If you could please start by providing a quick summary of your careers to date?

We both joined Deloitte in TMT audit after gap years in 2004/05 and following stints on ebookers and NCP, amongst many others, we became ACA qualified.

We share a passion for travel so decided to broaden our horizons with a secondment to Deloitte Melbourne in 2008. With this coinciding with the onset of the global financial crisis, Tony transferred to the restructuring team. After extending our visas multiple times, having embraced the Australian way of life, four years later we decided if we didn’t head back to the UK then we never would! Following a nine-month detour back to London (travelling in Australia, Thailand, Europe, South and Central America) Tony joined Deloitte London’s RS team, getting immediately stuck into the HMV administration, and Annaliza said goodbye to Deloitte, heading just up Fetter Lane to Sainsbury’s into group finance.

Numerous restructurings later, and after a year secondment at Lloyds Bank, Tony left Deloitte in 2017. From there he spent a couple of years contracting with RBS before a 6-month sabbatical to write our first game and work with his brother Nick to create the tech platform and dabble in home-schooling! Tony now works as a director at FRP Advisory.

Annaliza spent 7 years at Sainsbury’s in both technical and commercial accounting roles with her final role as Nectar’s Financial Controller before leaving in August 2020 to focus on StreetHunt Games.

We noticed that between you both, you spent 20 years at Deloitte, what inspired you to form a start-up business and what makes it unique?

Deloitte provided a fantastic base to start our careers, exposing us to numerous businesses of varying sizes across different industries in both the UK and Australia. We often spent holidays pondering different business ideas which ranged from toys, a boutique travel agency, our own accountancy firm to setting up a tech platform for travellers.

Annaliza grew up with her parents running a photography business in Devon and Tony had always had a creative side not quite met from his finance roles.

We’re avid watchers and critiques of Dragon’s Den and with starting a business being on Tony’s 40 things to do before he turned 40, during a natural career break at the start of 2020 we decided it was now or never!

StreetHunt Games is a unique outdoor game with players self-navigating to offbeat locations, solving location specific cryptic clues and immersing them into their own murder mystery investigation. Our web-based platform which delivers the story stands out from the crowd with its ease of use, variety of content and captivating storyline. We’ve received feedback from players that the game has provided great connection to colleagues who they have either never met in person or not for 18 months and they’ve enjoyed the combination of physical exercise, escapism, mental challenge and being forced to be present in the moment solving clues.

What have been the biggest challenges in starting up StreetHunt Games and what got you through the difficult times?

Tony’s biggest challenge when writing the game and designing the platform was to overcome his self-doubt in taking such a leap into the unknown. He constantly asked himself questions like:

Is the game good enough? Have we got the skills to deliver it? Will the market be big enough for the numbers to add up? Ongoing encouragement from friends and family have got us through the toughest of these times, alongside our support of each other - we often find that by doing a competitor’s game we’re reminded of what we consider to be StreetHunt Games unique qualities.

Annaliza’s biggest challenge, when turning the game into a business, was the sheer volume of areas requiring attention when starting up. For the majority of our journey to date, StreetHunt Games has been the two of us with limited external input, meaning we’ve had to learn the majority of (non-accounting related!) areas from scratch.

Despite these challenges it’s been immensely rewarding to learn so many new things: creative writing for content; writing a business plan; creating a booking website; marketing and PR; search engine optimisation; sales strategy; and fulfilling all legal obligations.

We’re incredibly fortunate that there are so many sources of information to help plug any knowledge gaps - we’ve joined a host of small business communities and are incredibly grateful for the advice and assistance we’ve been given to date.

What are some of the trends you are seeing facing your industry at the moment?

Coronavirus has had a profound impact on the events industry, and with repeated lockdowns similar businesses have attempted to replicate their experiences online. We’ve intentionally focused on perfecting our initial game during this challenging time, rather than pivot to something different.

