Sam is the co-founder of Exekias Games, a board games company making historical games that encourage interest and curiosity in the ancient world. They started the business with course mates, from a university project that inspired their first game, ‘Escape From Pompeii’, which will be launching on Kickstarter in May 2025.
I applied for the first stage of the New Enterprise Competition, Ideation, back in late 2023 on the recommendation of a friend, not really knowing what I was in for. At the time, the idea of ‘Escape From Pompeii’ becoming a real board game that I could share with other people was unlikely, if not impossible. But over the course of the next few months, I was inspired by the confidence and ambition of the speakers and other entrepreneurs to consider it could be a reality.
Attending the weekly enterprise sessions encouraged me to set aside time each week to properly think about what I needed to do if I wanted to get the game out there. At times, it felt incredibly overwhelming as I researched all the legal and financial tasks of manufacturing games and running a business. But, being able to ask questions each week and being in an environment of other entrepreneurs tackling the same struggles motivated me to keep going.
That’s not to say that I never felt unsure about pursuing a board games company again – there have been many moments of doubt and imposter syndrome along the way, but at every stage of the New Enterprise Competition, I was encouraged to tighten and clarify my plan. The more I researched and solidified my business plan and implemented feedback on the game, the more I was able to combat my doubts.
In the first year, we successfully completed Ideation and Development, and got through to the pitches of the Growth stage, but unfortunately, we didn’t secure the funding. In truth, I knew we hadn’t when I walked out of the pitch. There were gaps in my knowledge that became more obvious to me the more I talked and the more questions were asked. When making my business plan and pitch, I had been too afraid to commit to the project and ask for proper quotes from manufacturers, and my financial projections were based on incomplete information.
During the next few weeks, I felt a little hopeless and considered that I wasn’t cut out to run a business. But then, out of a random conversation, came a potential investor. Whilst this didn’t end up going anywhere as it turned out we had slightly different goals, the interest from an outside party and the feeling of real business potential gave us the push we needed to keep going.
I looked back at the feedback we’d had from the pitch, and all the great advice given to us by our incredibly helpful mentors at the Growth stage, and set to work. We incorporated our business, and I started to actually think of myself as a co-founder and director. I found the courage to send out emails saying, ‘I’m making a board game, can you give information on these things’, and people obliged! I got the quotes I needed from manufacturers and artists, and the more information I had, the more confident I felt.
Over the summer, we put the funding from Ideation and Development to good use and booked a table at our first gaming convention. We worked hard preparing prototypes, flyers, decorations, QR codes, a social media feed to send people to, and various convention admin. We had our game in front of people, getting live feedback from strangers, and advice from other exhibitors. The board gaming community has been incredible; not only are board gamers enthusiastic and interested, but other developers have welcomed us into group chats and community hashtags with fervour, giving us invaluable advice.
While we worked on growing our social media presence (@exekiasgamesltd on Instagram) and signing up for bigger conventions in March and May 2025, we turned our sights back to the New Enterprise Competition. Basecamp had been instrumental in getting us going, and so we are back in 2025 to take part in the Development and Growth stages again. We have worked hard to overcome previous mistakes, and are here with more confidence and a lot more questions!
So, while we continue working on ‘Escape From Pompeii’ and hurtle towards our planned crowdfunding campaign in May, I hope that you’ll look out for us in the People’s Choice Award of Growth, and consider asking the questions you want to ask to the people you need to ask them to. If I learned one thing from this whole experience, it’s that people can be pretty great if you reach out to them.