Meeting Alicia - Our Lovely Ops Manager

If you’ve not already seen, here at Gamely we’re currently hiring for a new Ops and Finance Manager. Alicia, who has done a great job, is heading back to her native Australia to start a family. We’ll really miss her but are also really pleased and excited for her new chapter.

For those applying we thought that it’d be fun to give an idea of Alicia and her role, to give you a flavour of working at Gamely that goes beyond a job description. So we asked Alicia a few questions, to give you an insight into the Ops role and what working at Gamely is really like… Here are her (unedited!) answers.

What's it like working at Gamely?

Alicia at our latest team day, where we spent the morning make terrariums. Not an email in sight!

Working at Gamely is brilliant. I have never had a job like this one before. The team is so fun and supportive, the working space is great and the Gamely approach is to be friendly to everyone which just fits with my general life approach prefectly. 

The office space is a collaborative, innovative work environment so you share the office with so many friendly people, and the office building offers free classes such as yoga on Tuesday mornings and relaxation and breathing classes. 

I love the varied and time sensitive job role, where I get to have autonomy but also as much support as I need in all the things that I do. The learning curve has been great and the team adopted me as one of their own so quickly, I automatically felt part of the Gamely family.

Plus you get free coffee at the office, what more do you need? :-) 

What have you enjoyed most about the role?

 The learning curve has been big! My knowledge of Amazon, retail, international logistics and compliance has sky rocketed. Though I have really felt the benefit of the overall team support during this huge learning curve. 

I have really enjoyed the variation in the role and the autonomy I have over my work days and the direction of my job. I have so flexibility in my role, as well as having hands on so many pots that I can never be bored. Hazel is always up for asking your opinion on Gamely plans and direction that you really do feel part of the bigger picture as well as day to day activities. Plus I just love being super friendly in my emails and all my work interactions.  

The role is so easy when you are working with such a great team who are all so supportive and friendly and who all help to create a great working environment. Team meetings are always fun and team days out are the BEST! 

 

What should the person coming into the role expect?

At first there will be lots of learning. Learning Amazon for a start is huge, then compliance, logistics, retail, seller central and marketing on Amazon, plus lots of other things. But don’t worry, if I can learn it, you can too! 

Day to day and time sensitive tasks of logistics, marketing and checking amazon listings and compliance will be first on your to do list each day, then you can do other things like documenting KPI’s, researching green options for our games, helping with finance and manufacturing, and also helping to write down all processes and procedures! Plus, making nice working excel sheets (one of my favorites!) 

You will have lots of support from the team and hopefully, a great hand over from me. You will work mostly with the amazing Dave and incredible Hazel, though you will have lots of interaction with Chris and Tina too. 

Be aware that there will be lots of emails! These need sorting and checking, but you will soon learn to differentiate the important from the random. 

  

What challenges are ahead for the person who gets this job?

If you are anything like me, lots of learning awaits. But the constant support and openness to help is always there from Dave, Hazel and the team, which means that not only is it possible to achieve, it is even fun to learn!  

Keeping everything in an orderly manner, making processes and filing a priority can be difficult as you can get busy with the time sensitive and pressured parts of the job, understandably so! But making sure our processes and documents are rooted for longevity is just so important!  

Finally, emails galore!! This is not so much challenging as it just takes time to sort the needed work from the unimportant. 

 

Anything else you want to say to potential applicants?!

Good luck and I hope you get it! It is such a great job and the team is amazing and I can’t wait to have coffee and handover to you!! 

Lockdown diaries: Our favourite party games to play on Zoom

By Chris Reynolds

One of the small joys to come out of the coronavirus pandemic has been using Zoom to connect with our friends and family dotted across the UK and wider world.  Over the last few weeks we’ve tried out quite a few games to see if they work well on Zoom and thought we’d spend a moment to share the games we’ve been loving.  In each instance, just one ‘zoomer’ has to own the game in question. I imagine the games would also work on any other video chat - including Skype, Facetime and Houseparty. 

