P35: The Creation of a Game Agency (🔐 a Continuation of EP 204🔓)
Video & Audio of Our Call:
Background:
This is part 2 of the Stephen Baer interview, which includes more details about his entrepreneurial journey and the early days of The Game Agency. For those who missed out on the first part of this awesome interview, please check out Episode 204. As the Managing partner and Head of Creative at The Game Agency, Stephen oversees the creative strategy and execution for campaign rollouts. Previously, Stephen was Director of Brand Integration at Atari where he oversaw development and marketing for all branded games. Before this role, Stephen was a marketing executive for three divisions of General Electric (NBC, GE Appliances and GE Plastics).
Earlier in his career, Stephen was Director of Business Development at GCI Group, a subsidiary of WPP. Stephen has received several corporate awards including General Electric’s Marketing Excellence Award and GCI Group’s Entrepreneurial Spirit Award. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and Columbia Business School. He is also a monthly contributor to Forbes.com and a regular speaker at EdTech conferences.
Time-Stamped Show Notes:
- [5:05] During the first year of The Game Agency, there was a lot of hustling and talking to dozens of PR firms and ad agencies.
- [6:46] At the end of their first year, the company wasn’t profitable.
- [8:08] Their connections and network with Atari and other gaming companies helped them during the early days of the company.
- [10:48] It was 60 to 70 hours a week of working when Stephen and The Game Agency was just starting.
- [13:27] Stephen had to use all his leverage just to get potential clients to meet him.
- [16:30] Two advisers were brought in to help Stephen run the company.
- [19:15] Stephen shares a piece of advice he received from his advisor that had a positive impact on the business.
- [21:36] Exploring the training and learning space turned out to be the best thing they’ve done for the company.
- [25:25] Scaling up the company and making their brand unique were some of the advice they got from their advisers.
- [27:26] A stem education game was their first project within the educational and training realm.
- [29:09] Stephen talks about how they came up with their pricing.
- [35:00] Keeping the employees satisfied and happy has always been Stephen’s priority. Every year, he brings all his employees to exotic places to have fun.
- [39:40] About 5 years ago, The Game Agency had a major turning point when they conceptualized a product called The Training Arcade.
- [42:17] They built a product that is capable of diversifying their revenue opportunities.
- [44:22] Some of the hardest things about building The Game Agency involves pleasing the clients and taking risks in certain investments.
- [50:11] Stephen shares a piece of advice regarding business partners and co-workers.
Key Point from the Interview:
- “Our mindset is, we want to build a great product, we want to build a great culture, we want to build a home for people from a work standpoint, and we want to build stuff that has value in the marketplace. And by value, I don’t mean it’s worth something, but rather, it’s having impact. Our tagline is play with purpose, and we want everything we build to have a purpose for those who are playing with it.”
Resources Mentioned:
- Email: [email protected]
- LinkedIn: StephenBaer
- Facebook: @TheGameAgency
- Twitter: @TheGameAgency
- YouTube: The Training Arcade Channel
- Crunchbase: Stephen Baer
- TheGameAgency.com
- TheTrainingArcade.com
- Author at eLearning Industry
- Monthly Contributor at Forbes.com
- Alumni Participant at Oberlin College
Secret Resources:
