Today we’d like to introduce you to Jim Welch.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I spent the early years of my career as a composer and sound designer for FUNimation Entertainment (now Crunchyroll) creating original compositions and sfx for properties like Dragon Ball Z and Full Metal Alchemist. Transitioning from FUNimation into video game audio gave me my first close encounter with software development and I was hooked. I went on to be a founder and lead software developer of a gamified video chat platform. Kinskii went on to receive investment funding and entrance into the highly competitive accelerator Seed Sumo.
In the following stages of my career I have been a Unity engineer for fast moving creative agency’s like Groove Jones, lead developer for software studios like Sector 5 Digital, and VR subject matter expert (SME) for large corporations like ExxonMobil.
Today, I’m proudly the head of studio and creative director for The Devhouse Agency. A company I founded and grew to a multi million dollar software development studio focusing on gaming and immersive technologies like AR/VR.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I believe every path to running a business is a gauntlet of challenges. My specific path was punctuated with the challenge of trying to avoid the fundraising dog and pony shows. I did a small amount of these in one of my early startups and found it to not align with what I’m passionate about. I love being a builder. Creating tangible objects (digital or otherwise) that can bring value to the world. Every time I make a pitch deck or book a day full of meetings I feel farther away from that passion. So the result was to bootstrap my company and just find a way to make it work.
This choice ultimately led to me juggling multiple jobs by myself under my brand for the first year or two as I slowly built of the consistent work to allow me to hire a couple full time team members. The consistent and continued struggle of having to earn profit every month, of every year, especially with a team that grows over time raising that threshold is a struggle. With that said I greatly prefer this path I’ve chosen over the alternatives.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Devhouse Agency?
The Devhouse Agency is an independent software development studio located in Dallas Texas specializing in developing video games and immersive technologies like AR/VR. We’ve worked with large brands like Disney, Epic, and Paramount, but also love supporting local businesses and entrepreneurs.
We’ve most recently been featured for our new Fortnite experience for SpongeBob SquarePants to showcase the mobile capabilities of the Fortnite platform.
Our team consists of engineers, artists, designers, and producers. Other agency’s and teams often focus purely on the creative planning and manage outsourced contractors to handle the builds. Our team ARE the builders and we handle both the creative and the actual hands on development of the experiences we work on.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Persistence, self reliance, and a lack of fear to just start has led me to where I’m at today. I’m not especially gifted at any individual craft but I have a confidence I can figure most anything out and I enjoy the process of creating something with my own two hands.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thedevhouseagency.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedevhouse/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedevhouseagency/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-devhouse-agency/
- Twitter: https://x.com/devhouseagency
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedevhouseagency
- Other: https://www.sparkandboltinteractive.com/
