Let's start a casino...

noreply@blogger.com (The Visionary) — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 23:35:00 +0000

Dear Reader,

I want to start off this entry as a fresh start to this blog. I am sorry to have neglected you but this weekend we turned a corner, collecting in over £2.5K in sales on suits and completing what is probably the world's greatest tailor portal. Big suits, tall suits, suits with extra trousers and suits with crazy linings. Word is getting around and London is getting hot for what we are producing.

one styling issue: I'd like your opinion on this photo, I reckon it is a perfect lifestyle photo for our suits...ruffled hair and a piercing stare.

The casino is coming together, not in the way we originally thought, and you probably all knew we were a little naive to think that we would be getting a world beating casino up and live within 6 months. Not an afterthought, but it all ties into the suits. All will be revealed.

As a taste of things to come next week, after talking to our marketing gurus, we are planning a suit walk around London. Not an ordinary walk of course, apparently only nudity and celebrity turns heads these days. We can certainly do one of these, and you heard it here first.

noreply@blogger.com (The Innovator) — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 13:31:00 +0000

Hmm... The Innovator hasn't written a blog in a while ay? WRONG. The last blog i wrote was taken off by Viz as it wasn't formal enough, and didn't show us in the right light. I hope you know that however laid back my blogs are, the whole thing is serious.

Let me make one thing clear. There are 2 reasons why i am doing what i am doing.

1. To make a profitable business empire.
2. To have fun doing it. Eventually i want to pluck lots of clever people from their jobs, let them innovate, make money and have fun... we only live once.

I am hoping that Viz can provide the serious business-like blogs. Personally, i like to look back at my own blogs and smile.

So in the spirit of that... Check this out. This is a picture of our first delivered suit. The good news is, it was delivered early, the other good news is that he got good value. £110 a suit... blimey:

I am just hoping that we didn't mistake his centimetre measurements for inches..

noreply@blogger.com (The Visionary) — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 19:06:00 +0000

"When opportunity knocks, the entrepreneur is always at home"

-MAW, July 2006

It is quite a rare thing to come up with one world beating idea (at least in our heads anyway!), but to have the luxury of having to choose between two is quite another. The problem that we have at the moment is that asuitthatfits.com is proving to be quite a good idea, and as such is taking up rather a lot of time. With the help of two of our most dedicated members of staff and on the recommendation of our most regular visitors to the site (thanks mum!), we have changed it quite a bit.

Unfortunately we still can't afford to hire real models so we had to go for a budget version, but we aim to inject some variety by putting more of our staff up onto the site in their made-to-measure hand-tailored super stylish suits for £110 as they get haircuts and become more respectable...one of the few drawbacks to having a sales force composed entirely of students is the surfer-dude style wafros prevalent in the 80's.

The casino is continually moving towards going live, the only problem is that the our project manager has become addicted to the first game...how can I stop him when he says he is beta-testing?

I also promise to keep this blog up-to-date, The innovator needs to do a bit of work I think!

noreply@blogger.com (The Innovator) — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 09:38:00 +0000

We haven't quite covered everything that happened in the past..... but with everything that is going on we have decided to concentrate on the here and now.

Missing out:

• Office taking shape - Summary: Amazing coffee machine, but time has told us that donated computers are sometimes not all good...!

• Staff - Summary: Quite a few staff now, both full and part time...they even know the idea! All work hard, look at the football pages and read the blog. We realise how lucky we are to have so many people backing our ideas and willing to get involved. As with most companies, we have a room full of bunk beds for our unpaid employees to sleep on. Vis will elaborate on this next time.

Latest news: in order to get these poor people paid, we have started a Suiting website.

We offer only the finest quality cashmere wool suits at £110. Those of you who know how much of a connoisseurthe Visionary is will know that the suits have to be good.

Click on the bespoke suit link on the right to "donate" to our cause.... oh and you'll get a fantastic, made-to-measure suit!

The casino is taking shape too. We had our first glimpse at something functional this morning, and you guys are going to love it...

noreply@blogger.com (The Visionary) — Thu, 25 May 2006 16:08:00 +0000

"The heights of great men were not attained in sudden flight, But while others slept, they toiled upwards through the night."