1. Wavelength

Age: 14+ | Players: 2-8 | Time: 30 mins 

Wavelength is our favourite party game at the moment - we love it.  It is played in two teams and has worked really well over Zoom (so far we’ve played it with groups of six and four).  In the game two teams compete to read each other’s minds - but as you soon find out it’s not about telepathy at all - it’s about empathy, understanding and knowing your teammates.  You don’t need to tweak the rules to play over Zoom but whoever has the game in their possession will have to lead the way.  

2. Soundiculous 

Age: 8+ | Players: 3-10 | Time: 15 mins 

Despite creating Soundiculous several years ago we still love playing it, and have found it works really well on video chat.  The game is super simple - the aim is to get the most points by making and guessing ridiculous sounds. Sounds range from nice and easy (monkey, train, eating) through medium (didgeridoo, roller coaster, electric shock) to the truly challenging hard (wrestling, scuba diving, woodpecker!).  When playing over video chat you don’t have to change the rules, but just need players to close their eyes for a moment whilst the noise card is revealed via the webcam to the noise maker. Whoever has the game has to take the lead and keep score but they can still play.      

3. Just One

Age: 8+ | Players: 3-10 | Time: 20 mins 

Just One is a brilliant word game and works really well over Zoom. It is a collaborative word guessing game. In the game all players except the guesser know a word.  Players have to communicate the mystery word to the guesser using a one word clue. The challenge is that the one word clues have to be unique - all duplicates are taken out of the game without the guesser seeing them.  This one doesn’t require any rule changes - you all just need some pen and paper handy. Our highest score to date is eight - I dream of a perfect 13!

4. Shot in the Dark

Age: 12+ | Players: 2+ | Time: 20 mins 

Shot in the Dark is a brilliant trivia game.  The questions are what makes it so good - they are all questions where it is unlikely anyone will know the actual answer, but everyone can have an educated guess and the closest answer wins.  There are a few hundred questions in the game so it will last a good while and it plays really well in groups from 2 to 8 players. The player with the game can still play along.   

5. Frozen Unicorns

Age: 6+ | Players: 3+ | Time: 20 mins 

Frozen Unicorns is one of the games we launched last year and it plays really well over Zoom - especially with younger players. In the game players have to make human statues, with everyone except the guesser freezing to mimic things like frozen pirates, a frozen octopus or a frozen ballerina.  The guesser then has to work out what everyone is. Like all of our games it is simple to pick up and will get you laughing every time. 

If you try out any of these games over Zoom, we’d love to know how you get on! Let us know - or share your own top tips - in the comments below.

More Spreading Happiness News: Gamely Donates to Justlife

Fresh from our donation to The Carer’s Centre for Brighton and Hove, we’re delighted to tell you that last we donated £1000 to Justlife, a wonderful charity working with the ‘hidden homeless’ in Brighton and Manchester. We also sent the team a box of brownies as a little encouragement and small way of saying thank you for all the hard work they do.

If you’ve been following us for much time, you’ll already know that we give away 10% of our profits to charity, which this donation comes out of. But what you might not know is that as part of our desire to be the best employers out there, we give each member of the team the chance to pick where a portion of that money goes. Justlife was Dave’s pick, and here’s what he had to say:

“Justlife are an amazing charity. They are helping really vulnerable people who are often ignored by the system. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people in the UK living in inadequate ‘temporary’ accommodation, who are desperately in need of support. Brighton is a great place to live, but this sort of homelessness is a real issue here, and as I’ve got to know the work of Justlife in the last few years I’ve seen that they are doing their work in an amazingly kind, loving and empowering way. Huge thanks to them, and huge thanks to Gamely for letting me choose where to donate this money!.”

