TekGabber Interviews Tom Thurlow
TekGabber recently had the chance to talk to prolific entrepreneur and creator of the popular dating site Date a Gamer, Tom Thurlow (right).
Tom was kind enough to answer a few questions for TekGabber writer Jake, and revealed a little about his current and future projects, as well as his past successes and how his career started.
Take a look at the interview below:
Jake: Hi Tom, thanks for agreeing to answer our questions. First off, was epi-culture your first foray into entrepreneurship, and if so, did you have any idea that it’d be so successful and help you to get where you are today?
Tom: Hi Jake, no problems at all! Yes, epi-culture was my first venture into business when I was 13. Before I established it, I had sold a few signed children’s books on eBay for a large profit. So this gave me the heads up I needed to tell me I was onto a winner. Within a few months of running my book business I knew I could make a lot of money from it. I quit my paper-round, stopped washing cars and focused all my time onto this business.
I think starting off at such a young age was invaluable to getting me here today. I learnt everything from how the web works, effective marketing, managing money, working with contractors, the list goes on!! Because I’ve been doing this kind of thing for ten years now, that’s ten years of trial and error that any other 22-year old might not have.
J: Did starting your ventures young affect you at all – has making mistakes helped you in any of your current projects, in a positive or negative way?
T: I think making mistakes is inevitable in business. As long as you can take something away from it and learn how to do it better next time, it’s not a bad thing.
I’ve made a lot of money from the internet but I’ve also lost a lot of money. A couple of years ago I was convinced I would make lots of money by setting up my own blog network called ‘OMG’. It was to be a group of tv-related gossip sites. I paid for contractors to design the sites, I paid writers and I paid for marketing. I probably invested about £5-£6k into the sites! I decided to close them down in the end as it required a lot of attention which I couldn’t give at the time as I had to juggle it with the other projects I work on.
From this short experience I learnt a lot about the blogging world and also how I could be much more cost effective. So it’s definitely something I’m looking to re-explore in the near future.
J: Why did you decide to start your Date a Gamer and Shag a Gamer websites? Are you a big gamer yourself?
T: I’m a MASSIVE gamer! I’ve been obsessed with video games since I was 12 years old. I had a morning paper-round and would religiously save my money each week until I could afford the first generation Xbox. After which, I would spend my weekly earnings on new games for it.
Earlier this year, still being a massive geek, but now 22-years old, I realised I should start probably start dating. I loved the idea of finding a partner that was also into computer games so I began to search the web for a dating site for gamers. Once I realised there was nothing to cater for the gaming community, I knew I had to create one.
J: What do you like to play and what future titles are you looking forward to?
T: My favourite games to play at the moment are Skyrim, Modern Warfare 2, Halo Anniversary Edition, Left 4 Dead (the original), Age of Empires 3 and Company of Heroes. Other than Skyrim, most of the games I play are older classics. I know a lot of people can move onto new titles very quickly but I only need a few games in my life to stay happy. I may even dig out Rainbow Six 3 later and see if that will work on my 360.
I’m looking forward to Halo 4 the most which comes out in a couple of months. I’ve been an avid Halo fan since the original.
J: Are you interested in expanding your dating websites roster to include other neglected subcultures; e.g. Date a Dungeons & Dragons Player, Date a LARPer?
Haha! I’m not sure dividing my gamer dating sites up into these subdivisions would be wise! Of course, we probably have many members that enjoy all of the above, but I think seperating them from the main Date a Gamer site might be a risk.
The main purpose of Date a Gamer is to bring all gamers and like-minded people together. So it’s not imperative that gamers who play Call of Duty only meet other gamers who play just this title. I think users will get something out of dating gamers that don’t necessarily share the same taste in games.
Gamers are fun people and share similar values. Overall they are; intelligent, compassionate and funny people. And if on a date with a gamer you get to learn a new game you wouldn’t normally play, surely that’s only a good thing?
J: Definitely. Throughout your career you must have had a great deal of highlights; do you have any particularly amazing memories, or on the opposite end of the spectrum, any lows?
T: I don’t think I’ve had any ‘lows’. I’ve really enjoyed my career so far and had a pretty exciting journey. The nearest to a low would be losing a business reality show I went on when I was 17 called ‘Tycoon’. It was ITV’s version of The Apprentice. I was majorly disappointed to lose but I had a fantastic time and made so many great friends for life. I also learnt what it was like to live on my own, and in London!
Some of my highlights have been the success of my first company (epi-culture), the success of my dating websites (including Date/Shag a Gamer) and the success I’ve had with my tv production company (Teen Star TV). With my production company I’ve been fortunate enough to work with MTV for three years now and I get to meet lots of cool people whilst I’m filming with them.
One of my best memories was when I was asked by Disney World to go on a press trip to Florida to write about their holidays. At the time I was a blogger on Bebo. It’s easily the best holiday I’ve ever had and I plan on going back next year at some point – I miss it that much!
J: Lastly, what projects are you working on currently and do you have any future projects coming up that you’d like to discuss or share with our readers?
T: I have a lot of exciting new developments for my gamer dating sites. I can’t share too much now but I am launching a new dating site for gamers sometime soon.
I’m also exploring the idea of going back into the blogging world. I especially want to create a news site for Gamers. It seems a natural progression for me after the success I’ve seen with Date/Shag a Gamer. I think I’ll play more a backseat role with this site though and leave the editorial up to a team of passionate gamers bloggers who have been doing it for a while!
TekGabber would like to say a big thank you to Tom Thurlow for the interview, and a ‘well done’ for his taste in games!
Head over to his dating sites, Date a Gamer and Shag a Gamer if you’re a geek looking for love (or lust)!
As always, I’m Jake Higginson – you can follow my personal Twitter here.