- Mavy, 25th May 2006

In the spirit of going into businesses that we know very little about, last night we finished the new suiting website. £90 hand-tailored suits for everyone! The quote above was inspired by the dark windows of a dormant UBS opposite as Mavy searched for quotes that he could string together as his own.

The Innovator and I told the permanent members of staff the idea this week, they are still working for free. Enough said I think.

Back to pick up the story where we left off: a trip to Malta to meet the gambling regulators.

********************

Out of the airport and into the oldest taxi we could find. Even had a wooden steering wheel.

Lino was the taxi driver's name, and with a tipex'd business card to match the car, he instantly became our friend. Always there when we wanted to leave, and also when we didn't. We like to imagine that it was because he was just so captivated by our stories of taking over the gambling world, but he probably just wanted to practice his English...anyway, you have his number now, it'll save you a queue at the airport.

Lino became our guide to this idilic island, ferrying us from the boardroom of our friendly accountants...

...to the Lotteries and Gaming Authority. It was here that we faced our toughest challenge so far in terms of convincing anyone. Extremely nervous and voices quavering like little girls in front on Take That we presented our idea to the head of the Maltese Gaming Commission. After initially saying that it was impossible, Mario eventually conceeded that it was a pretty good idea, and he has seen everything. He finally encouraged us to continue in our quest to mount what we hope will become the biggest gaming phenomenon since hopscotch.

*********************

Lino also took us to the old town to relax over the weekend, unfortunately, the innovator got stuck whilst playing around with some of the playground equipment. I may have parachuted our office keys into danger, but at least the engineering degree came in handy in removing the Innovator from this mess.

noreply@blogger.com (The Visionary) — Wed, 10 May 2006 10:27:00 +0000

Great to hear so many of you asking when we are going live. There was a slight hold up in the official procedures. Apparently our business plan impressed the Maltese licensing official reading it so much that he had a heart-attack! Luckily, he's out of hospital now and has given us the green light to continue to phase two. So, no definite launch date yet, but we are planning to go live in late June. We'll let you know the official date here first, so watch this space.

Check out the new column on the right from the King of Chat. It is his blog all about 'selling an unknown product', and his own unique backstage account of our activities here at one sun street.

Another new full time staff member … I understand him about as well as the old guy in the armchair on the fast show…so we’ll call him Taz. Looks like we'll be running at capacity in the barrack hotel over the summer.

*********
As the Innovator mentioned, we had a conference

No ordinary conference, but a chance for Stelios, the owner of Easyjet, to meet us. I also took the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his orange boiler-suited troops and the way they captured the hearts and wallets of a nation.

Look out for us and the barrack boys in our boiler suits on Trafalgar square this summer, around August I reckon. The colour? Pink, of course!

noreply@blogger.com (The Innovator) — Sat, 06 May 2006 21:12:00 +0000

Hello everybody.... Long time no speak (sorry about that). The truth is that we have all been busy trying to sell stuff while waiting for the software company to do their business. Markets every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We'll cut you a good bargain if you mention the blog.

Still on the catch up..

We needed to visit Malta to convince our accountant and regulator that our new type of casino was viable. But first, we had to convince them that we were viable. First problem - Its 5.30pm , we have a flight the next day, a conference in the evening and nothing to show that there is any sort of credibility behind our company - apart from a company number.

Hmmm... Thank heavens for PC World, which sells photo printers and Business card paper.

We now had the peace of mind to go to our conference, have a few glasses of wine and come back to design and print them.

--
Conference (The Visionary will talk about)
--

It didn't take us long to settle on a question mark for the logo, and a nice red colour background like the one above. Professional looking business cards. 1am finish, 6am taxi to the airport... lovely.

noreply@blogger.com (The Visionary) — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 13:52:00 +0000

THIS, is what start-ups are all about: hardship, community spirit, trips to IKEA and doing whatever we can to get hold of some cash to pay the faithful. All ideas please come forward, we will do anything and everything, before our casino opens, to feed our recruits. Last night mutts innovated chilli soup surprise (hot water and tabasco sauce and bread). Necessity is the mother of invention. Watch this space.

