Luke Grob, a founding member and former VP of Operations & Product at HelloFresh, has been appointed CEO of Skrmiish — an app-driven gaming platform.
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In 2017, Grob’s former company HelloFresh — now a public entity valued at more than $11bln (~£8.02bln) — was named Europe’s fastest-growing business by the Financial Times (for the period 2012-2015). During this period Grob served as Chief Operations Officer in the UK before becoming the company’s VP of Product, Growth & Innovation, highlighting Grob’s impressive business acumen. According to a release, Grob is a business strategy and operations expert that specialises in early-stage growth.
Skrmiish, which is an automated service, allows users to sync devices for ‘seamless result-reporting every game’ — theoretically reducing result disputes — thus implicating its potential for improving the integrity and efficiency of grassroots esports.
The app’s functionality also gives streamers the opportunity to create and monitor competitions with their audience. Users can create leaderboards that require a code for other users to enter. Skrmiish, currently in beta, syncs with Fortnite and PUBG, but the company plans to add various other titles over the next 12 months.
On his new role, Grob said: “I’ve spent much of my career working with high-growth companies with large addressable markets, and the potential of Skrmiish is enormous. The explosion in gaming is well documented and Skrmiish is perfectly positioned to be a genuine disruptor in the space. I am looking forward to working with the team to make Skrmiish a powerhouse in the global competitive gaming space.”
Grob went on to become Head of Growth at REEF Technology (backed by Softbank Vision Fund), scaling their early operations across the UK and US and helping to secure a +$950m (~£692.6m) investment to fuel growth in the US. Over the past three years Grob has been a mentor at Techstars, an advisory board member to multiple early-stage businesses, and is an EMEA Expansion and Growth Consultant at TemperPack.
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Chris Heaton, Co-founder of Skrmiish, also commented on Grob’s appointment: “I am thrilled and proud to be able to welcome Luke to the company. He is someone with a proven track record of helping companies in early-stage growth go on to become phenomenal success stories.
“Having Luke at the helm with his exceptional experience and expertise will ensure we set out and deliver on our ambitious growth plan through 2021 and beyond. His arrival is quite the coup for Skrmiish and signals our intention to become a global name in gaming.”
Esports Insider says: Judging from their website, the Skrmiish team is incredibly passionate about the app’s service and the community it serves. An automated match-reporting service could have a seismic impact on grassroots and collegiate esports. What Skrmiish is doing is unique, and acquiring Luke Grob — someone that had a huge influence over a company now worth more than $11bn — is phenomenal business. It will be interesting to see what Skrmiish does next.