At 11 years previous, Mitch Smith was busy making his personal web sites and had even began up his first enterprise.
“The first business I tried to run was sort of like an e-commerce store,” Smith informed 9news.com.au.
“It was going to be selling electronics, and I think the idea would have been something kind of like Amazon, or Kogan.
“So I bought earphones and I used to be promoting them on the web site.”
Although his first business wasn’t a success, Smith – who was this year named in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia list for Consumer Technology – says he learnt a lot from the experience and soon dusted himself off for the next venture.
Having been an avid gamer from a young age, Smith set about combining the hobby with his passion for business.
Smith created a Minecraft server which was able to sell “cosmetics” – such as hats, wings, shields and cloaks – to players of the enormously popular computer game.
“Mainly what I did was create a customized sport mode in Minecraft,” Smith said.
“As a result of it was one thing that nobody had skilled earlier than it turned actually well-liked.”
This was the precursor to Shockbyte, the game server hosting company Smith founded at 15 when he was in Year 9 at high school.
Shockbyte, which will turn 10 in March next year, has gone on to experience a huge amount of success, doubling in size every year.
The company now employs around 80 staff members globally and turns over more than $10 million per year.
To date, more than 35 million people have played computer games – such as Minecraft, Rust and Ark – on Shockbyte servers.
It’s a far cry from when he started the business in his parent’s home, Smith said.
“I by no means imagined it will grow to be so massive,” he said.
“It actually began as a pastime. It was simply what I needed to do, it was enjoyable for me.”
Smith started the business with just his laptop and $20, which he used to register his website domain name and host the website for a month.
“It was fairly low price to get began, however that was all I had. So I simply did what I might, and fortunately, even within the first month it was worthwhile,” Smith said.
Game server hosting companies such as Shockbyte sell subscriptions for gamers to a server platform, which allows them to add their own modifications or “mods” and play custom games with their friends.
Smith said he soon found himself putting a lot of hours into his business as it grew exponentially and began making some serious money.
Maths lessons at school became the time when Smith would record all his transactions and get his taxes in order.
“I feel a few of my academics have been truly a bit aggravated with me as a result of I wasn’t doing my homework and mainly in courses I used to be simply operating my enterprise,” Smith said.
“I type of did not pay an entire lot of consideration at school.”
Smith said his parents also initially struggled to wrap their heads around the idea of his new business.
“My mum was a bit sceptical. She wasn’t actually positive what I used to be doing,” he said.
“It is type of difficult to grasp what the enterprise does. My mum was a bit frightened that I could be doing one thing that wasn’t authorized, particularly taxwise.”
A turning point for Shockbyte came in 2018, when Smith decided to drop out of his computer science degree at university and devote himself full-time to the business.
“I feel that is once I actually realised the potential of Shockbyte and I discovered the place I needed to go along with it,” he said.
“I learnt about paid promoting … I had by no means actually achieved loads of advertising and marketing earlier than then. However, as a result of the enterprise already had clients, with the whole lot I learnt and utilized I might see instant outcomes.”
Another huge shift came with the sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Smith said.
On March 13 – the same day the World Health Organisation announced COVID-19 as a pandemic – Shockbyte’s daily sales increased fivefold.
“Everybody had simply been staying dwelling and had extra time to play video games,” Smith said.
Meanwhile, universities and schools were coming to Shockbyte for help to create their own virtual campuses on Minecraft.
“We had labored with faculties earlier than, however there was by no means a time like that earlier than, the place all these faculties and academics have been in search of new methods to show remotely,” Smith said.
In response, the company started up a free service, called Shockbyte for Education, to give server access to schools and universities.
As the world continues to emerge from the pandemic, Smith said he has big plans for the company’s future.
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While all of Shockbyte’s staff have so far worked remotely, Smith said the company is now looking to open physical offices, most likely starting in Melbourne.
The company is also on track to achieve its goal of becoming the largest game server host in the world “very quickly”, Smith said.
As for what advice Smith would give to young people looking to start up their own business, his message is simple – just go for it.
“I feel lots of people are hesitant to get began with issues they usually’re possibly unsure if it’s going to achieve success or not,” he said.
“What I might say is simply begin doing issues and attempt to determine it out as you go – you do not have to be an skilled in something.
“I knew absolutely nothing when I started my business. It was my first job, I’d never been employed, so I didn’t even understand how to employ people and things like that.
“You probably have an issue, you’ll be able to simply Google it and you will sometimes discover a resolution.”
Contact reporter Emily McPherson at [email protected].
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