We also asked Simon Gale, Operations Manager for Justlife in Brighton, to tell us a bit more about Justlife, where the donation will be used, and why their work is important:

“We are so grateful for Gamely’s donation. We work with hidden homeless people in Brighton and Manchester - people who often have no support and are placed in temporary accommodation that is unsuitable and leads to poor physical and mental health. Our work provides people a voice and helps them move away from homelessness, into stable accommodation and all round good health. The donation will enable us to support people over this Christmas period, which can often be isolating and hard time for people experiencing homelessness.”

We’re so glad to have been able to donate to the amazing charities that we have, but the only reason we can do that is because of everyone who buys our games - that’s you! A small portion of every sale goes to these good causes, so as much as we hope you’ve had loads of fun playing the game, we hope that this little bit of extra good helps you feel even better about buying Gamely. Thank you to all of you, and happy Christmas!

What happens when you turn down investment on Dragon's Den?

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.

Putting Smiles On Faces - Gamely Donate to Carer's Centre

Young Carer’s drop-in activities in full swing

At Gamely we like to do good things - good things for our customers, good things for our team and good things for the wider world. Today, we’re donating £1200 to the Carer’s Centre for Brighton and Hove.

You may or may not know that at Gamely we give 10% of our profits (or 1% of turnover - whichever is bigger) to good causes and the Carer’s Centre is a wonderful local charity doing amazing work, well deserving of this donation.

Hazel and Dave recently visited their Young Carer’s Drop-in service, where they met some of the incredible young carers the charity works with. As well as having lots of fun playing our games with them, they both went away really impacted by the challenges these young people face, and the incredible strength and resilience that they show through it all. They really are amazing!

The money that we are donating will go towards paying for a special Christmas activity for these young carers, with more left over for other work that will help support future work of the Carer’s Centre. Tom Lambert, CEO of the Carer’s Centre had this to say: ‘The generosity of Gamely is a recognition of the amazing work Young Carers do in supporting ill or disabled family members every day across Brighton & Hove. The Carers Centre will use this amazing donation to provide peer support activities for isolated Young Carers over the festive period and into 2020’.

We’re also donating 40 games to be used as Christmas gifts for each young person attending their drop-in, as part of our initiative to get free games to children most in need of a smile.

Carer’s Centre trip to the beach

We also want to say a massive THANK YOU to all of you who have bought our games - this is your donation as much as ours and is only possible because of your support. This is just the first donation we are making this Christmas, so do stay tuned here for more good news coming soon.

Randomising learning with your kids!

Always on the lookout to do more good, this we’ve been coming up with some fun ways to help kids learn using our games. With the UK summer holidays drawing to a close, and parents everywhere running short on activities for their kids, we thought we’d share our ideas for ways to use Randomise to help children learn. These are all aimed at kids of junior school age (7-11) but we’re sure they will work with other ages too.

Of course they’ll work well in term time too, but this seemed like a great time to share. If you’ve got any other ideas we’d love to hear them, and perhaps (if you’re willing!) we’ll include them in future posts.

We’ve got lots of exciting plans around this idea, including how we can use our games to boost children’s literacy in disadvantaged areas and some cool possibilities to partner with schools to give away our games to kids and families who will benefit from them. We’ll let you know about this when it happens, but for now enjoy these bonus educational Randomise games:

Game 1: Chain Randomise

Learning objective: To help kids think creatively about describing, and to grow their vocabulary and use of a variety of words.

Activity:

• Arrange kids so they are sat in a circle where they can see each other.

• The first pupil picks ONE card only (either A, B or C). Agree which item on the card the pupils will be describing (e.g. easy number 1)

• They are then allowed to describe what is on the card in one sentence at most.

• The child to their left then takes a guess at what they think they might have just described.

• If they are incorrect the same card is passed on to them. They then have to describe the same word in one sentence, but they are not allowed to re-use the same describing words used by previous students. They need to think outside the box and stretch their vocabulary. 

• Once complete, the person to their left guesses, and if they are incorrect the card is passed to them.

• This continues until someone successfully guesses the word. If they do so, that child picks a new card and starts again.

