Provide a platform for everybody to be heard and to share their thoughts and ideas.
GameMine is a one of a kind mobile gaming subscription service. We offer users access to an entire catalog of games at a single membership cost. We are uniquely positioned to succeed in our industry since the standard practice of the competition is to offer games as free to download and subsequently upsell users to pay for in-app features. Therefore, they only offer users a fraction of the experience. Not only does GameMine offer games in their entirety, we also remove any and all pesky advertisements that inhibit the gaming experience. We also offer unlimited access to gameplay and we are constantly adding new games to our vast catalog. Another unique aspect of GameMine is that we offer both games for download as well as games that can be streamed over an internet connection. The latter allows the user to circumvent the annoying app stores altogether.
The brilliance of this innovative new approach to gaming came from two business partners in 2017. They recognized the opportunity in the market to supply the highly popular mobile gaming industry with the subscription model, which has become mainstream thanks to digital services such as Hulu, Netflix, and Spotify. Offering consumer a premium mobile gaming experience in this form gave birth to GameMine.
Where did the idea for GameMine come from?
The idea for GameMine came from our two founders of the company who previously worked together distributing different forms of mobile content to consumers. Over the last decade, as the mobile gaming industry exploded with growth, they also noticed the global mass adoption of the subscription model as used by services like Netflix, Spotify, and Hulu. With their next venture they decided to close this gap by offering a catalog of mobile games in a subscription model. Finally, as mobile internet speeds have increased it has allowed for high-quality in-browser gaming, circumventing the cumbersome nature of app stores.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
Our typical day is a mix of making sure that we are delivering a fantastic experience for our existing player base and finding new players. GameMine makes sure that we sign deals with iconic globally recognized game brands that our customers know and will love to play. Another part of our day is working on customer acquisition. We want to make sure that we get the word out to those who may not have heard about us yet.
How do you bring ideas to life?
As a data-driven company, GameMine monitors the success and the performance of our existing ideas. Based upon how we perform, we make statistical analysis and conclusions that render new innovations. Once we build those new innovations, we repeat the cycle of testing those ideas and validating their performance.
What’s one trend that excites you?
One trend that is exciting to see is that Google and Apple are releasing their own versions of subscription-based gaming. They both have streaming elements as well. To see that such tech giants are following the path that we have been perfecting for the past few years is not only exciting, but also astoundingly rewarding.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
One habit we have at GameMine is to be data driven. Numbers and performance don’t lie. If we follow their lead, we will make decisions that take us in the right direction.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Read more. There was a time earlier in my career where I did not read as much I do today. There is a wealth of information on marketing, business and leadership that could have proven useful to my younger self. Today you’ve got so many interesting thought leaders that are rethinking the way we conduct business. For that reason I’m always looking for great books to inspire me and help us succeed at GameMine.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
The death of mobile app stores is upon us. As mobile internet speeds continue to increase and as the mobile web experience become richer, the need for apps is decreasing.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
GameMine recommends that everyone maintain open channels of communication. We provide a platform for everybody in our teams to be heard and to speak up and share their thoughts and ideas. As a younger company, we don’t always have the experts who know exactly what to do, however, through the combined experience of the team, we can achieve much better results. Open communication helps us to succeed together.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
One strategy is to have an extremely heavy reliance on technology and information systems. We have to make sure that we are tracking all relevant data-points throughout the customer journey. We can analyze and attach monetary values to those data-points and then assess if we are delivering on our promise or how we can yield more value from.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
GameMine has launched many successful advertising campaigns. Naturally, however, it has happened that a campaign did not meet our expectations. We spent a lot of time planning that campaign and, due to unforeseen circumstances, we did not hit targets we set for ourselves and therefore decided to end the campaign earlier than expected. Many people would consider that a failure. We see it as a learning point. Usually when this happens, we conduct a post-mortem and question everything about the campaign. We determine better solutions for that particular experience that future campaigns will benefit from.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
The subscription-model has become so mass adopted that users need a way to manage those subscriptions. A motivated entrepreneur could come up with a way where users can streamline all their digital subscription services. Also, it could give users the opportunity to see if they want to sign-on to other digital subscriptions. It could be a very lucrative opportunity for an eager entrepreneur.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
Our team recently had a team-building event and got to spend some time together out of the office. We drove go-carts and we had a nice dinner. Over the last months, the GameMine team has worked very hard and we decided to celebrate our success and the achievements we’ve made thus far. The money we spent allowed us to bring the team together and therefore it was truly well spent.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?
We work with a project management tool called Asana. It helps us to organize our different work projects. It assigns allows us to assign projects and tasks to specific owners as well as provide critical feedback on project issues. As a small sized tech company, it has been very useful.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
Permission Marketing by Seth Godin. He is the godfather of the freemium-based business model. An online business can benefit by giving you a taste of the product or service before you become a customer.
What is your favorite quote?
Without data you’re just another person with an opinion. by W. Edwards Deming
Key Learnings:
● Spend time with your team and celebrate your success together
● Provide a platform for everybody to be heard and to share their thoughts and ideas.
● It is important to remain persistent to realize the success that you are about to achieve.
Carlyn runs the day-to-day publishing operation here at ideamensch and interacts with our awesome customers and entrepreneurs. She is likely editing this with a cat on her lap.