Team Spotlight: Shane Yeend, Co-Founder & CEO

3 min readJan 14, 2022

-Written by Shane Yeend, Co-Founder and CEO, Gamestar+

Who Am I?

As the CEO, and Co-Founder of Gamestar and Imagination Entertainment, I'm committing to revolutionizing game night forever. I want to continue changing the games we know and love into fun, interactive experiences by bringing the world the “Netflix for board games.”

I’ve always been an entrepreneur. My ultimate goal is to always be at the forefront of world-class entertainment with wildly creative ideas and entrepreneurial ventures all around the world.

It humbles me to know that my goal has led me to receive several prestigious awards including EY Entrepreneur of the Year Australia. World Entrepreneur Hall of Fame and Innovator of the Year. I love flying planes, managing real estate and creating and holding valuable intellectual property, patents, and licenses. Did you know I’m fortunate enough to own the rights to the Hollywood sign?! It’s true!

Background

Investing in my own ideas comes naturally to me. I started my first company when I was 15. I realized early on that I had a unique passion for television and media. I’ve spent most of my career exploring new concepts and unique ways to make TV shows more interactive. By the mid-’90s, I became CEO of Imagination Entertainment.

Imagination Entertainment

Gamestar+ isn’t my first try at innovating cross-platform media strategies. I launched the successful game Battle of the Sexes, which took to TV, radio, retail, the world wide web, and mobile.

In the first part of my career at Imagine, I led the charge that pushed the company to patent the DVD Game (iDVD). This DVD randomizer software brought TV presenters into the home and allowed them to interact with their favorite TV game shows, offering players a new dimension of gameplay.

This innovation saw a 325% increase in sales between 2002 and 2004, resulting in over 500 million global board game sales.

Challenges as a Business Owner

After surviving the market crash of the early 2000s, we faced our next hurdle at Imagine. Streaming content.

With the introduction of platforms like Netflix and Hulu, DVD sales dropped by 86%. This paradigm shift in entertainment only inspired us to take gaming to the next level

Gamestar+ was born before blockchain technology could even bring it to life. With decentralized technology advancing exponentially, Gamestar+ can finally launch Social Games on Demand (SGOD) and disrupt the industry.

“Our biggest weapons are innovation and speed-to-market. Even if these big companies thought they wanted to do something, it’s just so hard for them to do it. And it gets harder as we get bigger as well.” — Shane Yeend, CEO and Co-Founder, Gamestar+

About Gamestar+

Gamestar+, the “Netflix for Game Night,” is the next-generation streaming app that combines an innovative Play to Earn blockchain architecture to deliver unique social gaming content through TV, mobile, and connected devices. Industry experts from Sony Pictures, Imagination Entertainment, Disney, and HBO form the executive suite. And advisors from Hasbro, CNN, Jeopardy, and Shark Tank are already on board. In addition, Gamestar+ has secured globally recognized IP rights with titles such as Family Feud, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Scene It? and more.

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