Game 2: Make your own Randomise

Learning objective: To reinforce understanding adjectives, nouns and verbs and how they work together in a sentence.

Activity:

• Split into groups of 4-6 children.

• Explain to the children about how each random set of cards involves an adjective (on A card), a noun (on B card) and a verb (on C card).  

• In small groups, the kids play a normal game of Randomise, with each child having a chance to draw, act or describe their own random combination of cards. 

• After this is completed the children are then invited to make their Randomise card. They can make it in the same format as the existing cards, so three easy adjectives and three hard adjectives, three easy nouns and three hard nouns and finally three easy verbs and three hard verbs. 

• Kids can then swap cards with one another, and enjoy watching their friends/siblings attempt to act, describe or draw one of their newly created Randomise cards.

• At the end of the session collect in all the new cards that have been created - you now have a new ‘home created’ set of Randomise that can be added to or re-used in future.

Game 3: Randomise your story

Learning objective: To write creatively, incorporating new elements to stories.

Activity:

• Each child takes a set of cards, A, B and C. 

• When they have chosen the funniest combination from their cards (e.g. a furry grandma sky-diving) their task is to write a short-story that incorporates this character as either the hero or villain of the tale.

• Length of the writing can be adapted according to age and ability of pupils.

Game 4: Randomise gallery

Learning objective: To stretch children’s imagination in their art to include surreal ideas.

Activity:

• Each child takes a set of cards, A, B and C.

• When they have chosen the funniest combination from their cards (e.g. a furry grandma sky-diving) their task is to draw a picture of this thing! Once they’ve finished drawing they can also draw a frame around the outside of their paper.

• Children are then invited to pin their pictures up on the wall to share with others.

• If desired, you can then get kids to guess what they think each other have drawn, or could even have a Randomise artist of the day, with the funniest or most creative drawing receiving a special award!

We hope these ideas give you some fun and educational inspiration! Do let us know what you think, and if you have any ideas of your own be sure to post them below.

Making the world happier news: Dave named on Brighton happy list!

As games makers it won’t surprise you that we love to make people happy. But not content with just making people happy by making games, Dave only went and got himself named on the Brighton Happy List for 2018. In the words of it’s organiser:

“Happy Lists were born out of a need to provide an antidote to the rich/celebrity lists which worship at the shrine of the wealthy, the bonus-getters, and the tax avoiders… They [name] people who, without thought of personal gain or recognition, do so much to make their communities better adjusted places to live, making their cities and thus the country a better and happier place.”

So we are super proud of Dave for being nominated and put on this list! We thought it’d be nice to share the joy (better late than never) and also give Dave a chance to tell you a bit more about why he made it onto the list.

Hazel: How did you get on the happy list?

Dave: Someone nominated me - I don’t know who! I’m involved with quite a lot of community projects, and I think that’s what they had in mind when they put my name forward. A few years ago I started running a course for dads-to-be - The Dad Course - in Brighton. It’s a short course that men come on in the month’s running up to the birth of their first child, designed to build their skills, confidence, support network and knowledge. I’m a big believer that by investing in and supporting parents we can make a huge difference to the children and parents alike, and thus make the world a much better and happier place. It was this motivation, as well as my own experience of becoming a dad that inspired me to set up the course. About 100 guys have been through it so far, and the feedback has been wonderful.

I also run a true-life community story-telling event called Share Your Story. We put together evenings around important topics of social good (like wellbeing, mental health, loneliness etc.) and ask a handful of local people to share their experiences around this subject. The aim is to get people talking about some of the important stuff that we doesn’t get talked about enough. And then we support people to go away and live good stories themselves - to think through what they want from life and what they can offer the world, and then get on and do it!

On top of all of that I’ve also been lucky enough to be involved in helping others who are setting up community projects in our area. Through that I’ve met some amazing people and seen some great projects get started - but I can’t take credit for any of that!! I like to think that just seeking to be kind and good to people in general is ultimately what helped me get nominated!

