115. Laura Carter CEO's Diary: Leading A Purpose-Driven Gaming Company in 2024

Rise and Play Podcast

In this episode, we follow the journey of Laura Carter, CEO and co-founder of TreesPlease Games, with the mission to bring a positive impact on the planet, through games. After a stellar career at companies such as Natural Motion, Square Enix, The Walt Disney Company and PlayStation Studios, Laura decided in 2019 to take a leap and bring her passion for the planet and business together and found TreesPlease Games.

TreesPlease Games raised $8M in seed funding in 2023: https://mobilegamer.biz/treesplease-games-gets-8m-in-seed-funding-reveals-debut-game-longleaf-valley/

Laura shares about the process of navigating the challenges of starting a company as an initial solo founder, raising funds, assembling a team, making a game that aligns with the company's environmental mission, and managing the operational demands of achieving the company's goals. The team at Trees Please is proud to have planted nearly a million trees through their gaming activity and first casual puzzle title Longleaf Valley. Despite various challenges, TreesPlease aims to continue creating environmentally-themed casual puzzle games, with plans to launch more in 2024.

Learn more about TreesPlease reforestation project:

https://www.treespleasegames.com/real-tree-planting

https://www.edenprojects.org/

01:03 Laura's Journey into Entrepreneurship

03:34 The Birth of TreesPlease Games

05:23 Challenges and Triumphs of Starting a Company

06:57 The Importance of a Supportive Network

07:32 Balancing Motherhood and Entrepreneurship

10:01 Building the Founding Team

10:26 Securing Initial Funding

12:23 The Journey of Building Longleaf Valley

17:35 The Impact of Longleaf Valley, planting 1,000,000 trees

36:51 The Future of TreesPlease Studio

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