Today we’d like to introduce you to Lilian Chen.
Hi Lilian, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Bar None Games (https://barnonegames.com/) was born during the summer of 2020 when my co-founder Spencer Fertig needed to organize a one-year reunion for Harvard Business School that suddenly turned virtual. Spencer figured out a way to turn one of his favorite activities, bar-style trivia, into a virtual version to keep the ninety friends and classmates engaged on Zoom. Everyone on the Zoom had so much fun that they began asking for virtual trivia to be hosted for their companies, and the company organically snowballed from there.
In the fall of 2020, I joined Spencer to build out Bar None Games from a side hustle into a full-fledged company, and we both left our six-figure salary jobs to focus full-time on building Bar None into the go-to-place for people to have fun and connect with their co-workers and friends when they can’t be together in person.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As anyone who’s a start-up founder will tell you, there are always challenges along the way. When you’re a co-founder, when there’s a tough day at work, it’s hard to not let that impact your personal life, and I’ve had to learn to lean on others around me to ask for support. Many people say that founding a company is a lonely journey, and I feel lucky to be on this journey with an amazing co-founder who has made it feel like I’m in this experience together side-by-side with someone else.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Bar None Games is the #1 live-hosted team-building experience for virtual and in-person teams. We provide one-hour-long competitive virtual game show events for private groups that primarily comprise of corporate teams of all types. We have five different types of events that we offer: Trivia, TV Game Show Competition, Mini Games, Bingo, and Interactive Ice Breakers. We’re known in the industry for having the most reliable operations, unique product design that facilitates interaction and collaboration, and amazing hosts who are guaranteed to make players laugh.
What does success mean to you?
As a business owner, I define success as owning a company where people feel excited and happy to come to work. At the end of the day, everything we do is a human business – whether it’s our HQ team members or the amazing hosts who facilitate the events. We focus highly on creating a work culture where team members feel like their opinion matters, feel like they are constantly growing, and feel like they can bring their authentic self to work. There is nothing that makes me happier than when our hosts or employees tell us that this is the best job they’ve ever had.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://barnonegames.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barnonegames/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barnonegames
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/BarNoneGames
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLhxXt8JxPRxqfnxGf0w8Vw
