6 min read
Shaun Rutland, co-founder and CEO of Hutch, launched the mobile racing games company in 2011 with the goal of making games differently — and by different, he meant fast. With his four partners, he inspired his team to push out games (perfect or not) in 8 months or less. This momentum led to 10 years of success, culminating in an exit to Modern Times Group for $375 million.
Register for Shaun Rutland’s global keynote at Founders Network and learn all about:
- Putting your spin on your niche: Approaching a crowded market with your unique point of view
- Going to market quickly and learning from your audience: See the importance of getting your product out for review ASAP and iterating based on user feedback
- Maintaining momentum when the world stopped: Hear how Shaun and team didn’t let the global pandemic slow down their search for a buyer
- Finding the right buyer: What factors Rutland considered when he sought a new home for Hutch
- Maintaining independence post-sale: How the Hutch team has been able to retain their culture and operations
Sign up to join us in this FREE event and find out if you qualify for full membership.
Shaun Rutland met his four co-founders when they all worked at PlayStation more than 10 years ago. He loved games, but struggled to find launch success at the company. Throughout his tenure at PlayStation, he did learn valuable lessons: that time to market is more important than creating the perfect product, and that you should let your customers lead the way when making improvements.
Hutch Games was born in 2011, when mobile games were just becoming commonplace (thanks to the introduction of Apple’s iPhone 4). From the start, speed to market was a central concept.
“There's a small team at MTG who bought us for being us, they want us to run our business, and that's a big win-win for us.” - @HutchGames Share on X“We founded the business with no money and had an absolute mission to finish a game in seven or eight months,” Rutland said in an interview with the mobile gaming website Pocket Gamer. “But we did that, and that first game went pretty good, and we expanded the business from there.”
The idea is to find out as quickly as possible if the game works: test, learn, improve, and repeat. “Players will play a non-good looking game, but it needs to have solid mechanics,” Rutland told EliteGameDevelopers.com.
To keep banking on this success, Rutland and his team decided to look for a buyer who could help them take on more ambitious projects — including reaching the top of the mobile racing market. They needed to find a home that would embrace their nimbleness and growth mindset, and allow them the autonomy to let customer feedback lead the development process.
“The consumer greenlights our products. We test our games really early, players tell us whether they like them or not, and we keep building out from there.” - @HutchGames Share on X“Hutch wouldn’t fit into a portfolio business where it has greenlight and approval processes — we don’t even have greenlight meetings ourselves,” Rutland told GamesIndustry.biz. “The consumer greenlights our products. We test our games really early, players tell us whether they like them or not, and we keep building out from there.”
“There’s a small team at MTG who bought us for being us, they want us to run our business, and that’s a big win-win for us,” he said.
Hutch is now experiencing the best of both worlds: funding to race to market as they see fit, while sticking to their core mission. To hear more, register for his global keynote on October 20, 2021.
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