Living Entrepreneurship Blog / Babson Entrepreneurs

Past B.E.T.A. Challenge Finalists: Where Are They Now? (Series: Part III)

Post from SoYoon Jun ’14, founder of How To Marry:

Joey Roth ‘14 used to be terrible at the videogame FIFA. International students at Babson would score on him goal after goal after goal. Which is why creating a strategy guide for the game seemed like a nearly impossible task. However, he knew somebody out there had the strategies he needed to start winning more games than ever before.

The solution was to seek out the best competitive game players and package their tips into a premier strategy guide. This has turned into a company he founded called OrangeOctop.us, a website featuring premier strategy guides that are easy to follow. Currently OrangeOctop.us offers guide for FIFA 14, Titanfall and a handful of other games.

Guides are written by the top ranked players and have been gaining popularity throughout the world. The best-selling guide for OrangeOctop.us is FIFA 14, which sold in 82 countries.

Roth had the idea of building a business that sells premier strategy guides for games  two years ago. With this idea in his head, he started selling FIFA 13 guides, which made revenue of $100,000. Through this experience, he saw a need for premier strategy guides in the game industry and decided to take his idea a step further by entering the B.E.T.A. Challenge. It was in his sophomore year when he saw his friend, Cameron Sheldrake ’12, win the 2012 B.E.T.A. Challenge that he first got motivated to enter the competition. Coincidentally, Roth became the winner of the 2013 B.E.T.A. Challenge which led to many positive changes to his business.

With $20,000 cash, Roth was able to work with “the best.” He hired a web developer and a logo designer to brand his business in a more professional way. He flew the best FIFA player in the world to Babson all the way from the UK and stayed with him for eight days to build the FIFA 14 guide. Roth travelled to meet lots of people, including game experts, around the world. He said he basically “ joined an underground community” to gather insight and knowledge from professional gamers to create legitimate strategy guides. With all these resources he was able to gain from the winning of the B.E.T.A. Challenge, OrangeOctop.us was officially launched and currently has about 100,000 unique visitors per month from all over the world.

Joey Roth '14 after winning the 2013 B.E.T.A. Challenge Undergraduate Track

Joey Roth ’14 after winning the 2013 B.E.T.A. Challenge Undergraduate Track

 

Roth’s advice to this year’s competitors is to have fun. He also advised that if you have a vision that you want to pursue, you should not contain it but to really act on it. Roth is graduating in May but he is excited for the new adventures ahead of him and his business.

Hear from this year’s B.E.T.A. Challenge finalists at the B.E.T.A. Challenge finals on Thursday, April 10 and check back for more posts from our “Past B.E.T.A. Challenge Finalists: Where Are They Now?” series.