Innovator of the Week
Eric MacDonald
Founder of Moblie Gaming
Please provide your 30-second pitch about your company.
Moblie Gaming is a startup based out of Portsmouth NH that develops interactive mobile apps that create games out of any real-time events. Our flagship app is called BetchaTV and is currently in Beta testing. BetchaTV is a family-friendly game that allows players to wager points on action as it unfolds in any of our covered TV broadcasts. Currently, we’re playing games during reality shows like Bachelor in Paradise, Big Brother, Survivor and during Patriots football games. In the game, players start with 100 points, and risk as many as they want on things like, “will the Patriots move the ball past the 50 yard line on this possession?”, or “will Garoppolo record 3 or more receptions on this drive?”, or in a reality show, “will Nick ask Amy out on a date tonight?”. Players have opportunities to earn extra points by answering trivia questions or participating in poll questions. One of the most unique aspects of BetchaTV is that the questions are generated by real people, live, during the broadcast.
Who or what was your best resource for starting your company?
Overall, I would say that UNH has been essential in the formation of this company. My software engineers are UNH grads, my game “hosts” (who post the questions in real time during the broadcasts) are mostly UNH students in the Paul College of Business and Economics, and Ian Grant at Entrepreneurship Center at UNH has been fantastic. In addition, Mark Kaplan and Josh Cyr from Alpha Loft have been really helpful as sounding boards and making introductions.
What was your biggest obstacle in starting your company and how did you overcome it?
Certainly the biggest obstacle is one I haven’t actually overcome yet, and that is that this company operates in the entertainment, broadcasting and advertising space. NH isn’t really ground zero for that industry, so making connections and gaining credibility in that space is going to be a constant challenge.
What’s the best advice you have received?
I’ve received too much great advice to pick just one thing. I’m lucky to have a lot of really smart people as friends and colleagues, so I’m constantly updating them on progress and strategy. Some of the best input I get from them is not advice, per se, but questions they ask about the business – things like who my actual customer is (which isn’t obvious, it turns out), how I can scale operations simultaneously in multiple vertical markets, how I differentiate this concept from all of the noise in the Daily Fantasy market. It’s easy to get in a mode where I have tunnel vision – thinking about the business from one perspective. By networking with smart and trusted people from different backgrounds, they challenge me to think about the business and problem solving in different ways.
What about the NH lifestyle appeals to you?
I was born and raised in NH, so this is home. I think NH has a remarkably diverse set of people, activities and seasons so that every day there is an opportunity to experience something new.
What does the future look like for your company?
The gaming space is growing very quickly, but it’s also very crowded. So far, we have a very unique product that being well received and are also exploring additional markets. Over the next few months, I’m looking to secure some early partnerships and add some business development and sales talent to the team. Once I establish some traction with my initial customers, I’ll raise some capital to bring on the team full-time.
Connect with Moblie Gaming’s app BetchaTV on Facebook and Twitter.