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Start-up: Emily Jacometti of Dutch Gaming Site, Flavour
Emily Jacometti is part of the uber-cool Dutch gaming site, Flavour. The site is so much fun that even if you don’t speak Dutch, it’s still worth a play. Here, Emily talks to The NextWomen about the business – now and in the future – and the hurdles herself and co-founders, Tim Numan and Jain van Nigtevegt, have had to overcome.
Emily Jacometti, Tim Numan and Jain van Nigtevegt
How did the founders come up with the idea of your start-up?
We were all working for different companies at the time, and decided that it would be more effective to join forces and start a new company which would be able to offer clients the complete package. What makes Flavour unique is that we are involved from concept right through to the end result.
What is your best product?
Our best product is our latest advergame for a well-known brand. Flavour created a concept which reflects the core values of the client and promotes specific products. Because players play a game they are actively involved with ones brand, and as a marketing tool it proves more effective than traditional media. We are especially proud of this particular game because it is actively integrated in a cross-media national campaign. Flavour also provided other media, such as banners to ensure high exposure for the game.
When did you become involved and why? Do you have any equity in the business?
Personally I (officially) became involved in Flavour a year ago – before that I was involved purely behind the scenes. I became involved because up to that point, although there was a creative person and a technical person, there was no-one dealing with the commercial aspects of the business. Flavour approached me for this position, and I accepted. To become an owner I contributed the same amount as the initial investment by the other owners.
What is your role?
I am the commercial Director at Flavour. My responsibilities, among others, include: acquisitions, organisation, administrative duties, office management and contact with the clients.
Who is in the team?
Flavour currently has 4 artists and 3 programmers, a financial aid, a board of advisors – consisting of an accountant, a communication specialist, a businessman and a teacher at the high school of Amsterdam – and a commercial person. We also work with freelancers on several projects and are currently looking for another programmer, several commercial people and interns to join and expand our team.
How is the company funded, with how much money and what business model? Are you still seeking funding?
The company is privately funded and debt free. The initial investment was relatively small, since all we needed as start-up capital were a couple of computers and lots of talent. At present, personnel costs are our greatest expense. We are not really looking for funding at the moment, but we are always looking for sponsors who want to tie their name or brand to a game (in-game advertisement).
What makes you different from other players in your sector?
The biggest difference between Flavour and our competition is that Flavour does not only build games (the fact that we do everything in-house is a unique selling point by itself), but that we also advise clients on how to use games effectively as a marketing tool, generating maximum exposure by effectively integrating them in cross-media campaigns. The games Flavour does create and deliver are of a far better quality than other players and we create custom viral advergames to an equally high standard.
What was your biggest challenge during the development process and how can other start-ups learn from this?
The biggest challenges Flavour has faced in the past year is to cope with clients who do not pay (on time) and those frequently recurring question of balance – How fast do we grow? What amount of money do we invest in the company? Where do we find good people? etc.
Start-ups can learn from our experience that although it is exciting to build up a company from the ground, it is also exhaustingly hard work and in the worst cases can mean bread with peanut butter for six months (for our UK readership lets use beans on toast as the example). But we still learn new things everyday and I would not trade all the responsibility and hard work for any other job or experience.
Our family logo used to be “Nihil sin labore” (nothing without working hard for it) and this pretty much sums up the experience of last year – it takes talent and hard work to make a company successful.
Are you profitable?
Yes, we broke-even within nine months and even had a small profit by the end of the year. Most of what we make gets invested back into Flavour immediately, but we are a profitable, small and growing company.
Where do you see the company in 1 year? Do you have International aspirations?
So far Flavour is focussed on the Dutch market and we are currently accumulating as much experience as possible to form a solid base for the future. After the Dutch market, Flavour will slowly start to focus on the European market before shifting our aspirations worldwide. In one year the company will move to a new location, since our current office is getting to small and we would like to hire new staff and work on several national campaigns for A-brands. Most importantly, in one year, Flavour will still be as creative as ever, making quality custom viral advergames for an even larger clientele
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