On the map – Double Eleven has gained a worldwide reputation , something that gives Kimberley great pride .
She continued working for Orange during the day , while at night she studied with the Open University to give herself a foot in the door of accountancy . It led to a job with Sunderland firm Torgersens and when they saw her work ethic they agreed to support her through her chartered qualifications .
Another five years later , it was time to put the knowledge and theory she ’ d gained into practice , so she moved on to Hargreaves , a huge , fast-paced energy services plc , where she learned about the financial policies and procedures needed to run a business .
In the meantime , Lee had graduated from Teesside University with a degree in visualisation in 2001 , then spent several years working in the south , before returning to Durham to lay the foundations for Double Eleven from his loft .
Although he was a natural entrepreneur with a clear talent for games development , he needed a safe pair of hands to apply structure to the business .
While he worked from his loft , Kimberley started supporting him at night from her own loft – siblings with lofty ambitions – and , after eight months , enough had been achieved to convince Lee to ask his sister to join him full-time .
“ It was a huge gamble to leave the security of Hargreaves and step into the unknown , but I couldn ’ t look my brother in the eye and tell him I didn ’ t believe in him ,” she recalls .
Double Eleven was formally incorporated in December 2009 , and relocated from Lee ’ s loft to Boho One a year later , with Kimberley joining the business full-time the same year .
It was a “ crazy ” period in her life , with her first child ,
Spencer , being born in 2011 , closely followed by Dexter two years later . However , she and her husband divorced , so she had to move house and adapt to life as a single parent .
But she remained relentless in her determination to help make the business a success , while juggling the pressures of being a mum . She remembers taking Spencer with her to a trade show in San Francisco when he was 15 months old and she was pregnant with Dexter .
The business trip featured a Microsoft karaoke party and , determined to make a sober impression , she got rave reviews by singing a hip-hop song called Regulate , by Warren G .
“ I ’ ll do anything to help us be successful – well , almost anything !” she confesses .
It was an extremely challenging time for the business because , between 2013 and 2015 , it was in “ complete survival mode ”, with every penny having to count . The answer was to take the milestone step of moving into self-publishing , rather than just developing games for others .
It was another huge risk because it meant withdrawing from an exclusive relationship with Sony Europe , but it paid off – thanks in no small part to a destructive goat . A game called Goat Simulator , in which the player controls a head-butting
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