An industry-building program called Fierce Founder offers assistance for entrepreneurs with a tech or tech-based idea in the early stages.
Jean and Blair Leggett, founders of One More Story Games, are parlaying that assistance into a stellar career as game developers.
In order to compete in Fierce Founder events, companies must have at least one female founder and be producing, or aiming to produce, tech-based products.
After successful camps held in Barrie, an event like Fierce Founder is key to future growth of One More Story Games.Fierce Founder events take place over the course of six days with three this week and another three in February.
Jean Leggett and her husband Blair, owners of One More Story Games, say the local tech company focuses on telling stories through gaming.
“This is a fantastic place to be for making your company better,” said Leggett. “The Canadian government has set aside funds for women-led tech companies and there will be about twenty to twenty five businesses vying for the $100,000 prize. As a woman who wants to see women in business succeed, I love this.”
The Fierce Founder program is at the Communitech Hub in Kitchener-Waterloo.
The 50,000 square-foot building is an innovation centre that is designed to bring those in the tech world together for the purpose of collaboration and innovation. Many start-up businesses and major companies have come to the area known as the Canadian Silicon Valley in order to help give their vision the extra push it may need to reach the top of their field.
“The Kitchener-Waterloo area is the main place for tech companies to go and talk with each other,” said Leggett. “As competitive as it can be at times, there is also a sense of partnership and wanting to see everyone get better. I will be focusing on business development and how to create a business canvas as our presentation. It’s important to show that we are very organized and have the idea of where to go and how to get there.”
The folks from One More Story Games won’t be going to the Fierce Founder boot camp without some accolades to talk about.
Earlier this month, One More Story Games received top honours for two of its releases, beating out highly recognizable industry leaders Ubisoft and Drinkbox Studios.
Toronto GameDevs handed out Game of the Year Awards and first and second place went to two games that used the One More Story Games StoryStylus engine.
Mandatory Upgrade: X-Marks The Spot is a cyberpunk mystery with Hamilton as the setting created by Chris Tihor.
Second place also went to an OMSG called Hard Vacuum Lullaby which is a space adventure game penned by Sutherland Booth from Barrie.
Toronto GameDevs is a leading gaming site that aims to promote the industry through news on jobs, events and studios while also providing educated reviews.
“We were so proud not only of the two winners who did so awesome, but also happy that we were able to help out with the StoryStylus engine,” said Leggett. “We are so happy to help even just a little in bringing Barrie front and centre in the tech world.”
For more info on what One More Story Games is up to check out its website
