KOCHI: Hard-core love for sports was the binding force between Vishnu Radhakrishnan and Ajay Joseph, collegemates at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, Kottayam. It is not a surprise that when they started a company, they selected sports as their area of expertise. The ongoing Cricket World Cup paved the way for the startup venture, GamesFame.com On the platform, people can predict the winner, margin and man of the match for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 games and can win prizes.
Basically, the website hosts sports prediction contests for various sporting events. It was launched with the Cricket World Cup, and will be hosting more contests for Formula One, IPL, ISL, EPL and Champions League shortly. The company has also plans to introduce iOS and Android Apps soon.
“While doing MBA in the UK, I was involved with England and Wales Cricket Board during ICC T-20 World Cup in 2009. But the dream of starting a new company began with FIFA World Cup when I experimented a similar prediction contest on Twitter among a group of Football enthusiasts. The contest with #FIFAPredictor was conducted among a group of friends. The result was overwhelming and hence decided to launch an exclusive website for the sports score prediction for Cricket World Cup for the general public,” Vishnu explains starting of the company.
From their college days onwards, Vishnu and Ajay were nurturing dreams of starting their own company.
“But after studies, we started working in different companies in India, the UK and Singapore. The discussions to start a company was still going on. It had reached at its zenith, when they were together in Singapore during the FIFA World Cup. We had several startup plans, but none of them gained momentum as expected. Finally, we began to chase our dreams by starting something meant for sports, which was our original passion,” says Ajay.
The team had shared the information about their venture with Shashi Tharoor MP, who is also a cricket enthusiast, and he was very helpful, Vishnu narrates the journey.
“GamesFame provides an opportunity for a sports lover to cheer for a team like Afghanistan or Pakistan since their victory could earn a medal to him/her. We are chasing our dream to contribute something for sports lovers in the country by engaging them together on a single platform,” he says.
Identify a problem that you can solve and follow it with your passion, is the advice of GamesFame to entrepreneurs who are starting new innings.