Hazel: What does happiness mean to you?

Dave: Wow, big question! In a funny way, maybe happiness is a bit of a deceptive word. Life isn’t always shiny and perfect! Like everyone, I have days where I’m feeling sad or lonely, so I don’t want to give the impression that everything in my life is always perfect, because it isn’t.

But for me there is a deep satisfaction in spending time on things that really matter to me. Part of that is knowing myself well enough to know what it is I really want, and not get distracted by things like money and material stuff that can easily get in the way. I know that I’d rather be doing meaningful and positive work while foregoing a bigger house or fancy things, but it can be easy to forget that sometimes! So making a positive difference in the world is a huge thing for me.

Alongside that, I think it’s all about people for me. Spending time with my family and friends is really important to me, and something I prioritise. I’m aware that time with my kids is particularly precious as they will grow up really fast. Being a parent is hard sometimes, but I really want to treasure these days and make the most of them. Ultimately, a really happy life for me is one where I’m surrounded by people that I love (and that love me!) and where I’m doing work that is meaningful and really making a positive difference in the world.

Hazel: How has happiness played a part in your work?

Dave: I guess as I outlined above really. I need to believe in what I’m doing, and also see that it’s making a positive difference in the world. That can take all different shapes, and I quite like variety in my work - it suits my personality. I’d spent nearly my whole life working for charities, community groups and social enterprises until I came to Gamely, but I really see it as an extension of the work I’ve been doing until now. I definitely couldn’t just go working for any old company, it wouldn’t work for me. But being part of a small group of people who want to do things right, in how they make the games, treat staff and suppliers, the environment and so on is brilliant. And actually I’ve found that as a business we have much more flexibility and opportunity to do good, as long as the desire is there - which it definitely is at Gamely!

On top of that it’s also just a lot of fun! A couple of weeks ago I spent an afternoon drinking delicious coffees and milkshakes in a sea-front cafe laughing and having a great time while play-testing a game with my friends (who happen to be my colleagues!). As I left the cafe I had two thoughts. One is that it’s brilliant that this game we’re making is going to bring the same laughter to so many other people. And the second was that I cannot believe that I actually get paid to do this! I am very lucky.

Hazel: Any plans to spread the happiness further?!

Dave: Always! I’ll be continuing to work on my own projects alongside working with Gamely. It’s a very exciting time, and we have some cool stuff in the pipeline, so it’s very much a case of watch this space…

Amazing People, Inspiring Journeys: Lessons from giving away £1500 in a day

By Dave Perrins

Two weeks ago, on the 1st April, we ran our marathon giving day, sponsoring 150 people £10 each for their marathon efforts towards good causes they care about. We did the same last year, but I wasn’t at the company then, and I’ve got to say that I found it an unexpectedly inspiring, encouraging, sobering and moving experience. Now that the dust settled on all the giving and emotion (!) I wanted to share some of the incredible stories I heard, and how it impacted me.

We heard from a real variety of people. We had people running their 15th (ish) marathon (Gower Tan and Carol Littler) and a whole raft of people running their first ever - including plenty in their 40s and 50s, proving that it’s never too late to start. Like many of us, I live a busy life, and can fall prey to that incredible human skill of finding an excuse not to do something that feels too hard! It might sound cliche, but seeing these people, who are older than me, get going and do something towards ‘their cause’ really empowered me to get on with it for myself.

And that wasn’t all. As if ‘just getting started’ weren’t a good enough excuse, any idea that the circumstances of my rather comfortable life could get in the way were quickly obliterated too. We had Melanie Barratt, who is blind and is actually a paralympic gold medallist in swimming, but who has now signed up to run a marathon with a sighted guide. Wiki Solly is partially sighted and running her first ever marathon, also alongside a guide. Nicole Glover has lost 7 stone to run, while another runner has lost half his body weight (!!!) to get in shape for the marathon. Susie Godley is running for MS, while living with MS herself. All truly incredible and awe-inspiring.

