How We're Building A Platform To Enable Everyday Gamers Win Money

Chris Slovak

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Published: October 30th, 2022

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Chris Slovak

Founder, Challenger

Founders

Employees

Challenger

playchallenger.com

from Carlsbad, CA, USA

started

Founders

Employees

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The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Ef...

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Diffe... Malcolm Gladwell

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition Robert B. Cialdini

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My name is Chris Slovak (aka mountaintoph) and I’m the CEO and co-founder of Challenger, the first peer-to-peer gaming platform built to enable everyday gamers to wager and win money while competing against other players in their favorite video game environments.

Our goal is to infuse more excitement, friendly competition, and equitable access into these online experiences that have typically been reserved for the elite, professional, or hardcore gamer set.

Part of achieving that goal has involved spearheading the development of new technologies and features that ensure our competitive platform is not only trustworthy and secure but also accessible to all who have a love for gaming. We need to be approachable to gamers of all skill sets and backgrounds while giving them the ability to set their terms for how/when they play and how they want to get rewarded.

Challenger is truly for anybody who wants to participate in skill-based cash contests on video games. We're creating a frictionless, peer-to-peer system so players don't have to radically change how, when, and with whom they play to partake in competitive gameplay.

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

While at a previous startup, I was in a fantasy league with a handful of coworkers, with whom I’d also play video games when we had some time to spare. I wasn’t always the best in our league, but one particular Thursday night, while playing a solid round of Battlefield, it dawned on me that we should be playing for a dollar per kill. I threw the idea out over comms to my soon-to-be co-founder, Chris Andres (aka Kaerus), and right then, Challenger was born.

However, after some research, we discovered that there was no solution available in the market that would allow us (or anyone) to do the type of casual cash wagering I had in mind. The only way to participate in this kind of gameplay was through tournament platforms or 1v1 matches, which tended to be more tailored to gamers who could dedicate a certain number of days/hours per week to compete. It was simply not a feasible option for busy professionals or people who liked gaming but did not have the option to commit to it full-time. Moreover, participating in these formats was a radical departure from the way I played. It wouldn’t add to my experience — rather it would fully alter it.

That’s when Chris and I decided to just build the solution we had been looking for ourselves and created a platform that would allow any gamer — regardless of playing style, skill level, or schedule — to wager money and compete with the simplicity and access that had been missing in the industry. We wanted to enhance what gamers were already doing: playing.

Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.

We began fleshing out our design for the platform based on two core questions: what experience are gamers craving, and why didn’t that experience already exist? The answer to the latter question revolved around data.

While assessing our competitors, we saw that most other companies only tapped end-of-game/match contest formats. Through further investigation, we found that most of the APIs provided by game studios only supplied this latent “end-of” game dataset.

We found that publishers do this for a few reasons, including cost, technical ability, and concerns about in-game cheating or match-making manipulation. We concluded that this would not be a reliable source both technically and one that was not likely to change based on the business implications we identified from publishers. A new avenue to get the information needed for an ‘in-game’ experience was required.

We had to think outside the box with the needed signals while still meeting gamers where they were at, most importantly not having them change their gaming behavior. A design concept we call ‘hitting the sticks.’ Our experience needs to be as light touch as possible enabling anyone to simply add cash play to whatever format they were already going to do.

We went through several iterations to come up with an optimized design. We did everything from game-level integrations to a system RAM-level integration, to even testing some hybrid models running on dedicated servers — all of which were not scalable. Ultimately, we landed on using AI, specifically computer vision, as the right path for us. We patented our technology in 2021 which was a feat, given the pandemic. This approach can be deployed on any game, across any device and can scale with the volume we expect from our gamers.

At the end of the day, we simply wanted to create a platform that could allow gamers to sit down at any point in their day, put a dollar on the line, and enjoy a more exciting, competitive game experience. No waiting, no queueing, and no special conditions.

Describe the process of launching the business.

It’s been a long road filled with a lot of trial and error. In simple terms, we had to build a real-time data engine, a real-time accounting engine, and a proprietary Windows application on top of a scalable AI engine, not to mention the models we had to develop before we could start. Simply put the tech is complex.

On top, this market is still a nascent one, though we estimate that there are somewhere between 60 to 90 million gamers in North America alone that we believe will play this way. Throughout the process, we’ve focused on finding the balance between standing out among competitors, reaching our target audiences, and building/maintaining the trust of those gamers who’ve become our customer base.

Corporate funding has also been an interesting experience, but this year we successfully closed a Series Seed round, which helped us establish ourselves as a company, expand our team, and bring this product to market. Challenger is a work in progress, as is the nature of all startups, and this journey has taught us more about what not to do in business to thrive. We are excited to be taking our concept to market and helping evolve the gaming industry.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

My team and I all come from digital media, advertising, and analytics backgrounds, so we like to experiment with the best ways to reach, convert, and keep users. We’re huge believers in being data-driven and providing our customers the experiences they want to be based on the data signals they provide.

We’ve found that paid media campaigns have been an efficient and surprisingly cost-effective way of bringing users to our site (which we view as a demand signal from gamers for this type of solution).

