EGD 4: When stars align and co-founders start their games company, with Paul Kurowski and Robin Squire, Co-Founders of Black Block
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A true first-time founder story, talking with Robin Squire and Paul Kurowski. Robin is the CEO and Paul the Creative Director of Black Block, a new games company in Helsinki, Finland. I’ve known Robin personally for several years and I’m super proud of him and the team in starting their own company.
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Highlights of the episode
- Robin started with games journalism, then went to marketing roles and eventually landed at Rovio
- Paul’s first gig was as an artist in a small UK based games company, then went to Psygnosis, RockStar, Crytek, before moved to work on mobile games
- Robin and Paul met at a Helsinki based startup Playraven
- Robin’s story to becoming a games entrepreneur originates at a dinner table discussion at GDC, later to develop small company skills at PlayRaven
- Paul believes that the stars aligned and that’s how the eventually got the chance to work on their own company
- Robin says that working in a small games company is like baptism by fire, learning as much as possible
- At the early stage of the company, timing is important. At GDC, the company was launched and the pitch was ready. Never drop the ball of financials and logistics.
- Robin consumes lots of podcasts to learn, also has gotten reading tips from VCs, incl. the Venture Deals book
- Ambition level is aligned with the game that they are making. Since it’s an open-world game, the idea already makes the company very ambitious.
- Going after an open-world MMO: Paul has always been fascinated about these games, and with this team, they believe they can bring it into mobile. Breaking it into smaller pieces and seeing how it flies.
- Understanding the market: open-world in the new platforms, there’s games like Agar.io, little multiplayer experiences, cross-platform, Robin and Paul are going after that kind of a game, taking it to the next level.
- How to hire: Since it’s hard to get the best talent to a new games company, the guys are planning on looking for trainees, people who don’t have gaming experiences. Getting diverse people in, who would bring different perspectives to the work.
- Hiring tips: need to know what kind of roles you want, people who are the right fit.
- The guys want to be smart about experimenting things in their games. It’s important to learn and iterate fast.
- Founder advice: If you have the gut feeling of doing a startup, you should do it
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