The final real encouragement to me came from people who have been through awful circumstances, where it must have been hard to see any sort of route forward, to come to this point of running a marathon. It was a reminder that however hard life can be (and let’s face it some of us have to face up to really hard stuff), that much of the time, the light of the tunnel will emerge, and the story will go on.

Claire Flatt is raising money for McMillan (and is nearly at an astonishing £10,000 - nice one Claire!) and has gone from chemotherapy to running a marathon in 9 months. Claudia Burrough, another sponsoree, will be completing this year’s marathon in a wheelchair after losing her ability to walk in the training period for last year’s marathon. Nick Smith is running for Spinal Research after having his back replaced 12 years ago following an accident.

We really did read everyone’s posts and contributions and there were so many more we could have mentioned. Like Minal Patel’s inspiring response to incredible loss and adversity which had us in floods of tears or Debbie Ward closing in on raising an incredible £100,000 for cancer research. We don’t have the space to share all 150 stories here, but you can head to our Facebook post to browse them for yourself.

The big take away for me was that while there are so many amazing causes to support out there, a huge part of making a difference is simply taking the energy and effort to show up and do something. It can be easy to block these causes out, or simply get busy with everyday life (and there’s no shame in that) but actually by going out of their way, these amazing and inspiring yet just-like-me people are really contributing to causes that matter, and raising awareness at the same time. It was a privilege to be part of it, and as a company it felt like a real honour to play a very small part in these stories.

Going away at the end of the day I had a smile on my face at this beautiful but unorthodox way of giving (we even had to pause at one point for a bank fraud check!), at the incredible stories efforts of these wonderful people, but also with a real sense of challenge. What can I contribute? How can I open myself up to others stories and experiences enough to provoke me to action?

It looks different for all of us, and I don’t foresee myself running a marathon soon (although maybe you do!) but it has certainly given me a different insight and outlook, and empowered me to believe that I can, and must, do my own small bit towards making this world of ours a better and happier place. Good luck to all you amazing runners doing exactly that!

Getting to know the team - Hazel's Box of Joy

Our lovely Joymail subscribers all have a chance of winning an utterly lovely Box of Joy each month. I think we love putting them together nearly as much as people love receiving them! Although we aren’t eligible to win a box ourselves, we had some fun imagining what we would put in our own, and thought it’d be a nice way for people to get to know us a little bit more. First up is Hazel…

Hazel chose:

• Reef board game. We recently spent a team afternoon up at the Draughts board gaming cafe in Waterloo, London, playing games and having fun together (tough job - someone has to do it). Hazel found it a lovely and relaxing play, like Takenoko, and is very keen to play it again.

• Soundiculous. Although we all already own all our titles (obviously!), we always put in one of our own titles into the Boxes of Joy. Soundiculous is Hazel’s go-to game that can be whipped out in any situation, as it only takes a few seconds to explain and so much fun can be had with it so quickly.

• A big lump of clay. She was torn between this and a book on ceramics. Either way, Hazel’s newest fad/interest (delete as appropriate) is pottery and this is going to be helpful on that front. I must say, as someone who has seen her first pottery effort, a rather lovely plant pot, I’ve got to say she’s off to a flipping impressive start.

• Some new goggles. Hazel is a member of the Brighton sea swimmers and therefore a regular sea swimmer. She can be found swimming in all weathers, but is currently in need of a new pair of goggles to go with her excellent wet suit setup.

• No Box of Joy would be complete without a snack of choice. Hazel has opted for some Divine Dark Chocolate with freeze dried Raspberries. Delicious chocolate from a company with great values - what more can you ask for?!

Up next - Dave…

Dragon's Den: What Happened Next?

How great was Deborah Meaden playing Randomise on Dragon’s Den? She totally got into the spirit of our company and watching her act out a ‘Gentle Punk Selling Lemonade’ on the show was almost as hilarious as watching her do it live. The editors did well to cut out my distracting belly laughs while she was acting!

