Christian Facey (#008)
Trial and error is important. Action is key.
Company: AudioMob
Headcount: 8
Stage: Seed
Tell us your story
A short summary of my story: when I was 17, I pretty much failed all of my A Levels. It put the fear of god in me and I decided to get my priorities straight. My core objective was to figure out how my mind works and to become smarter. I retook all my A Levels when I was 17 (I didn’t want to repeat a year) and experimented with the trial and error approach to learning. I started with active learning, using something physical to reinforce what I was learning. At the same time, I also started an events business, as loads of students were complaining at the time about the quality of the under 18 parties that were being hosted. I then used the profits of the events business to trade FX which I thought would help me with my economics classes.
The method somewhat helped and I barely got into university via clearing. I used the next 4 years to aggressively figure out how my mind works through trial and error. I tested things like leaving posters of maths equations on my wall as I went to sleep, audio dictation of text books as I drifted off, study groups, mentors, setting myself homework when I didn’t have any. I was pretty much getting straight As by the end of my first year at university. For the remaining 3 years, I applied this new found way of learning to EVERYTHING. Hustling to figure out how to start a business, getting internships, you name it.
I got a job offer from Google before I graduated and rejected it to go into a start-up. I saw first hand how a start-up can be driven into the ground and within 9 months. I then went back to Google, who very nicely fast-tracked me through the interview process and gave me my old job offer! At this point, I was working for arguably one of the best companies in the world. I was armed with an aptitude for learning anything I put my mind to, and a determination to start my own company in a couple of years. I started getting back on the learning cycle again: it was great! I wanted to learn how to come up with a start-up idea, pitch investors, build a team, a board of advisors and cold pitch clients with new concepts. By the time I finished my role at Facebook (I switched companies after around 3 years at Google), I knew what I wanted to do, and that was to start AudioMob.
Tell us a story that has really resonated with you
This is my go to video when someone asks for something I've seen that resonates with me. Warning: it's Gary Vaynerchuk and there is bad language. I saw this video shortly before deciding I was going to do everything in my power to learn how to develop mobile games. When I learnt to develop games, it led me to creating AudioMob.
Most people don’t achieve their dreams because they don’t do what is necessary. There is an unavoidable amount of sacrifice that needs to be made and a level of adversity that one must go through.
What can't you stop thinking about?
AudioMob is in one of the hottest sectors right now. Gaming and Audio Adtech. Both multi-billion dollar industries growing in the double digits. I can’t stop thinking about hitting our next MRR target so we can raise an amazing Series A!
If I could tell you just one thing...
If you don’t know what you truly want to do (I didn’t know until I was around 25), then you can do 2 things.
Thing #1: Work your ass off, and you’ll end up in a good place anyway. This is kind of how I ended up at Google. I actually wanted to go to J.P Morgan or Goldman Sachs Sales and sit on the trading floor.
Thing #2: Use trial and error to figure out what you want to do. I used to daydream / have thinking sessions about what I might want to do. Instead of doing that, just pick something and try and do it. Even if you’re not 100% sure that you’ll love it. I went through a number of ideas, from setting up affiliate gambling sites, online e-commerce stores , a chatbot start-up etc. When you find the thing you really want to do, you’ll get up at 4am because you want to do it. I simply decided to figure out how to combine my hobbies of gaming and music production. I’ll make mobile games, and stream the music I make / like into the game. I didn’t realise until a couple of years later, but this was the key thing I did which influenced the creation of AudioMob. Trial and error is important. Action is key.
If you could get a warm intro to anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
Joe Biden! I really can’t reveal too much about who we’re speaking to. But to give you a hint, there are 2.7BN gamers globally and we can send audio messages to at least 1BN of them outside of China. We have one of the most sophisticated audio targeting mechanisms in the world and we’re getting substantial interest from governments. We know we could add a lot of value to the US government.