As an entrepreneur who has spent over two decades navigating startups and the world of tech, I’ve always believed in the powerful intersection of creativity, strategy, and understanding your audience. And when I came across Chris Avellone’s game philosophy, it struck me how much of his thinking aligns with entrepreneurial principles, especially in Europe’s startup culture. His approach is not just about game design; it’s a masterclass on building products, services, and ideas that resonate deeply with their intended audience.
Why Avellone’s Philosophy Resonates beyond Gaming
Chris Avellone’s statement, “Players are selfish,” might sound bold, but it encapsulates an undeniable truth. Consumers, whether in gaming or business, center their experience around themselves. Entrepreneurs must embrace this when crafting their offerings. The lesson? Everything hinges on understanding your audience and prioritizing their motivations, needs, and personal investment.
As a founder, I’ve experienced how customer-centric strategies drive European startups to success. But striking the balance between creating experiences that are both engaging and empowering can be challenging. Let’s break down what Avellone’s approach teaches us, especially as women founders in a market that often demands adaptability and human-centric solutions.
Lessons European Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Avellone
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Empower Your Audience:
Avellone's games celebrate player agency, every decision impacts their experience. For entrepreneurs, this means providing customers with tools and choices that make them feel in control, whether through customizable products or flexible services. Offering agency fosters loyalty and sparks deeper engagement. -
Understand Diverse Needs:
Just as role-playing games cater to unique player styles, startups should recognize that customers have varied preferences. Conducting in-depth user research and creating segmented options ensures that your product appeals across demographics, especially critical when catering to international markets. -
Give the Hero Moment:
Avellone emphasized giving every player their "shine moment," where they feel heroic. Build customer journeys that deliver moments of delight, from smooth onboarding to solving pain points in unexpected ways. A well-designed experience can turn casual customers into brand evangelists. -
Embrace Authenticity and Imperfection:
Avellone integrates unpredictability into his games, allowing failure to fuel narrative development. Startups often strive for perfection early, but embracing iterative development lets customers become co-creators of the journey, leaving them invested in the long-term outcome. This is reflected in the European startup tendency to test, fail, and iterate. -
Design for Long-Term Value, Not Short-Term Wins:
In game design, protecting valued characters or storylines excessively can make experiences feel forced. Similarly, cling too hard to an initial vision, and a startup risks alienating customers who evolve faster than the product. Flexibility isn’t just smart, it’s essential. -
Iterate Continually by Listening:
Both pre-launch playtesting in Avellone’s games and focus groups in startups stress the importance of feedback loops. European accelerators teach founders the value of customer-centric pivots, and this philosophy should extend beyond launch.
A Startup Guide: Applying Gamer’s Principles to Entrepreneurship
Here’s how to integrate these ideas step by step:
- Build Feedback Early: Start involving potential customers as soon as possible. Use tools like Miro for brainstorming or Canvanizer for business models to map how customer needs shape your offering.
- Offer Tailored Experiences: Use technology to personalize. For instance, platforms like HubSpot allow startups to create segmented customer journeys, ensuring every visitor feels understood.
- Celebrate Small Successes: Incorporate loyalty programs, personalized thank-you messages, or behind-the-scenes updates to let customers feel part of the story.
- Facilitate Failure and Iteration: Allow customers to guide changes. Tools like Typeform can help gather insights on areas for improvement without overwhelming users.
- Visualize the Big Picture: Think of your service or product as a dynamic narrative. Consider every touchpoint a potential chapter in the customer’s journey.
Mistakes to Avoid
- Ignoring Feedback: Feedback isn’t personal, it’s a gift. Entrepreneurs sometimes build in isolation, but ignoring feedback often leads to failure.
- Designing for Yourself: Your tastes don’t necessarily reflect the market. Build for your audience, not for ego.
- Avoiding Iteration: Startups often fear pivoting, but clinging to one concept can sink the business.
Why Female Entrepreneurs Should Pay Attention
Female entrepreneurs, particularly in Europe, often face additional hurdles like societal expectations and fewer mentorship opportunities. Avellone’s focus on agency and resiliency speaks to the heart of what women founders need to succeed: creating systems that empower both their teams and their customers while navigating spaces that can often feel restrictive.
One successful application I’ve seen is through Fe/male Switch, my “gamepreneurship” initiative, which gamifies startup growth. By using elements inspired by RPGs and game design, it encourages women in STEM to take bold risks and learn from failures, redefining their professional paths.
Conclusion
Chris Avellone’s lessons aren’t just about games; they’re a lens for navigating customer-centric strategy. His focus on centering the user’s journey, embracing flexibility, and ensuring everyone feels empowered can inspire Europe’s entrepreneurs to redefine how they interact with their audiences. This people-first approach aligns naturally with modern European startup trends, promoting sustainable growth and authentic connections.
For women entrepreneurs like myself, integrating these philosophies isn’t just a strategy, it’s a necessity. Building communities that prioritize user experience and collective empowerment isn’t just good business practice. It’s how we foster real change.
