Gift Focus - May/Jun 2019 (Issue 113)

80 Seedling to spud We speak to Tris Williams, co-founder of Big Potato Games, about the company’s incredible growth in the five years since it began. When was the company founded, and what were the reasons for its inception? The company was founded in 2014. We had success with our first game, Linkee, and felt we had a few more games in us so created Big Potato. How has the company developed since then? Well, we’ve done alright. We’ve made more than 40 games, which are sold in about 18 countries and we have grown to 20-plus employees. What was your background before the company began? I’m one of the three founders (myself, Dean Tempest and Ben Drummond). We all started off in the advertising game, but this is much more fun. Describe your product offering. Our mission is to create family-friendly party games that are easy to learn and quick to play. No one likes rules, do they? Where do you get your ideas? The ideas for our games come from everyone in the company – literally. We have regular “hat sessions” (everyone throws an idea into a black top hat, and every six months, we empty it out and go through them). Last year, our head of finance came up with an idea that we ended up making: What Came First? How often do you launch new products? We launch about six to eight new games a year and update a couple of existing ones. What values are important to the company? We try to be as ethical as possible, environmentally and socially. We’re egalitarian and like to make Big Potato a place people want to work. No one has left yet! You’re very active on social media – why is this important to the business? Being a small company makes social media the one place we can punch above our weight. It’s a great way to get our message across and to make friends with people.