At the beginning of summer, Will Meadows was critiquing the artwork of a board game he was playing with his now-business partner Ryan Pilz.
Pilz asked him if he thought he could do a better job. Meadows, creative director for Bob Jones University’s marketing and communications team, well remembers his reply: “I said, ‘Dude, I know I could do better.’”
Thus began Meadows’ venture to start Tantrum House, a board game company.
Meadows regularly hosts game nights at his home and wants to eventually create and distribute his own board games. But first, he and Pilz decided to build an audience by producing two-minute game reviews.
Many board game reviews can be long and tedious, Meadows said, but he and Pilz follow a specific set of guidelines and try to inject humor. Pilz focuses on the mechanics and playability of the games, while Meadows focuses on design and how enjoyable the game is. Meadows also asked a couple of fellow Bob Jones graduates, Ben Fields and Joel Mangin, to help with videography and marketing.
The duo has already posted several reviews on their website.
The company launched a Kickstarter campaign in November to raise $1,000 to “flesh out our set” of video equipment for the reviews, Meadows said, adding that the value of Kickstarter is more in its search engine optimization (SEO) and building a base rather than raising funds.
“If you want to be successful on Kickstarter, you have to already have a following,” he said.
Meadows asked Chris Rawlings, an accounting teacher at Bob Jones, to help with financial advice and raising capital. “We haven’t really found a business model that follows exactly what we’re doing,” he said. They wanted to tap into Rawlings’ knowledge and experience.
“We needed a money guy,” Meadows said.
Rawlings worked with Meadows on some projects at Bob Jones and thought being part of the company would be “something fun” to do.
“Those guys are pretty serious board-gamers,” he said.
Rawlings tapped his experience as a treasurer and director of corporate accounting for a communications company to help the duo craft a plan for raising capital. He is also currently a managing partner for Spara, a consulting firm.
Rawlings uses the Tantrum House startup as an example in his business classes. He said the real-life model helps students “have something tangible in their minds.” The students get to feel like they are part of the behind-the-scenes process, he said.
Meadows said he is “trying to be realistic” about his expectations for the company. If Tantrum House ends up just being a way to supplement his and the other team members’ incomes, he said he would be happy. But “if we could pay for our kids’ college some day – fantastic.”
The team is already working on a card game Meadows said they feel comfortable will be ready for production soon.
He estimates they will need about $25,000 to produce it.