Our newest full-time recruit, the Wit, wasn't so happy with the last entry and wanted to add a few words to the blog. Since it was so fresh and comical, I thought why not?

'My name's Mavy, a knight-errant who has dabbled in many trades; tourism, fashion and pharmaceuticals to name a few. I've picked up knowledge along the way that will bring an added dimension to the Casino Boys venture. It's refreshing to join a group of people who are not going down the main stream...better to branch off and take some risks. In the meantime book me in for a lower bunk at the barrack hotel.'

I'd also like to welcome 3 new part-timers to the scene:

a Northern advertising wizard who refuses to bow to the trend of wearing normal clothes in order to make the continuous transition from bed to work to pub to bed that much smoother
a graphic designer with a penchant for dressing up as puss-in-boots and a flair for events management
a lawyer intent on helping us to stop infringing the law and side-stepping it instead.

Our burgeoning office in One Sun Street has been steadily kitted out. The phones have now arrived (yes, we are a real office, call us on 0207 330 1160 if you want), as well as several Skype lines (the cutting edge of the digital age, just don't ask us to fix your toaster...), and a clutch of hand-me-down PCs from all over london. We also managed to pick up some screens for the new computers from the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for the Blind which were apparently surplus to their requirements (thanks to all those who helped us on this!). To sum it up, we now have 8 screens, 5 1/2-functionning workstations, 3 of them already fully-filled. So when you arrive, please bring a laptop.

Lounging on our sleek scandinavian furniture, enjoying our freshly-brewed coffees from our very own espresso machine, catered for by Messrs. Marks and Spencer's round the corner, who wouldn't want to join the "Casino Boys at the Barrack Hotel"?

noreply@blogger.com (The Innovator) — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 11:34:00 +0000

First of all i want to introduce a couple of new recruits. The first is a bloke who has introduced some well needed wit into the office. We have nicknamed him "The Wit". The second has added some well needed diversity to our organisation. We've got Indian, English, Polish and now Japanese.... now all we need are a few females! Our new Oriental recruit is "Hiro". Wit = Head of Trademarks, Admin etc. Hiro = Head of Internet Vending & other cash streams. Welcome Wit and Hiro....

Carrying on...

Viz seems to get wind of lots of stuff... The next was an evening where Richard Segal (At the time, the head of Partygaming - the biggest online Gambling site world wide).

Well, me and Viz, being shy as we are managed to ask the most questions in the whole group. Then at the end personally met Richard, got a photo and asked him:

Innovator: Is it possible that a new entrant could come onto the market and steal a big chunk of your market?
Richard Segal: No......Blah blah blah...
Visionary: Who is your biggest threat?
Richard Segal: No-one...blah blah blah.

Anyway, after bigging myself up to Viz about being good at poker, i came 3rd in the hundred+ entry poker tournement, while getting tipsy.... and won my next day's clothes.

noreply@blogger.com (The Visionary) — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 16:46:00 +0000

After an exhausting night, the bunks are now up in Liverpool Street. One of the best Saturday nights ever! And those extra berths are rapidly filling up with new recruits.

We've already had one new arrival this week in the form of the King of Chat to add some gift of the gab to our sales team, our software team is now in place and it's full speed ahead! It's a man's life in One Sun Street.

It wasn't always so easy though. The interviews for the team were gruelling. Our first potential candidates were two Liverpool wide-boys replete with gold lame shellsuits, five o'clock shadow and the sleep still in their eyes. NEXT!

...were a firm of Manchester City Slickers, elegantly dressed this time (proving that you don't HAVE to be badly dressed if you're northern), who were smooth, capable, on top of their game, and wanted £300,000...so they were out, too. On the other extreme were the Indian firms who promised to deliver for under a thousand pounds.

In the end, we did really well by hiring a freelancer who proved he was willing to go the extra mile by dressing up as a pizza boy to get the Innovator's attention (we're into our role-playing here...). Look out for the fruits of the relationship in June...

Visionary out.

noreply@blogger.com (The Innovator) — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 20:28:00 +0000

OK everyone….