Seeing myself on the TV screen was just as bizarre as I’d imagined - it felt a bit like an out of body experience… But wow, what an experience to have survived the Dragon’s Den. 

If you watched the show you’ll know I got an offer of investment from Jenny Campbell and I am so grateful for this - it has given me a real sense of validation to know that she believes in what we are doing. So why did I turn her down?! 

On the show it certainly seemed like I’d made a surprising decision - not least, after I’d left the studio, when Peter Jones declared ‘She’ll live to regret that!’. But honestly, it didn’t feel that surprising at the time - the final offer, with it’s two-year payback period, just didn’t suit our plans for growth that is sustainable in the long-term.

It might look like I made a quick decision - but in reality I spent more than an hour in the den, detailing all our financial history and conservative forecasts, exploring our company’s value with the Dragons. 

Of course, at the time, I would have taken an investment offer at the price we set - as a team we’d agreed this would be worth it for the expertise a Dragon would bring. However, we are now reconsidering whether we really want investment to ‘supercharge’ our company or whether growing more organically (investing our profits into creating and printing more games each year) is a more sustainable and enjoyable route. 

Will I live to regret my decision? Who knows! But right now, no regrets. I feel like we are in a great position, building a good company for the long term benefit of our customers, our team and our world. Watch this space!

Totally surreal: My experience in the den

I can finally talk about it – we’re going to be on Dragons’ Den!

The episode was filmed back in June, and it’s been a real challenge keeping it to myself. I’m still not allowed to tell you what happens – you’ll have to watch BBC TWO at 8pm on Sunday 23 December to find that out – but I can tell you about the exciting and totally surreal experience of filming it.

My youngest child, Cora, was only four-months-old at the time and I was still on maternity leave, so I took the day of recording as one of my ‘keeping in touch’ days. This meant a trip for the entire family to Manchester, and roping my dad in for a day out at the Science Museum with Chris (my husband and cofounder) and Charlie (our two-year-old). That meant Chris could pop in with Cora every three hours so I could feed her. It was quite an experience getting my hair and make-up done all glam and prepping for the TV cameras, then taking a quick break to breastfeed!

Filming was so bizarre, and so much fun, standing in the places you know so well from TV and looking into the faces of people you normally only see in a box in your living room. I’ll be honest, it was nerve-wracking. Everyone on the set is lovely, but the dragons are intimidating and they certainly gave me a good grilling. It was a major adrenaline rush and I’ve not experienced anything like it before. What I enjoyed most of all, though, was getting to talk about the business I feel so passionately about, how much we’ve achieved and our aims for the future. It made me so proud.

Apparently I was in the den for more than an hour, but the time absolutely flew by. Emerging out into the real world again at the end of the day was a bit disorientating. Once the adrenaline wore off, I was shattered, so we travelled straight over to Bishop Monkton (where I grew up and my parents still live), swiftly putting the kids to bed before passing out ourselves.

It all feels like a crazy dream now – I’m looking forward to watching the episode on Sunday  just to prove to myself that it actually happened!

I’d love to know what you think about the episode – you can tell me in the comments, or we’re on Facebook and Instagram. I’ll post my reflections on the show once it’s aired (it will be the first time I’ve seen it) so look out for that. Fingers crossed I come across OK in the edit!

Changing the face of entrepreneurship at Number 10

I am a games maker. I am a founder. I am a mother. And I guess I am an ‘entrepreneur’. Why is it that this last one still feels funny to say?

Maybe because I never expected to be here. I didn’t set out to become an entrepreneur. When I was at school, I never even considered the idea. And I’m sure the careers adviser never suggested it.

Wrongly or rightly, the stereotypical view of an entrepreneur I’d absorbed from society was of the ruthlessly ambitious workaholic, sacrificing their family and personal life to focus on selling and negotiating around the clock, in order to dominate in the harsh dog-eat-dog world of business. This persona didn’t feel relevant or appealing to me at all. So how did I end up here?

