At Work With...Amit Puri | CEO at GameStake

1. Tell me a bit about yourself? (Where are you from? What you do? One peculiar fact about you?)

I am a Londoner born and bred. I am the Founder and CEO of a mobile gaming and entertainment platform, GameStake. Peculiar fact about me, hmm. Not sure how peculiar any of these are, but I went to school with Peter Crouch (he was 2 years above and we weren’t friends), I played Ali Baba in my school production of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, I once won a baby modelling contest run by Boots and finally I was almost an orphan (I was 7 years old when this happened) as my parents changed a flight they were going to take at the very last minute; that flight they were originally going to take crashed with no survivors.

2. How do you motivate yourself to give your 100% at work? What gets Amit out of bed in the mornings?

GameStake is my baby, so if I don’t give 100% to it, how can I expect the same from everyone else who works for me? So, ensuring I lead by example and am not a hypocrite is a big motivator. I also want to make the most of this one life I live, and creating something out of nothing and turning it into a globally recognised brand is a big motivator for me. It will not happen easily or without sacrifices.?

3. How did you decide to pursue the career that you are working in today? What was the pivotal moment?

In general, I did not enjoy working for other people. It simply is not for me. I like to be a leader, not a follower, and so this naturally led me down the path of creating something of my own and then build a team to lead towards something meaningful. My pivotal moment was a horrendous experience at a pretty large corporate. I decided that was the last time I give my time, energy and most importantly, my brain power for something that is not my own. I very rarely felt valued working for others. These experiences also taught me how to create an environment people might enjoy being part of. I learnt a whole bunch of things not to do.

4. What are you most proud of in your career journey so far?

GameStake in its absolute entirety gives me a lot of pride, especially given that I was told on numerous occasions that I, as a solo, non-technical founder could not make this happen. Creating the entity from scratch, building up a team of talented and ambitious people who are the fabric of our company culture, having a product in the market (having a product in the market that people love is a great bonus), the partnerships we have developed with large enterprises (Amazon being one of them), securing an international athlete as a brand ambassador; these all give me immense pride. Hearing people talk so enthusiastically about GameStake, or seeing people play on the app are still ‘pinch me’ moments.

5. If you could start all over again, what would you do differently?

Hmm, I am not sure. It would be too easy to say not repeat the mistakes I’ve made (there have been many), but the truth is I have learnt a great deal from those mistakes; and they have undoubtedly made me much better. Without those mistakes, I would be getting by with a good amount of luck, and that will run out sooner or later. Mistakes later, when a business is running at scale, could be fatal; so I prefer that I made these mistakes in our early days. I suppose, if I could start over again the only thing I would really do differently is that I would get started even sooner.

6. Lastly, what do you think is the most important attribute a leader should have in today's generation?

There are too many attributes that are important and I am not sure that there is any one thing that is the most important. Keeping a balanced temperament, in both good and bad times is vital. As is being resilient, hardworking, optimistic (but still grounded in reality), attention to detail, market knowledge, emotional intelligence and having a great deal of perspective. A good understanding of human beings is also important, as invariably practically all businesses have to deal with human beings at some level, either as employees, partners or clients/customers.?