Am a little bit disappointed that some people are doubting that the blokes in the photo are actually us. Let me just tell you that if you are doubting those photo’s, then there are a couple more with far more influential people in them that we are going to disguise our faces on soon….

Let’s get back to telling you the story:

After convincing the family, finding Malta and meeting playmates we had to get the ball rolling on the software.

Options: Do it ourselves, use established piece of software and become an “affiliate" or get small Software Company to do it.

1. Do it ourselves: I’m pretty good at computers, but don’t trust myself to do something secure or totally reliable. The Visionary has assured me that he is good at many things. Software isn’t one of them. Not an option.
2. Use established piece of software – Our idea is so innovative that another piece of software just wouldn’t be able to cater for it. Also who wants to do all this work - only to give away any cash to big, rich software companies?
3. Get small software company to do it: Keep the rights to the software, start up our own affiliate schemes and give any “software money” to a small company that we get on with.

Funnily enough, we chose option 3.

The Visionary will probably explain how we came to the decision over the software company, and also why he didn't help me collect the bunk beds for the dorm... (ok he did help put them up.)

Viz?

noreply@blogger.com (The Visionary) — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 17:14:00 +0000

We have a new starter today, the 'mini-innovator'... he has started some other lines of business to bring in some much needed extra cash to pay for the rest of you when you join us!

**********************************
Two weeks after we start, one of the two biggest gambling conventions of the year is being held in…London! Was this a good omen or what?

Of course, being a gambling exhibition, it wasn’t quite what we expected...Mutts was pretty shocked when these two Hungarian playmates asked to have their picture taken with us.

(While it is true that I didn’t have a girlfriend to tell our idea to at the time, at least I won’t have to explain this photo…)

Also, we found the perfect jurisdiction for our enterprise: Malta. Friendly people and a sunny climate on a Mediterranean island...and it seems to have been chosen by about 130 other companies like us, including some of the really big boys. Over to you mutts.

noreply@blogger.com (The Innovator) — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 22:36:00 +0000

Right guys (& girls)…. just to let you know, we’re in the process of setting up a dorm for everyone who wants to work with us in London… If you know us, call us… free accommodation, and great company! Not too much money though… sorry…look at it as a career break that could lead onto massive things…

Carrying on…

My girlfriend never thinks my ideas are any good… in fact I’d go as far to say as she is purposely negative just to wind me up. So its always good to give her a call, and totally fizzle out any confidence that I had. Called her, told her…it went quiet. She couldn’t complain! Sorry bubs. At that point I knew not to tell anyone else and keep it a secret.

“The Visionary” tried to tell his girlfriend, but he didn’t have one. So I think his parents passed the idea instead.

True?

noreply@blogger.com (The Visionary) — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:01:00 +0000

Thanks for the recent surge of support and interest. If any of you do fancy joining us btw, we are producing an option for you, more soon.

on with the story:
*****************
It is one thing to come up with an idea in the middle of the night and start raving about it...but it is quite another for it to stand up to the scrutiny in the cold light of day...but this one of mine was worth a second look.

With mutts in his 9-5 '2nd best dream job', it fell to me to find out if the idea was legally possible. I found that in the UK you guys are able to game online, but the ancient gambling laws of this great country just cannot be applied to license the hosting of online gambling within the UK, they only cater for licensing an enclosed premises for gaming. I did suggest that the server could be kept locked on such a premises, but apparently this isn't allowed since it can be viewed anywhere. All set to change in September 2007 though, but too late for us.

So I called up most of the licensing jurisdictions around the world, posing as an heir out to make a quick £. If ever you get involved with this kind of thing, the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean sound great for a license and a laugh, up to when the hurricane hits and all your servers go down. Gibraltar is a very reputable place, and the gaming commission staff extremely helpful...but they only entertain those with at least a few $bn...the list is pretty long.

mutts?

noreply@blogger.com (The Innovator) — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 21:47:00 +0000

We're going to tell you how it got to this stage. Starting with the day that I came up with the idea...

Start - 8pm - 10th January 2006..

