Today we’d like to introduce you to Jared Hoffa.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jared. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
This story starts pre-“Gangnam Style”. Weird way to date something, but it makes sense. Trust me.
In March of 2012, I decided to fly to Seoul, South Korea by myself for a little vacation. I was working as a producer at ABC7 at the time and had the money and the time to do so. And so…I did.
I hate what the term “gamer” has become…but for lack of a better word, I’m an avid gamer, so I made sure to attend one of their Esports events. I spent the rest of the time at crazy nightclubs, TV stations, BBQ joints, Gangnam District and pretty much anywhere my impulse took me.
Even though I worked in TV, I’ve always loved computer programming and had a vested interest in livestreaming. Two years before I went to South Korea, I launched the concept of a 24/7 livestreaming gaming channel called VGTV on a little know site called Justin.tv. That site would very soon explode into what gamers now know as twitch.tv.
Soon as I came back, I rallied the few people helping me with VGTV to meet with me on a new idea. My pitch then (and now) was simple.
#1) Esports is going to explode in the US.
#2) It’s not going to the way it did in South Korea.
I felt that livestreaming Esports was slow, hard to understand, and just wasn’t sexy. I knew the mainstream audience played games, but I knew they didn’t play those games or even understand how to watch them. Unlike South Korea, who had 20 years of video games as a cultural past time, the US did not. It was (and still is) often a stigma.
My idea seemed simple enough. I said, “We’re going to create a show called Gaming Under the Influence”. I wanted a game show with TV production quality that streamed online and had one thing no one was doing at the time…audience interaction in real time.
We didn’t have money to build a studio, so I had an idea: let’s just do this livestreaming game show in bars! Yeah, let’s just move an entire TV studio worth of equipment to a bar every week. Seemed logical.
So from 2012 to 2014 we went from bar to bar, trying to convince owners to let us setup this pop-up gameshow inside their bars. It had to look so ridiculous. Here we are in a bar in Wrigleyville, setting up computers and cables and cameras and video games. I felt like the AV club setting up a TV inside the football team’s locker room. Each time we were laughed off, eventually pushed out of the bar and blamed for anything that went wrong. In the process I burned through thousands of dollars trying to prove this was the future. Everything broke all the time. My laptop literally burned up and died.
Then it changed.
By 2015, we started getting a name for ourselves. We raised money and built a studio. We started flying in Twitch streamers. We enhanced our show content. And now, 6 years later, we’ve built a permanent spot inside Replay Lincoln Park, and streaming not only across twitch, but our own custom barcade network across the country. We’ve been in negotiations with Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, and Amazon and pushed the show to new heights.
People aren’t laughing anymore.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Let me put this simply. Absolutely F*cking not.
This has been the single hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Anything that could go wrong, DID go wrong. When you push for change, change pushes back. It was grueling to try to prove that you could create this gameshow experience without a TV budget. It was hard to get people to believe in it, to watch it, to be a part of it. The tech failed all the time. And with each failure, I got smarter, tougher, and more determined to prove it would work.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Gaming Under the Influence story. Tell us more about the business.
“Gaming Under the Influence” is a weekly, livestreaming game show that throws gamers into a cage-match battle to duke it out over video games as the audience influences their fate.
I’m proud of my team and what we’ve accomplished. We didn’t take the easy road or settle to just livestream at our apartment or do game reviews. I mean, we built a f*cking interactive studio! Twice! We continue to push for the next phase in gaming and streaming. And above all, we want people to have fun watching, interacting, and competing.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I read a lot, especially about the history of technology and how innovations from the transistor to the iPhone enter our lives. Each book I’ve read on the subject never mentions luck, but they all mention timing. The same is true for me. I struggled more than I needed to because my timing to start “Gaming Under the Influence” was too early. Had I started in 2014, the road may have been easier. But the fact I knew timing was important is why I pushed on and how I got here today.
I honestly think luck is just your will to try something and the right timing in doing so.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.guishow.tv
- Email: jared.hoffa@guishow.tv
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gamingundertheinfluence/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theguishow/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/theguishow
Image Credit:
Frank Lieu
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