Entrepreneurship happened to me

The idea of setting up a business to get my game, Randomise, out into the world came about more as a necessity than a lifelong dream. I was stuck in a job that was sucking the life out of me and I wanted to find a different way to put some good out into the world.

When I quit my job and founded Gamely Games, I was fully expecting to be thrown into the stressful, lonely, all-consuming struggle I’d imagined awaited all ‘entrepreneurs’. But my experience of setting up a business couldn’t have been more different.

What I discovered was a huge network of support and advice, and a community of new entrepreneurs creating businesses with purpose and balance. People doing business differently, starting with what is good and meaningful and growing their companies in a way that made their lives better every day.

Amazing support

Initiatives like the Happy Startup School, Entrepreneurial Spark and the Kings20 accelerator scheme at King’s College London (just named the UK’s most Outstanding Entrepreneurial University) have given me invaluable support and guidance, and these communities make starting and growing a business much less daunting and far more enjoyable.

I found that platforms like Kickstarter go a long way towards levelling the playing field for aspiring creators. And, crucially, I discovered outsourcing services that make running a business a really viable option for people who can’t, or don’t want to, work 80 hours a week.

For example, thanks to the Fulfilment by Amazon service (who pick and pack all of our Amazon orders) I was able to work an average of just half an hour a day after the birth of my first child and turn over more than £100k in the first six months of his life. I discovered that it was possible to run a thriving business that fits flexibly around your other priorities.

Who else is missing out?

I’m not saying that starting a business is easy by any stretch. I know that each entrepreneur will face their own set of unique challenges and will make their own compromises. I am also very aware of my own privilege and the many advantages I have benefited from, simply by being born into a white, middle class family in the UK.

But why was my perception of entrepreneurs so different to the new reality? Why did I have no idea that entrepreneurship could be an option for me? And who else is missing out on these opportunities because they don’t see people they identify with running businesses?

These are questions I don’t have the answers to. I know I’d love to play a part in changing the face of entrepreneurship and raising the profile of successful startup leaders who don’t fit classic stereotypes. But what this looks like in practice/action I’m still working out.

I have read that 70,000 people across Britain would like to start up their own businesses but haven’t done so. 28% feel that the process is too complex, and 36% don’t have enough confidence in themselves to go it alone. I want those people to know that it is possible, and that there are many different routes to success.

Asking the big questions  

Tomorrow I’m going to raise my questions at Number 10 Downing Street.

Through Kings20 I’ve been invited, along with 10 other entrepreneurs (including the incredible Tobi Oredein of Black Ballad and Ismail Jeilani of Scoodle), to a round table discussion with Jimmy McLoughlin, the Prime Minister’s Special Adviser on business. We’ll be asking what the government could do to promote entrepreneurship to a wider audience.

This isn’t just good for society, it’s good for business and the economy. My little company Gamely Games now employs several people and has turned over half a million pounds. If we can show more people the flexibility and empowerment that entrepreneurship can offer, imagine what value that could bring - to their lives and to the economy.

I’ve no idea what will come from this meeting at No.10, but I want to be part of the conversation.

Welcome to the gamely blog

We at Gamely love making super-fun games that bring people together to laugh, connect and have a great time together. But we’re also a company that wants to be just a liiiiitle bit different to the others - as well as being fun we aim to be generous, kind and to really make the world a better place. And so we decided it’d be good for us to set up somewhere to talk about all these things - from donating loads of games to refugee camps and families in need here in the UK, to trying to be a brilliant place to work for our little team and giving away at least 10% of our profits.

And, of course, the aim while we do all of this is to have loads of fun along the way. We hope you’ll enjoy getting a little insight into the life of Gamely, and we’re excited to share a bit more of what we’re about with you.

Starting with something we’re very excited about - our disconnect to re-connect Christmas campaign…

We can’t wait to share it with you. Lots of love,

Hazel, Chris, Tina and Dave - The Gamely Team