Renee Gittins didn't take the conventional path. She built her own.

She started as a biomedical engineer, then walked away from biotech at 21 to teach herself game development from scratch: moonlighting on her own game while working day jobs to pay the bills. That game, Potions: A Curious Tale, ended up on Steam, Switch, Xbox, and PS5 with 90%+ positive reviews.

Along the way, she became Executive Director of the IGDA, representing 10,000+ game developers worldwide and advocating for them in front of the FTC. Now she's running Stumbling Cat full-time, building her next game, and writing The Bad Boss Witch Guide to Rule Your World: a book on Stoic leadership for people who actually need it.

In this episode of Founders & Empanadas, we get into:

• Why she spends one hour every day doing absolutely nothing and why it's her best creative tool
• How walking away from biotech at 21 set her up for everything that came after
• The Kickstarter mistake she'd fix if she did it over
• Why taking personal blame for every team failure completely changed her culture
• The one move that boosted her game's Steam conversion rate by 500% (it costs nothing)
• What running a $300K/year org for 10,000+ developers taught her about doing more with less
• How her dad, who was an Olympic 400m hurdler, wired her for grit, reflection, and daily growth
• Why tying your identity to your work is a trap and how she's actively undoing it

Renee is sharp, honest, and surprisingly funny. This one's for any founder who wants to build something real without losing themselves in the process.

🎙️ Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.📺 Watch on YouTube.

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