Reflecting on 2022

With 2022 coming to an in depth, and the final working day of the yr working out of steam, I wished to replicate on the nice and unhealthy we skilled as a group. Personally, I see it as a approach to course of what we did properly and never so properly up to now 12 months and as a springboard to maneuver ahead with.

The wins

We turned 10 years younger! No unamazing feat given the previous few years in financial phrases and in case you take a look at enterprise typically lots of firms disappear properly earlier than hitting this milestone. I’m actually comfortable to have overwhelmed the statistics and hope for an additional 10 nice years.

Effectively 2022 held some superb wins for us, we acquired 2 software program firms:

• My Digital Workplace – the beginning of what see as a metaverse for work that we wish to make place for people to do their greatest work
• MillionMind – a quiz and gamification platform permitting firms to actively entice new leads in enjoyable methods, to which we are going to add extra sport codecs

The acquisitions have been enabled by some folks believing in us sufficient to make these instruments shine and return funding for them. While we’re nonetheless engaged on the latter, we’re grateful for the funding and perception in us to develop the software program subscriptions and construct them into worthwhile streams of earnings for the corporate.

We welcomed a number of new purchasers onto our books, who got here to us for the next causes:

• Attracting new staff of a really particular variety
• Engagement of purchasers in a digital house with video games
• Encouraging app customers to do extra and work together with the app extra to attain their consumer’s targets
• Technique work for quite a lot of purchasers to include gamification of their app, their onboarding, their recruitment, and their studying
• Explored board sport and digital sport creation for a studying organisation
• Designed a number of video games for model promotion, recruitment, and lead technology

The sizes of purchasers various from cell and desktop app house owners with small groups to multinationals and authorities companies.

The losses

Yearly has its challenges and this yr isn’t any totally different. We misplaced out badly financially when a crypto consumer we have been creating a number of video games and digital house initiatives for didn’t stay as much as their obligations. We nonetheless have a few of their video games on the market if you’re in any respect out there for a drag racing sport, a on line casino metaverse with some video games in it, or a collection of arcade video games.

Because of the monetary knock-on results which have saved on rippling by way of the yr, we additionally misplaced some superb group members and one provider who we valued working with. As an proprietor, it all the time hurts when this occurs, however typically you actually don’t have the means to show the scenario round shortly sufficient to fulfill some folks. Both manner, we want them properly of their future endeavours.

I spent many of the yr on the hunt for funding, $6M USD to be precise about it, and failed to attain this quantity. We did entice some funding curiosity which helped generate a number of the wins and a few have been holding out for a lead investor, which we by no means secured. We have been very shut twice with 2 totally different traders promising to foot the entire quantity, just for different causes to make them pull out. As a knock-on impact of this, we misplaced out on some acquisitions and I didn’t realise my full imaginative and prescient in a single go. Our metaverse imaginative and prescient for MyGNation will take longer to understand than initially envisaged, which I discover a disgrace however given the state of the financial system might not be a nasty factor within the lengthy haul.

The teachings

If you end up formidable as a enterprise proprietor and also you don’t hit your massive aim, it’s straightforward to beat your self up about it and lose monitor of the belongings you did obtain. For me, that is the toughest factor to come back to phrases with. A sensible mentor stated in some unspecified time in the future, while you intention for the moon and also you land among the many stars, you might be nonetheless a part of the best way there and that additionally must be applauded.

From a philosophical perspective with hindsight information, I’m wondering if I had put the identical effort in chasing gross sales as I did in chasing funding, would I’ve been in a greater place both manner? I clearly don’t know a definitive reply to this, however my hunch is we is likely to be in a greater place on the very least financially. Within the funding world girls nonetheless solely obtain 1-2% of all the cash out there even with secure enterprise fashions comparable to software program as a service, so in a roundabout way, I knew it was an even bigger battle once I began out, however one I labored onerous to win. Add to that, that the finance wanted was getting used for acquisitions provides extra limits to the traders. So we are actually revising and rethinking our manner ahead. Both manner, I realized lots of new terminology from taking place the investor lane and what traders search for. For subsequent yr, I’ll shift my give attention to gross sales to get to the particular reply to this philosophical query.

From a really sensible perspective, we now have a but once more revised cost coverage the place we search for an ever increased deposit of recent and doubtlessly dangerous purchasers. We additionally going ahead will cease being a finance firm for giant multinationals who’ve cost phrases of as much as 120 days, which is just not sustainable on our enterprise mannequin, the place we depend on some freelancers who have to be paid upfront. Typically I want that folks working for giant gamers perceive the affect on a small enterprise of limitless credit score and limitless adjustments. Anyway, we’ve been tweaking this coverage yearly to make sure we will nonetheless maintain ourselves and our folks, however 2022 was not the yr the place we bought this proper. It is usually one of many primary driving forces to maneuver from an company mannequin in direction of a subscription mannequin in order that we will have extra predictable income and extra sustainable work for our in-house group.

As years go, this one has been a problem, however what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. So let’s hope and work onerous at making 2023 the place we flip the ship round and set sail for a lot of happier horizons.

Thanks

I want to thank all of our prospects and traders for the belief and perception you might have positioned in us in 2022. We’ll do our greatest to make the initiatives an amazing success in 2023 so all of us reap the rewards we deserve.

Most of all I want to thank the group members at Gamification Nation, who’ve caught with me for this moderately bumpy yr, with out you I couldn’t have achieved what we did this yr. I sincerely hope to have you ever with me for a very long time to come back and to maintain constructing what we got down to do with nice rewards to share round.

Every year closed is a ebook filled with experiences each good and not-so-good, filled with reminiscences that make us richer. Every begin of a brand new yr is a model new chapter of a model new ebook hoping to be full of comfortable reminiscences, let’s make 2023 an amazing one!!!!

Pleased New Yr!