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Name: Shane Evans
Company: GameDriver, Inc.
What are you building, and who benefits most from it?
GameDriver is a solution for the automated testing of video games and XR applications—anything made in a game engine such as Unity, Unreal Engine, or Godot.
What is one of your startup’s most impressive accomplishments?
We are the first and only test automation solution in this space to support multiple game engines. Our patented approach provides a simple, scalable way to test games and XR experiences of all types.
What has been the biggest challenge so far, and how did you overcome it?
The gaming industry is deeply entrenched in the status quo, which means manual testing is still the only approach for most studios. However, as games become more ambitious and timelines and budgets continue to grow, this is starting to change. It’s no longer possible to get complete coverage for a game while making sure it works on all supported platforms using manual testing alone. A major challenge for us has been communicating that to the industry.
What tool or app could you not live without and why?
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Git and its creator, Linus Torvalds, should probably be nominated for a Nobel Prize. I can’t imagine a world without it, and as a fully remote company, it’s what holds us together.
What marketing strategies have worked for you?
We’re a traditional enterprise software company in a lot of ways and have found the best way to market our solution is by showing up where our target customers are. That means trade shows, webinars, meetups, and being visible in all of the places where our customers look for solutions to common problems.
Can you share any financial data about your startup?
We have dozens of customers around the world in all different industries, including gaming, oil & gas, defense, medical, and many more. These customers are all building immersive experiences (AR, VR, and mixed reality) using game engines. To date, GameDriver has raised over $4 million in capital investment. (Reported on October 24, 2023.)
What has been your biggest business failure to date? What did you learn from it?
Growth has been steady but slower than anticipated. This may indicate a need for greater market education, which plays a role when our solution is specifically aimed at organizations looking to optimize cost, quality, and time to delivery. Yet, many choose to reduce their investment in solutions like ours in a down economy.
What’s the best specific piece of advice you have for other entrepreneurs?
Don’t take anything for granted. Find people who share your vision and culture and will share in your passion to make something great. It takes more than one or even a handful of smart people to make it work.
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