Rich Couples

Jacqueline Beauchamp, founder of Nerjyzed  is one of those lucky entrepreneurs who works at what she loves most: video games.

Beauchamp defies the stereotype of the young male gamer. She’s a 40-something black woman dedicated to bringing diversity into the video game industry and educating the rest of the world about the black experience. And her Black College Football Experience video game is beginning to fulfill that dream.

She was a computer designer for IBM for 10 years. Then, deciding it was time to “move down the path of following my passion,” she chose a job in multimedia at Motorola. But her passion and desire to do more never went away.

Unlike many entrepreneurs, Beauchamp says she had a pretty good idea what she was getting herself into when she chose to become an entrepreneur. “I think the biggest struggle and challenge, whether it’s a woman entrepreneur or any entrepreneur, is not being prepared in all aspects: Knowing what success is supposed to look like, and making sure that I know all the steps and elements that are going to be required in preparation to make sure that happens,” Beauchamp says.

“One of the things is knowing what your strategy is going to be and making sure that strategy is going to be sound. Then from there, looking at the right capitalization in funding that strategy and then building the appropriate team to implement that strategy. Those were the three steps I took with my board and the other founding members in moving Nerjyzed to the level of where it is today.”

When Nerjyzed was founded in 2004, sports–specifically football–games were No. 1. “Now music-based interactive games are No. 1 and sports games are No. 2. We’re in a great position because we’re providing both,” Beauchamp says.

What Nerjyzed created is The Black College Football Experience, which combines the two leading genres of gaming by incorporating football with a rhythm-based interactive music experience that includes drumline competitions and interactive halftime shows. The band music is authentic tracks of school bands. The interactive halftime shows reflect the bands’ styles of march and precision.

Even with funding the journey wasn’t complete. Nerjyzed had to get approved as an official Microsoft developer. It didn’t hurt that the company’s creative design director is a former Microsoft employee. “They could look at the application submittal and look at your team and knew who you had on board.”

She advises would-be entrepreneurs to reach out early on, sooner rather than later, in building a network corps of people around you. “It’s so critical. It’s really the advisors and people that you can pick up the phone and say, ‘I’ve got a challenge in this area and we need to explore possible ways of solving it.’ The power of the network is extremely important.” You have to build the relationships one at a time, she cautions, always knowing whom you want to get to.

Beauchamp is proof that it’s possible to succeed in a down economy. “I think it started with the right plan and the right strategy. And having the right product.”

Source: Entrepreneur