Turning a Side Hobby Into a Success

It has been a little over a year since I created a new venture with Nicholas Holland. We created Side Hobby LLC after Nashville’s first Startup Weekend to pursue our project gpsAssassin.

When we first started out we were (foolishly, but commonly) optimistic that it would just be a little 3 month side hobby (thus the name) that would either make a bunch of money or fizzle and die quickly. We thought the game would release before Christmas and we would be all done with it (or rolling in money) shortly thereafter.

It has been an amazing experience so far, and I think we are going to keep growing the business for a long time to come. TechCrunch has said gpsAssassin could be the next highly addictive hit game. We have been featured on games.com, had an article make it to Reuters, and even got an editorial shout out in the Nashville Scene’s Best of Nashville for Best iPhone Game Developed by Some Local Dudes. Needless to say, it has been an entrepreneurial success so far. (We aren’t making a bunch of money yet, but we are cash flow positive).

We have made some serious blunders along the way (I wish Nick’s BarCamp presentation was online, it was awesome). However, as a business we have addressed the problems, but as an entrepreneur I have learned a ton from them.

At times it has been stressful trying to juggle this “side hobby” with being a single dad while keeping up with the other projects I am working on. The freedom that comes from being able to pursue entrepreneurial ventures makes it totally worth it. I was able to spend every Thursday and Friday with my kids over the Summer, and for that I am really grateful.

So what’s next? We are keeping that close to the chest right now, but we are going to continue to grow gpsAssassin. Our numbers look good (and I think we are watching the right numbers). We are continuing to add new players. Most importantly, we have demonstrated that people will pay for what we are doing (thank you!).