011: Ben Triola (The Rampant)

Ben Triola on Innovation City

“Not everything is going to be sunshine and roses all the time, you’re going to have some hardships and failure along the way, and that’s ok.” — Ben Triola

Welcome to Innovation City, powered by Venture Cafe St. Louis and Venture Cafe Miami.

Tyler Kelley and Michael Johnson, Co-Founders of SLAM! Agency, interview innovators, disruptors, and creators, to discover how business is changing in the modern world. Innovation City gives you an inside look at how and why business and culture are changing so rapidly, thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community.

Ben is a serial entrepreneur; he is the Founder and Developer of DogePos, co-owner of Mauhaus Café, partner and Director of Operations at Rampant Interactive (@TheRampant on Twitter), and a producer and game designer for Happy Badger Studio.

They discuss:

• Cool Runnings
• Cryptocurrency: Dogecoin and Bitcoin
• The importance of positivity
• Building a POS (point-of-sale) system for Dogecoin for Strange Donuts that was then adopted around the world
• The Dogecoin community rallying to support the Jamaican bobsled team going to the Sochi Olympics in 2014
• The inspiration for Mauhaus Cafe
• Doing Things vs Talking About Doing Things
• Staying busy
• Being selective about projects and clients
• Doing projects you can get excited about
• Pivoting
• Learning something new, pushing boundaries, and trying something interesting
• Talking with a nonprofit (Common Circles) about a project to promote empathy and eliminate unconscious bias
• Working with The Pulitzer Arts Foundation to build an interactive game installation with no written instructions, explanations, or prompts — it was like the holodeck from Star Trek