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Malta Business Review<br />
SPECIAL FEATURE: MBEOTYA 18<br />
A Sense of Achievement<br />
2018<br />
Jonas Eneroth, CEO, Karmafy<br />
receiving Best CSR Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Charles Sciavone<br />
Interview with Jonas Eneroth, CEO,<br />
Karmafy winner of Malta’s Best<br />
Tech/Web Developer Entrepreneur<br />
of the Year, Best Start-up<br />
Entrepreneur of the Year and Best<br />
CSR Entrepreneur of the Year 2018.<br />
<strong>MBR</strong>: Can you tell us a little bit about your<br />
company, Karmafy and define your role?<br />
JE: Karmafy builds a platform for B2B<br />
empowerment where we help drive<br />
customer value through providing a means<br />
for them to do good. This <strong>res</strong>ults in better<br />
metrics, improving retention, social sharing<br />
and engagement. For gamers, websites and<br />
even internal business tools, this type of<br />
gamification can greatly improve bottom line<br />
value.<br />
My role as CEO really focuses on strategy and<br />
ensuring we execute on our vision and have<br />
the tools and means at our disposal to fuel<br />
ourselves as a team.<br />
<strong>MBR</strong>: How did you find out what you<br />
wanted to do in your life and why Karmafy?<br />
JE: While my background and family are<br />
on the Investment Banking side, my main<br />
hobby from about 10 years old has been<br />
programming. While at Georgetown<br />
University I worked on a number of side<br />
projects involving programming, design and<br />
content creation. After graduation, I moved<br />
back to London and started working for BNP<br />
Paribas as part of their Fixed Income team.<br />
At the same time, Bungie Software, of Halo<br />
fame, offered me a role in Chicago. Luckily,<br />
I could take the plunge and take a year to<br />
fulfill my boyhood dream of working with<br />
games. 25 years later, I am still at it.<br />
Karmafy is the perfect way to combine a<br />
startup with my personal goal of doing<br />
good in the world around me. Our platform<br />
approach is unique and our metrics are<br />
strong, which in turn has enabled us to<br />
prove that our approach works and really<br />
helps our customers. Here in Malta, you can<br />
play Dancing with the Stars on your mobile<br />
and for free, turn some of the time spent<br />
playing into real support for a number of<br />
good causes.<br />
<strong>MBR</strong>: What is your biggest failure and what<br />
did you learn from it?<br />
JE: It is easy to unde<strong>res</strong>timate the time it<br />
takes to get a startup off of the ground. As an<br />
entrepreneur, we are used to challenges. But<br />
a startup is doing something brand new and<br />
while exciting, <strong>res</strong>ilience is key.<br />
<strong>MBR</strong>: What are your most important<br />
leadership attributes?<br />
JE: I have been lucky to be able to combine<br />
education and experience and use them<br />
to become quite multifaceted in my role.<br />
This ability has been useful in being able to<br />
contribute in many areas while also knowing<br />
"As an entrepreneur, we<br />
are used to challenges.<br />
But a startup is doing<br />
something brand new<br />
and while exciting,<br />
<strong>res</strong>ilience is key.<br />
when to step aside and let the experts get<br />
on with it. Coupled with patience, this has<br />
helped us build and maintain a very special<br />
team.<br />
<strong>MBR</strong>: How did your story with Karmafy<br />
get started and where do you wish your<br />
company stand in two/three years time?<br />
JE: I was working on a video game concept in<br />
Zimbabwe, a Farmville type game based on<br />
Africa, both as a fun and an educational title.<br />
Two of the other founders were working<br />
on similar concepts but from different<br />
perspectives. Dave Mariner was taking a<br />
more technology based approach with a<br />
strong brand element while John Klepper,<br />
focused more on a platform approach.<br />
The core shared vision, was using a game<br />
to do good, as a driver for players and the<br />
developer making the game. After a year<br />
of working virtually and with assistance<br />
from Malta Enterprise, we secured our<br />
first investment round and the entire team<br />
relocated to Malta to set up our office.<br />
We are in the midst of onboarding several<br />
new games and other B2B verticals, such<br />
as banking and rewards. The size of those<br />
projects will put us significantly ahead of<br />
current projections and lets us grow the<br />
platform significantly. Our mission is to<br />
create a billion philanthropists and at this<br />
rate in three years time, we stand ready to<br />
achieve that.<br />
<strong>MBR</strong>: What were the most important<br />
lessons you learned growing and<br />
developing the company?<br />
JE: Patience, <strong>res</strong>ilience and having an ability<br />
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