Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Gaming business entrepreneur puts success down to Leeds Beckett course
Ben Woolf
Ben Woolf, who graduated from Business and Management from Leeds Beckett in 2015, launched his mobile games recommendations app – Gameway - in February 2016.
The app allows mobile game enthusiasts to find and try games from the Android Play store, and recommends games based on what they have previously played. Users can also like and favourite future games, as well as read gaming news.
Ben, who won the Leeds Beckett 2017 Business Concept Competition in March, said: “During my time at Leeds Beckett, I learnt about business strategy and the core skills needed in business and management.
“I still draw upon case studies I studied during my degree to help me work through company challenges.
Gameway from Gameway on Vimeo.
“The university gave me a platform to try new things; I worked within societies, I was able to host events on campus, experiment with business ideas and seek advice from lecturers.
“I would often sit with lecturers and talk about my ideas and ways to improve how I worked. The support and guidance was invaluable and helped towards dealing with investors and building commercial partners.
“I gained a deeper understanding of industry language including business processes. I constantly refer to pieces of information I learnt at university.”
Ben, now Chief Executive Officer at Gameway, leads a team of industry professionals and volunteers. His principle colleagues are Sam Knoch, Chief Technical Officer, who has run two previous start-ups including charity donation app ‘Tinbox’, and Kris Wingfield-Bennett, Chief Marketing Officer, who has ten years’ experience in digital marketing within the games industry.
“We hope to add to our team in 2018 and expand the business further,” added Ben. “We want to build a larger database, integrate all the revenue systems and establish product market fit.
“We currently have over 5,000 monthly users and have started working towards expanding to more users.
“Our research found it takes people between 15 minutes and one hour to find a game - with the majority deleting it after a week. People struggle to find games they actually like.
“You can build a profile on Gameway which understands what you enjoy playing and which games are most suited to you from the millions of games in the store.
“Starting with this information we can begin to filter the most relevant news, products, gifts, services and rewards that personally suit everyone who plays.”
Ben is leading his company through a crowdfunding campaign for the next stage of the business expansion. To find out more and get involved, please visit: https://www.crowdcube.com/gameway