Why Turning Down Investment is a Good Thing

Kate co-founded PlayIndies through a chance connection with her now co-founder, where they quickly realised they were both independently planning to build the same kind of platform. Rather than compete, they took a leap of trust and decided to build it together, despite starting as complete strangers.

Over the past 20 months, they have built PlayIndies from the ground up while working across a significant time zone difference, balancing full-time work and consulting contracts to fund development. Along the way, they navigated setbacks, including costly contractor missteps, but remained committed to building the platform independently despite investor interest.

Now on the brink of soft launch, PlayIndies represents a shared vision shaped by persistence, trust, and a deep understanding of the challenges indie developers face and how to provide a meaningful solution.

About Kate
Kate is a senior game marketing and PR professional with over a decade of experience spanning journalism, communications, community management, and content creation. She has led or supported the launch of over 100 games and collaborated on hundreds more, working across a wide range of genres, platforms, and audiences.

After nearly six years at award-winning PR agencies, Kate moved into freelance consulting, where she has spent nearly two years helping developers and publishers bring their games to market while simultaneously co-founding and building PlayIndies, a platform built to connect indie developers with content creators. She is also the chair of Level Her Up, a not-for-profit organisation focused on making game development more accessible through beginner-friendly workshops and game jams for women and non-binary people.

Agenda:

• 7:30 am: Shameless plugs and announcements. Introduce yourself or announce your startup to the Perth startup community!
• 7:45 am: Why Turning Down Investment is a Good Thing, with Kate Hall.
• 8:30 am: Networking & delicious breakfast treats
• 9:00 am: Finish

Live stream
This event will also be live streamed by our amazing sponsor, the folks at [[Perthvideo.com.au](http://perthvideo.com.au/)](https://perthvideo.com.au/)

Access the live stream and all our post-event recordings here:
https://perthvideo.com.au/morning-startup-perth/

Coffee, Food and Sponsors
Tell Joey Zaza's you're heading to Morning Startup on the way in for a free coffee courtesy of Purpose Ventures, and enjoy some of their delicious breakfast treats courtesy of Everest Engineering.

And thanks to the amazing folks at Ammo Marketing and Beacham Group for keeping this meetup alive 🙏 ❤️