Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Ashby
Hi Andrew, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
We Geek Together started as a family business that sold at farmer’s markets and ren faires on weekends. We specialize in gaming accessories, handmade leather armor, and 3d printing. After a year of doing odd markets, we became a vendor at Pleasant Grove’s fantasy theme park, “Evermore.” After 2 years of doing events, we opened a gaming store in Provo called “We Geek Together.” The store focuses on the environment, RPG games like D&D, and hosting fun and geeky events.
Our family business started with just 2 Brothers (Andrew & Everett) and their Mom (Fawn). It has grown and merged with other family businesses. It now partners with Sea Dragon Cove (Nate & Jenny Mellon) and GM Dice (Kevin & Chelsea Owens). Together, they have expanded to close to 50 market events every year (events like FanX, San Diego Comic-Con, and Brandon Sanderson Dragonsteel Convention).
During the first year of opening the game store, We Geek Together set a World Record for the Largest game of D&D ever played, with over 1227 players all playing in the same game of D&D. The game took place in the Provo Towne Centre on April 22nd, 2023. They have since held a game every year and have announced the date for 2025’s game for May 9th & 10th.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Starting this business has not been smooth, and we have had to learn and adapt over time. We call it our crash-burn-and-learn approach, which is we try something new out, probably crash and fail the first time we do it, and then learn and improve on it.
Some of the struggles around the world record game were pretty large. When selling tickets, we processed payments through JPmorgans “WePay.” Credit card processing is a small but critical part of the transaction process, and we didn’t do enough research on the company we were going through. We sold a third of our tickets (about $ 13,000$) and had that in an account we couldn’t access. WePay has ghosted us and never sent us our money, and the company is non-existent now. This was a massive blow to us, and if you look online, you will see that many small companies have taken advantage of WePay. However, we honored those tickets and still had a great event. Ultimately, our event, “The largest game of D&D,” was not profitable, and we had to take that hit ourselves. That was a crash-burn-and-learn moment.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I (Andrew) have been going to game stores since he was a kid and have always loved visiting and playing in them. However, when he set to open his game store, he wanted to bring many changes to the environment and store itself and help bring game stores into a much-needed update. I want a game store that anyone feels comfortable in and can see themselves spending time in. A great test for that is my wife. She isn’t as much of a game-playing geek as I am, so having a store that even she enjoyed being in was a bar I set for myself. Our motto is “Create your Fantasy, live your adventure.” I wanted a game store that, when you step into it, you forget about the world for a bit and can connect with others on shared interests.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I honestly hope to see a renaissance for game stores. As a culture, we have shifted to more online presence, but I believe having a physical space to be in, be yourself, and connect with others is sorely needed in our day. I have so many ideas and projects to bring game stores from the struggling small businesses they are to a centerpiece in any community.
Pricing:
- 2 hour game of D&D – 15$
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wegeektogether.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wegeektogether
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100079785840581
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/wegeektogether