User acquisition has happened both organically and from paid sources for us. Getting customers to return has and is always the trickiest part of the equation. We’ve learned that if they don’t use the platform right away, we lose them. To solve this issue and keep users actively engaged on the platform, we offer incentives in the form of referral programs, giveaways, and cash rewards, as well as several upcoming features to help gamers find, engage, and invite their friends to play.

Hopefully, these changes will entice old customers to reengage and turn our new customers into loyal “Challengers.”

We’ve also gone to the gamer and, using Discord, built a social community that drives engagement with our community and provides immediate customer support for existing customers. By opening up a thoughtful channel for real customer support, conversations, and connection (including surveys), companies can gain insight into what their users want vs. what they think they want. The only way to know the difference is to ask.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

Our current focus has been to onboard as many popular games and new contest formats onto the platform as possible. We launched Counter-Strike early this year, with at least ten more games in the pipeline. We also want to continue marketing and refining our flagship products, including our peer-to-peer cash-point and reward-based play programs that allow gamers to wager their money with their terms/squads/clans.

We have the short-term goal of providing cross-lobby gaming support (a function that allows competitors to wager against each without having to play simultaneously), as well as being a first in Battle Royale game modes. Thanks to Challenger’s real-time, in-game data collection, this is possible.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

Yes. First, always raise more capital than you think you need.

Find a local network to immerse yourself in where you can connect with and hire people who are smarter than you.

Second, hiring can be difficult in today’s market, so start immediately and ask your network for help.

And third, if you’re going to have a distributed team, focus on process and documentation. A lot of our developers were in eastern Europe, and we could never have predicted the huge impact that the conflict in Ukraine would have on our company. As it all unfolded, I saw how important documentation is when sharing resources among the team. Luckily, Chris A. is excellent at project management, so even if/when a part of our team was inactive, the rest of the team could pick up where others left off to maintain the flow of the company.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

I love Google’s Cloud-based solutions, and I favor Google Workspace over Microsoft docs. If it hasn’t been made clear by now, customer experience is critical! We look at this from the first touch we have with brand outreach to the actual daily and weekly lifecycle with the customer. Automation is key to delivering the right message at the right time and having a Customer Data Platform (CDP) at the center of our strategy was critical. With it, we have a clear understanding of what’s happening with our platform and customers. We built our solution (on GCP) because of our collective experience in that arena, but I’d recommend that others use the tools that are already available.

I also like Slack and Jira for project management, documentation, and team communication — which is imperative to the distributed team. Upfluence has been a great partner for influencer relations, Mailchimp gets the job done for email marketing, and Userflow has been awesome at helping new and current customers convert and take advantage of new features.

For administrative purposes, we’ve relied on QuickBooks Online, Silicon Valley Bank, and Sequoia One.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

There are so many, but I love Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen, which talks about the importance of building out networks. Something we are experimenting with right now. Along those same lines, I also like Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, a classic book that explores the concept social acceptance and the reasons of critical mass and mass adoption.

Early in my career, I read Influence by Robert Cialdini, which is all about why people are influenced by others. Originally the book was more for recognizing and potentially defending oneself against these technics, it became valuable in learning just why people do what they do. I found it very eye-opening when it came to persuading partners, investors, and employees, which is my job now as CEO.

Outside of books, I love NFX, a very informative VC newsletter, which has this fantastic “Signal” tool that helps you find investors through your network who are best suited for you. I also like to listen to TED and TEDx talks, read Sanjay Gupta's articles on LinkedIn for his interesting insights into the psychology of people, and learn more about Simon Sinek's theory of "Why."

Sinek’s theory has helped illuminate how we can empathize with the customer (bringing to mind Amazon's empty chair strategy) and whether our actions resonate with them. That's why Challenger has been focused on developing incentive-based engagement and interactive media that benefits gamers.

While we are starting with peer-to-peer solutions we ultimately want to be a platform for gamers to be paid to play. We have plans for future opportunities in reward play, game testing and feedback, and even sharing advertising revenue with the gamers. And finally, of course, I subscribe to Esports Insider and Esports Observer, and frequent Rock Paper Shotgun daily. It's crucial to always be a student in your space, or you will inevitably fail.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

Speaking of failure: you’re going to fail — a lot. That’s just the nature of startups (and of life).

Before getting Challenger off the ground as a startup, I had worked with plenty of other founders who had their unique struggles. However, it hits a lot harder when it happens to/in your own company. Be ready for that. When you do fail, fail fast, and make sure you learn from it. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Find a local network to immerse yourself in where you can connect with and hire people who are smarter than you. Finally, don’t burn bridges when leaving a company. On the contrary, try your hardest to establish more on your way out. Many of my past colleagues and previous leaders have invested their time, ideas, and money into Challenger.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

We’re currently looking for brand ambassadors and consultants (i.e., gamers who can advise us on how to communicate with the market). The OG gamers will be the ones leading the space in the next decade, so we’d love to consult with them on how to better speak to our audience. We’d also like to bring on streamers, musicians, and artists — those who represent the “average gamer,” the customer archetype that we designed for our solution. In early to mid-2023, we’ll also be looking to further expand our development team and continue to grow our U.S.-based operations.

Where can we go to learn more?

You can learn more about us at our website, and we’re also on Discord, Twitter, Twitch, and Facebook.

If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!

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