"The Visionary" (hmmm..) had been trying to meet with me for ages...finally I relented. After a few hours of catching up, we started talking about plans. Back in school he was hard working and steady - certainly not one to break the mould but it soon became apparent that he wasn't looking forward to working in a "steady" job. He had one lined up at the time..

I, on the other hand, have grown up in a family where starting something yourself is the norm, although at that time I was working for a recruitment company as an IT Manager, which to be honest, is the best job.. short of working for myself..

We chatted. He told me a few of his ideas - but none of them stood out as unique or fun. Sorry mate! We were, however, pretty good at bouncing ideas off each other, and after a while I mentioned an idea for a casino. We found this so fun and surreal that it took about 10 seconds before we realised that the idea had true potential....

End - 6am 11th January 2006 - off to work at 8.30am.

noreply@blogger.com (The Visionary) — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 00:06:00 +0000

Since I first had the idea back in January, I have completely altered the course of my life and I reflect on the events of past two months with sheer disbelief...and yet it has all seemed perfectly natural...

‘What is it like to build your own online casino?’

Frustrating, because it is a question that we cannot directly answer right now. So instead, please be happy with this blog as a window onto the world of the two entrepreneurs who are trying to break into an established multi-billion dollar industry...or are we?

We always knew we were onto something but were not quite sure how far we would get with it. Sitting in the LGA office last week (the licensing authority in Malta, ), I can tell you that it is now seriously serious. We are going to apply for a gaming license, our software is currently being built, and we already have the company and office in the heart of the city.

I guess my brother typifies the kind of reaction I receive when I say:

‘We are setting up an online casino’

…he still thinks our ‘office’ is a bedroom somewhere in London. Ok it is small, but it is now a fully-equipped and lightly-staffed office. Of course, like you, none of our staff know what we actually do.

As mutts has alluded to below, we are pretty secretive, in fact, so secretive that only 12 people in the world know what we are doing. If you do know who we are and what we are doing, don’t go leaving any comments now, let’s keep it between us, OK? I think I’d rather like my pseudonym to be…dude.

enough ‘swanning about’ (Everest base camp, Lhasa, Beijing, Nairobi, Kampala, Paris, Boston to name a few…I think it is actually a case of jealousy), I now hand you back to the self-styled innovator of the team, innovator simply because he will never be more than a dreamer without the visionary action of the ‘dashers’…

alright mutts…

noreply@blogger.com (The Innovator) — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 21:17:00 +0000

This blog is a long time overdue...

OK.. here is the plan....

I can't say my name, but you can call me "Mutts", "Moot" or whatever stupid way of saying "mate" that i have. Essentially, I'm currently working for another company and can't let on who i am! You'll come to learn that we keep a few things secret.

My friend and I we sitting awake about 2 months ago trying to figure out ways of making the world a really cool place. Essentially, I had been working in the real world for the last 3 years, and my friend has been swanning about in Asia, Africa, and lately France doing an MBA… it took me a few minutes to make him realise that he spent all this time getting to where I was 3 years ago….He was not happy...

But mate.... we all know it takes 2 types of people to make an idea happen:
1. The workhorses (You)
2. The innovators (er.. me)

Anyway, while staying up till 2am (when i had work the next day) we (well I) came up with a cracker!

The idea is: £$££$££$£$£$£$£$ (dot com)

Essentially it’s an online gaming site. I can't tell you too much about it. What i can say is:

It's fun
transparent
SECRET (until launch)

What i do know is that it will be popular - so watch this space.

The purpose of this blog is to take you along with the ride:
Help us develop the look and feel..
Help us develop the games..
Get the License.
Market it.
Get ALL of you playing

If you can help us develop it, I'm sure we can help you some day! (Karma)

I don't know what my Business partner is going to call himself on this - although i've got a few suggestions... after putting in "diligent" in thesaurus.com i got: persistent, painstaking, eager, industrious and also dashing. Although, scratch dashing it doesn't quite suit...

Over to you mate...

noreply@blogger.com (The Innovator) — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 21:14:00 +0000

The Rules of the blog
1) nothing but the truth
2) nothing revealed until the launch day
3) nothing is out of bounds
4) nothing but stuff that you will be interested in
5) as short and sweet as possible