ZACK ABDELATIF
GDEX 2026 Presentation: How Two Game-Store Operators Learned Everything They Didn’t Know to Build a Technology Company
Two brothers started by buying and reselling games and collectibles, then opened their own game stores. What came next forced us to learn a completely different side of business. This session is the story of what we had to figure out along the way: social media, buy/sell/trade, partnerships, contracts, managing developers, networking, trade shows, pitching, fundraising, and finding the right mentors and advisors. We’ll share the mistakes, failed ideas, bad partnerships, and relationships that helped move us from behind the counter to building technology for the industry we already lived in. rareOS is part of the story, but this is not a product pitch. It’s about everything we had to learn to get here.
