CEO Interview: Steve Couture, Frima Studio

If you were asked to imagine what the CEO of a video game company might look like, you’d be forgiven for picturing a socially awkward guy who can’t get a date.  But Frima Studio's CEO Steve Couture could be described as an athlete; an avid hiker, Couture also plays in soccer and ultimate Frisbee leagues. “I spend all day focused on video games,” Couture says. “When I have some time off of work, I like to do something different.” Shortly after completing a degree in computer science at Université Laval, he and two buddies began running Frima out of a tiny Quebec City apartment. They eventually moved to a more pristine office and formed partnerships with clients like Nickelodeon, Warner Home Video and EA Sports. Frima has since developed online games for brands like SpongeBob SquarePants, Littlest Pet Shop and Harry Potter. With annual revenue of over $14-million, this PROFIT 100 company isn’t slowing down any time soon. PROFIT had the opportunity to sit down with Couture and talk about gaming, working with household-name clients and his strategy for beating the recession.

The gaming industry has taken a lot of heat since many people consider gaming an addiction, similar to gambling, alcohol or drug addictions. What’s your take on that?

There are some forms of gaming that are more addictive than others, but there’s abuse in any market, not just gaming. When people thought of gaming five or 10 years ago, they thought of young men aged 15 to 20. Today’s market is different. Today, there’s a category called the casual gamer. These people play games on Facebook and on their iPhones. The Facebook game Farmville had 82-million unique users per month when it was at its peak. Our company targets casual gamers and kids rather than hardcore gamers.

What’s the greatest challenge currently facing your company and what are you doing about it?

Our greatest challenge is developing our own intellectual property. Most of our success has come from providing web-building services to companies like Disney and Nickelodeon. It’s a big challenge to go from a service company to a brand-owning company, but having the rights to a successful brand like SpongeBob is the best way to create the biggest value. We’re working on this by hiring the best people possible, and by having a really active sales team in the market. We meet with people regularly, and we go to trade shows and toy factories.

How has the rising Canadian dollar impacted your company?

We started the company in 2003, and at that time, the dollar was much lower, but it was beginning to rise. At the same time, however, we worked a lot on organization and efficiency, and we were able to reuse code, so we didn’t feel the effect very much. Having said that, if the dollar was lower, we would have more profit.

Some analysts are predicting a double-dip recession. How likely do you think this is, and is your company prepared to deal with it?

The recession hit most of the gaming industry hard, but our company has grown 40% since it started. The reason is because we’re aggressive. We rapidly go forward with new approaches such as gaming through Facebook and through mobile phones. With our management style, we’d be able to face any recession. I honestly don’t see any recession coming, but if so, we’d be fine. We work with big clients like Disney and Warner Brothers, and they will always be developing world class entertainment. Our strategy is to put the most effort on the most secure clients.

What’s the biggest project you’re currently working on?

Our most successful project to date has been our partnership with Build-a-Bear, the teddy bear company. We developed the Build-a-Bearville online game for them, we maintain it, and we constantly update it with new services. Sixteen-million users subscribe to the game, so the servers are always full between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. in North America. Right now, we’re working on things like Hallowe’en costumes for the bears, and Hallowe’en-themed activities. In terms of intellectual property, our most successful game is Zombie Tycoon. We’d like to bring it to a TV show or another gaming platform. We launched it on the PSP console. We’re thinking of bringing it to Wii and Xbox.