Life after graduation: building my own business

BSc Management alumnus and member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 2023, Nathan Moore, explores how his undergraduate degree built a strong foundation for him to build his own business.

Tell us about yourself

My name is Nathan Moore and I am Co-Founder of Live Tech Games. I was born in the Midlands and came to study at Warwick Business School (WBS) in 2015. I studied Management but later added the placement year, which I spent at Microsoft, in the UK headquarters in Reading. I returned to Warwick for my final year and immediately started working on my business Live Tech Games, having rejected the offer to return to Microsoft as a graduate. 

I now run a company called Live Tech Games, where we are leading the way with technology to enable a whole new genre of mobile gaming. We have built the business to 24 employees operating in our London HQ, and our products are available across 2 continents. We have raised over $5m USD in venture funding and have won a variety of accolades including Forbes 30 under 30, Start-Up of the Year 2022 and 2023, and Young Entrepreneurs of the Year 2022 and 2023.

Why did you decide to study at WBS?

I originally applied to study Computer Science, as I have always had an interest in technology, however, as I got towards University age, I realised my real passion was building brands and businesses, and therefore aimed towards running a business in the technology space. This is when I switched my application to Management and upon meeting the acceptance criteria, I started at WBS on the Management course.

As my ambition was to run my own company, the breadth of the management course syllabus was most appealing to me. With a variety of modules covering a broad range of business topics, I knew it would be a good foundation for my future. The increased flexibility to add specialisms in later years was a valuable addition, being able to add my placement year at Microsoft was a huge benefit, even though I didn’t know that before I applied.

Tell us about your start-up 

Live Tech Games is a mobile game studio that builds ‘live’ tournament games, which means they are only playable at set times (e.g. instead of being available to play 24/7, our games are only available at 7 pm for example). A push notification tells users to join the games, and then hundreds of thousands of players join in the same game together, to compete against one another for the chance to win a prize. Games take a maximum of 10 minutes, making them a short burst of entertainment that anyone can squeeze into their busy schedule.

We make this exciting style of games under our direct-to-consumer brand, but we also produce our games for other media companies, from TV broadcasters to famous influencers. The technology required to run our games is extremely complex (as everyone logs in all at once and plays live in the same game), so we are using our technology platform for our games, as well as licencing the technology for other media businesses to use too.

What does your role in the company involve?

Day-to-day, I spend time with my senior management team ensuring that we are working on the correct strategy and that we are tracking appropriately against that plan. I work closely with my teams and employees to ensure they do not have any blockers so that they can do their best work every day and often handle escalations that have made their way up through our department heads. My whole day is focused on ensuring the team can deliver on their work, and then when they log off and go home, that’s when my day starts. I will spend a lot of time evaluating the details of the business, from marketing efficacy to our financial runway, and changing our strategy and approach based on what the data tells us.

My favourite part of my role is the variety. One meeting will be regarding legal compliance, and the next will be negotiating a deal with an influencer, then a performance review of an employee, and then back to a creative strategy meeting for a product launch. I love bouncing between the departments and the diverse requirements of each team.

How did the BSc Management course help you when creating your start-up?

Having a fundamental understanding of a variety of topics was a great foundation for building my start-up, as for the first 17 months we had no staff and my co-founder and I were responsible for everything. Whether it be completing our accounts, or being able to write basic legally binding agreements, my experience at Microsoft, combined with the broad knowledge base gained during my time at WBS, was crucial for me to be able to navigate the first year or so of building a company.

What were the key things you took away from your course?

Some of my biggest takeaways from my course were filling gaps in my knowledge that I didn’t know existed, and turning them into strengths. Before WBS, I had a good understanding of marketing through previous roles, as well as other high-level themes, however, I had no idea of accounting or financial management. Because these were my weaker areas at WBS, I studied hard to be able to complete assignments, and these areas are now the core strengths that I bring to my company. People that work with me now would be shocked to find out I had very little grasp on financial management only a few years ago, but the WBS syllabus meant that I had to study and have now turned these gaps into my most utilised skills in business.

How did things change for you once you completed your course at WBS?

Things changed drastically for me as I moved home with my parents and with no salary to start the company. Whilst my peers from my course mostly went on to start their careers in graduate positions. At the time, it was difficult to take what felt like a step back, but I always wanted to start a company. I knew that my core focus was to try to learn skills and experiences at a pace that was twice as fast as I would have learnt if I had stayed at Microsoft. There is no doubt I have achieved my goal and have accelerated my learning to a pace that I hadn’t imagined would be possible, and am glad to be able to pay myself properly now too!

Tell us about being part of the Forbes 30 Under 30 2023.

The Forbes 30 Under 30 is an incredibly well-renowned list of young entrepreneurs, and I am delighted to have joined their 2023 cohort. There are a panel of judges that make the decisions, but most people are recommended for the award by previous winners. The award is a personal achievement but also reflects the dedication and support of my co-founder, team, colleagues, investors, and mentors who have contributed to where we have built the business today.

What would you say to someone thinking of applying to WBS?

What are you waiting for?