How Having Women Founders Benefit Start-ups
We are Mini Mammoth Games, an 8 piece indie game studio based in Adelaide. We develop a wide range of hyper casual games for both the Android and iOS mobile platforms.
When creating a startup, the identity of those who are a part of the team might not seem to really matter, however today Anja and myself (Tamara) are going to explain exactly why having women and other minorities actually benefits and expands the opportunities your business encounters as it grows.
To start off with; we have given Mini Mammoth Games access to a far larger audience as well as being able to interact with other female gamers in safe and inclusive environments. These include female only discord servers and other forums, enabling us to reach and get feedback directly from an often overlooked part of the community. Discord servers such as Honey Hive have provided a safe and inclusive environment for female and gender non conforming gamers, allowing them to play with an accepting community in multiplayer games without having to worry about how they are treated. Having access to this group and having understood the need for such groups, we can make sure that any games we make will have the best chance of allowing this community to play as safely as possible.
Furthermore, having a more diverse group of founders also extends Mini Mammoths access to grants, mentors and monetary support that is available for female led/founded companies and projects. Groups such as Chooks SA, encourage and help female entrepreneurs with getting investment. The group allows women to become more confident with pitching for investors, but also how to get investment as a female led business. Grants such as Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship and Wingsfund provide much needed support for female led businesses and projects. These encourage more women to take their career in often male dominated industries, but not necessarily male dominated companies.
Having a more diverse group of founders ensures that the culture of Mini Mammoth is welcoming and safe from the beginning. Allowing open discussion about how women have been and are currently treated in the industry at the start of a business allows the safety of all employees to be ensured from the moment they join, not put into practice afterwards. This encourages people of diverse communities to join Mini Mammoth as they know that we have ensured their well-being from the very start.
Mini Mammoth Games was created to give more opportunities for new individuals and groups in the growing Australian video game industry. Having a more diverse founding group allows us to connect directly with a wider audience, encouraging and showing that anyone can make games. We also ensure that every gamer is heard, especially as women are a significant portion of the hyper casual and mobile market audience.