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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 17 M A R C H 4 , 2 0 2 4 F O C U S I N N OVAT I O N build the company GoodGames. He decided to go with the name Good- Games because it is similar to his other brand GoodFocus; he hired a few soft- ware developers and an organizational psychologist and worked with a game designer named Pablo Suarez. GoodGames now rents games to NASA, LinkedIn and others. "We now offer 11 different games," says Stephens. "ey all do different things. ey can be stacked like Legos, meaning one game experience can lead into another game experience to draw you and your team deeper into understanding a problem you are trying to solve or if they are trying to come up with new ideas." "What might normally take you an hour and a half in a conference room with a bunch of sticky notes and a whiteboard will take you 90 minutes to get to where we get to in 15 minutes," he says. "But the quality of the ideas generated with the white- board method, at least in our stud- ies, suggests that they aren't as high as the methodology we use." Funding GoodGames received around $230,000 in grants and loans from the Maine Technology Institute. MTI also helped the company secure another grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for $100,000. "We've used [the MTI] Maine Entrepreneurial Resource Corps pro- gram, where they pay a portion of a con- sultant's fee," says Stephens. "We brought on a financial consultant and the pro- gram paid for half of their fee. We are working with a marketing consultant now, and they are paying half of the fee." Tom Kittredge, senior investment officer at MTI, said he and his col- leagues put the games through trials. "I'm impressed at how Good- Games' use of gamification profoundly changes the 'meeting experience' and increases communication, inspires brainstorming and builds camarade- rie among team members," he says. What's in the works Stephens said that the company has brought on a fractional CFO and someone to help him and mentor him as a CEO. Stephens did not want to go into the specifics of what he'll work on with the executive coach. In general, an executive coach or mentor shows the CEO how to make better decisions, look at finan- cial information and work with cli- ents, among other things. " No t wo CEO coac hes are the same; thus, we have different approaches, methods, and tools," says consultant Doug Packard, who is not involved with GoodGames. "In gen- eral, I think we are all attempting to help CEOs increase their probabil- ity of success." In 2024, GoodGames is trying to grow its client base among companies with 50 to 250 employees. It also plans to add employees. "Our ability to bring on more new employees is based on us getting the grants or based on us having sufficient sales," says Stephens. "Right now, we can support the size of our company. But we need to add revenue or grants to increase our headcount." Alexis Wells, Mainebiz staff writer, can be reached at awells @ mainebiz.biz 1 COLLEGE CIRCLE | BANGOR, MAINE | 207.941.7641 | husson.edu HOW CAN WE CULTIVATE LEADERS AT EVERY LEVEL? Our Institute for Strategic Leadership and Workforce Development is designed to assist with: HUSSON IS HOW. ■ Leadership training for high potential and current leaders ■ Providing valuable upskilling for employees ■ Access to quality interns ■ Strategic and workforce development goals 125 Y E A R S 1898 – 2023 Our ability to bring on more new employees is based on us getting the grants or based on us having sufficient sales. Right now, we can support the size of our company. But we need to add revenue or grants to increase our headcount. — Daniel Stephens GoodGames

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