Since restrictions eased in the summer there has been a demand from corporates to get colleagues back together in the city for some much-needed fun and escapism. While the uncertainty around coronavirus continues, the demand for safe outdoor experiences remains even as we go into winter.

The immersive events industry is advancing all the time with continuous developments in virtual and augmented reality. Recent trends in events coming to London have leaned towards the use of popular culture references ranging from Life Size Monopoly, Chaos Karts (based on Nintendo’s Mario Kart) and a Marvel inspired fine dining immersive experience, to the continued use of classic characters such as Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter.

We sit in the mixed reality space with an immersive gaming platform linked to physical locations. Our focus is currently on promoting interaction between players and the physical space around the game through the eyes of the character we have developed. In due course we may revisit the technological experience we offer.

Starting your own business is no easy feat! What have you found to be the most rewarding since starting this journey?

Having strangers complement our game after playing is definitely up there! The most impactful of these was from The Escape Roomer who seeks out these types of experiences on a daily basis (https://theescaperoomer.com/street-hunt-colombias-finest).

Delivering our first corporate booking to a team of 40 that hadn’t seen each other for nearly two years has also been a massive highlight.

We’re thrilled to have been recognised by Small Business Saturday to be part of their Small Business 2021 campaign. It has given StreetHunt Games great exposure and we’ve enjoyed being part of a community of entrepreneurs who cheer each other on. Follow us on social media for announcements we’ll make before the main campaign day on 4 December 2021.

For our alumni who are wanting to take those steps in launching their own business – what advice do you have for them?

Our main bit of advice would be to make sure you’re passionate about your business/idea - starting from scratch is daunting so you need lots of self-belief to turn your vision into reality (also having a great support network cannot be underestimated!).

Keep going and try not to get bogged down - things take time and challenges will arise that you never expected but look at them as opportunities to learn and grow from.

Talk to as many people as possible and say yes to opportunities that come your way. It’s amazing what can come from talking and connecting with people such as collaborations, advice and seeing things from a different perspective. Also remember you’re not making your business for you, so you need to make sure you get relevant external feedback before making any assumptions about what your customers want.

Finally, look out for schemes to help small businesses, government grants or schemes such as Kickstart that help small businesses provide opportunities for young people to get their first job (which we’ve recently benefited from).

Having left Deloitte a number of years ago, have you stayed connected to the firm or with former colleagues?

Definitely - the alumni program is fantastic for keeping in touch with the firm, and we both attend events when we can.

We’re lifelong friends with some of the grads we started with and former colleagues from Australia, some of whom are now based in the UK. It’s also great to stay connected on social media - the variety of roles now held by people from our intakes is extraordinary!

How do you build your professional networks and connect with other like-minded entrepreneurs?

Building professional networks happened quite organically during our time at Deloitte and Sainsbury’s but since starting StreetHunt Games we’ve needed to dedicate much more time and energy to developing connections.

Annaliza has achieved this through a variety of online communities with a focus on LinkedIn and training groups such as the PR Set and Visabiliyay.

Being part of SmallBiz100 - a celebration of small businesses in the UK - has opened lots of doors to like-minded entrepreneurs at various stages in their businesses. We both do our utmost to say yes to networking opportunities as you never know where the next lead or collaboration opportunity may come from!

Looking back, what were some of the lessons you have learnt throughout your career?

Ask questions! You don’t know what you don’t know, and if you don’t ask, you’ll never find out. Embrace all learning/self-development opportunities - who knows what the next step in your career might be, and what skills you’ll need - continuing to learn keeps your mind active. Seek out challenges - you’ll only find your limits if you push the boundaries. Be generous with your time and advice.

Prioritisation is key - in a small business you can’t do everything, so you need to choose wisely how to spend your time and what to pursue first.

Have a clear brief and expectations – when working in teams you need to be accountable for what you’re taking responsibility for (and as a manager be clear about who is doing what). This also links to clearly understanding your skillset, and therefore when you might need assistance to deliver your work (or outsource when it comes to your own business).