How Gamewheel Survived 33 months of Startup Rollercoaster #PlayableAds

As some of you might have seen, Facebook finally released the Playable Ads format a few weeks ago, going from private beta straight into public.

Just 33 (!) months prior to this official launch of Playable Ads my second startup Gamewheel published this tutorial (thanks to Evan Weintraub, who initially pushed on making it at the time as we were part of Seedcamp... ):

Now, after long 33 months of the rollercoaster with super many amazing ups and a few very big lows ... I want to share the 3 core goals which kept me going as a Founder: 

1. Define a clear big vision you believe in and articulate its relevant impact clearly.
2. Recruit a team of rockstar experts and investors to build it (before its needed).
3. Last, but most importantly: Make sure your venture offering survives until it's needed.

It sounds very simple and stupid. But the moment you step into Founder shoes yourself: believe me, you have to learn everything from scratch again... and the beatify of it: you never stop learning!

Probably even more important, is not what you should do, but what you actually shall avoid (Certainly, I have beautifully failed at this many times...):

• Do not go to events if your customers (or relevant investors) are not there
• Do not care about feedback of friends & family (as long as they are not your customers)
• Do not hire anyone who wants to help you without believe in your vision
• Do not compromise on the values needed for you to operate at your best
• Do not stop saying: "Fuck it, let's do it again" after you failed again (credits to Stacy Schusterman for this quote)

Now, if you're interested to finally (!) run Playable Ads campaigns on Facebook (or any other owned, earned or paid channel) - here is our new & simple intake form (click on the image below) - "We're ready to rumble!"

Last, but not least - I am very thankful for the beautiful support and mentorship from Brendan Donovan (ING Group), Carlos Espinal (Seedcamp), Konstantin Stoyanov (Crown Ocean Capital) and Tim Koschella (HitFox Group, AppLift). Without your support and personal believe in me, we would not have survived the #rollercoaster with Gamewheel!

Thank you all, 

Evgeni