202 employees on Slack
MrQ has approximately 202 employees, as counted by Savvas from his Slack channel.
Snapshot · The iGaming Leader
The Founder Who Got Tired of Gambling's Bullshit. So He Built Something Better.
Explore episode
Jun 20, 2026
Where this was said
The Entrepreneur's Mindset: Grit, ADHD, and Shiny Objects
At 9:35 · chapter starts 6:40
From the story of MrQ's origin, Savvas pivots to the broader pattern of the entrepreneurial mindset. He acknowledges that the same energy that launched a company — 'How hard can it be?' — is also the energy that led him to impulsively win a 20,000 square-foot Crown Prosecution Service building in St Albans, only needing 5,000 of it, and then decide to turn the rest into a co-working space on a whim. The self-awareness is genuine: shiny objects are fun, and entrepreneurs are wired to want to fix things and prove they can buck trends. But he's learned to be more disciplined about it. On the ADHD question — Leo asks whether Savvas is super focused or more scattered — Savvas is honest: he gets distracted easily, has ADHD, and doesn't medicate. His best work happens when his back is against the wall. The people around him, particularly his CFO, have better focus than he does, and that structural support is what keeps the business on track when Savvas's instincts might pull it sideways.
First Principles Thinking vs. Case-by-Case Thinking
Savvas draws a hard line between first-principle thinkers who deconstruct problems from the ground up, and people who say 'this worked there, it'll work here.' MrQ's interview process tests for this directly — if you can't name the last time you found an unconventional route to solve a problem, you're not a fit.
CMO hired from outside iGaming at age 25
MrQ's CMO was only 25 years old and came from outside the iGaming industry, yet successfully reorganised the entire marketing function.
The Secret Sauce: Mission, Vision and Values Over Everything
Savvas rejects the idea of a tangible competitive secret sauce. The real edge is having a crystal-clear mission, a defined vision, and values that function as the first-principles framework for every daily decision. Without that, you're a brand stuck in the middle.
Similar snapshots
Zero users on launch day
Despite months of meticulous preparation, Starter Story's initial launch attracted zero users — a humbling reminder that building alone guarantees nothing.
First Reddit post: 100 users
A single Reddit link post quickly drove 100 visitors to the Starter Story website, igniting the founder's belief in social traffic.
Hundreds of upvotes on repackaged post
After reformatting content as a native self-post (no direct link spam), the post exploded with hundreds of upvotes and thousands of readers.
Millions reading his content on Reddit
By posting again and again with the native-content strategy, the founder's posts repeatedly hit Reddit's front page, reaching millions of readers.
Tens of thousands of email subscribers
Before Reddit banned his domain, the founder converted his viral traffic into an email list of tens of thousands — a self-owned audience independent of Reddit.
Reddit petition to ban domain
Redditors eventually organized a petition to ban starterstory.com posts, effectively ending the Reddit growth channel — but the email list was already built.
$1M business built on Reddit hack
The Reddit attention strategy ultimately served as the foundation for a million-dollar business, proving that free distribution channels can replace paid marketing.
Strategy: native content, small footer link
The key tactic was keeping content fully on-platform (no direct link spam), then adding a small link at the post's end for users who wanted more.
Quit 9-to-5 after email list built
With a thriving email list and a self-owned audience, the founder quit his six-figure New York City salary job to go all-in on Starter Story.