FAQ
1. What does Chris Avellone mean by "Players are selfish"?
Chris Avellone explains that players naturally center their experience around themselves. By designing games to focus on their agency and motivations, you can create a more engaging and meaningful experience. Read more about Avellone’s game philosophy
2. How does Avellone’s player-centric philosophy apply to entrepreneurship?
It highlights the importance of putting customers first, much like players in a game. By understanding their motivations, businesses can create products and services that are customer-centric and value-driven. Learn how Avellone's philosophy resonates in startups
3. What is "player agency," and why is it important?
Player agency refers to giving players meaningful choices that impact the game's narrative and outcome. It promotes deeper engagement, which parallels customer empowerment in business. Explore insights on player agency
4. Why does Avellone embrace failure in his game design?
Avellone integrates failure as a narrative opportunity instead of a setback. Similarly, in startups, failure can drive innovation and improvement through iterative development. Review Avellone’s approach to design and failure
5. What are "hero moments" in game design, and how can they be applied in startups?
Hero moments are when players feel particularly empowered or successful in the game. Startups can emulate this by creating exceptional, memorable customer experiences. Discover how startups can apply hero moments
6. How does Avellone's philosophy cater to diverse player needs?
He designs games that accommodate multiple playstyles, such as roleplayers or explorers. For entrepreneurs, understanding diverse customer needs is crucial for broad appeal. Learn more about designing for diverse audiences
7. How does Avellone incorporate feedback during development?
He involves player input early through playtesting and interviews to better tailor the game experience. A similar approach in startups ensures customer feedback drives product development. Read more about Avellone's feedback-driven process
8. How does Avellone’s philosophy align with European startup culture?
European startups often focus on user-centric products, adaptability, and iterative development, all principles that Avellone champions in game design. See how Avellone's methods integrate with startup culture
9. Why should female entrepreneurs pay attention to Avellone’s principles?
Avellone’s emphasis on agency and resilience can inspire women entrepreneurs to create empowering systems for their customers and teams. His philosophy also aligns with overcoming challenges and using feedback constructively. Explore empowering strategies for women founders
10. What is Fe/male Switch, and how does it use game design principles?
Fe/male Switch is a "gamepreneurship" platform that gamifies startup growth for women in STEM. It uses RPG elements to encourage risk-taking and learning from failures, closely mirroring Avellone’s methods. Check out Fe/male Switch
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta Bonenkamp's expertise in CAD sector, IP protection and blockchain
Violetta Bonenkamp is recognized as a multidisciplinary expert with significant achievements in the CAD sector, intellectual property (IP) protection, and blockchain technology.
CAD Sector:
- Violetta is the CEO and co-founder of CADChain, a deep tech startup focused on developing IP management software specifically for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data. CADChain addresses the lack of industry standards for CAD data protection and sharing, using innovative technology to secure and manage design data.
- She has led the company since its inception in 2018, overseeing R&D, PR, and business development, and driving the creation of products for platforms such as Autodesk Inventor, Blender, and SolidWorks.
- Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling CADChain from a small team to a significant player in the deeptech space, with a diverse, international team.
IP Protection:
- Violetta has built deep expertise in intellectual property, combining academic training with practical startup experience. She has taken specialized courses in IP from institutions like WIPO and the EU IPO.
- She is known for sharing actionable strategies for startup IP protection, leveraging both legal and technological approaches, and has published guides and content on this topic for the entrepreneurial community.
- Her work at CADChain directly addresses the need for robust IP protection in the engineering and design industries, integrating cybersecurity and compliance measures to safeguard digital assets.
Blockchain:
- Violetta’s entry into the blockchain sector began with the founding of CADChain, which uses blockchain as a core technology for securing and managing CAD data.
- She holds several certifications in blockchain and has participated in major hackathons and policy forums, such as the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum.
- Her expertise extends to applying blockchain for IP management, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and secure sharing in the CAD industry.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the "gamepreneurship" methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the POV of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.
About the Publication
Fe/male Switch is an innovative startup platform designed to empower women entrepreneurs through an immersive, game-like experience. Founded in 2020 during the pandemic "without any funding and without any code," this non-profit initiative has evolved into a comprehensive educational tool for aspiring female entrepreneurs.The platform was co-founded by Violetta Shishkina-Bonenkamp, who serves as CEO and one of the lead authors of the Startup News branch.
Mission and Purpose
Fe/male Switch Foundation was created to address the gender gap in the tech and entrepreneurship space. The platform aims to skill-up future female tech leaders and empower them to create resilient and innovative tech startups through what they call "gamepreneurship". By putting players in a virtual startup village where they must survive and thrive, the startup game allows women to test their entrepreneurial abilities without financial risk.
Key Features
The platform offers a unique blend of news, resources,learning, networking, and practical application within a supportive, female-focused environment:
- Skill Lab: Micro-modules covering essential startup skills
- Virtual Startup Building: Create or join startups and tackle real-world challenges
- AI Co-founder (PlayPal): Guides users through the startup process
- SANDBOX: A testing environment for idea validation before launch
- Wellness Integration: Virtual activities to balance work and self-care
- Marketplace: Buy or sell expert sessions and tutorials
Impact and Growth
Since its inception, Fe/male Switch has shown impressive growth:
- 5,000+ female entrepreneurs in the community
- 100+ startup tools built
- 5,000+ pieces of articles and news written
- 1,000 unique business ideas for women created
Partnerships
Fe/male Switch has formed strategic partnerships to enhance its offerings. In January 2022, it teamed up with global website builder Tilda to provide free access to website building tools and mentorship services for Fe/male Switch participants.
Recognition
Fe/male Switch has received media attention for its innovative approach to closing the gender gap in tech entrepreneurship. The platform has been featured in various publications highlighting its unique "play to learn and earn" model.
