support to make the business that they want - and not the business that an investor may be imagining.
I feel confident that Gamely is a significantly better, healthier and happier business for following its own path over the last 12 months and I’m pleased to report that, despite Peter’s predictions, I’m yet to feel even a hint of regret.
P.s. We wouldn’t be able to do any of this without the amazing support of our families, friends, mentors (including the brilliant people we met at Kings 20) and partners. And of course, every single one of you who has ever bought, played or talked about any of our games. We feel incredibly lucky to be able to be doing what we do and we are thinking up even more ways to share the love and do even more good things for our customers, our team and the wider world in 2020.