Sender Radcliffe’s company is one of the world’s leading board game manufacturers—but not the kind of games you are probably thinking of, like Monopoly or Stratego.
In fact, there’s an entire world of designer board games that the average person has never heard of, with thousands being created every year.
From the depths of his basement, Sender has managed to build a company around playing games. It sounds like fun—and it is—but it also involves a lot of hard work. In this candid interview, he shares his experiences launching his business, which now includes a warehouse in North Carolina and a YouTube channel. I also asked his advice on which games to buy.
This was a fun one. Enjoy!
–Nesanel
“I was born in Toronto, Canada. My parents became religious before any of us were born, and my siblings and I grew up in a baal teshuvah home. I went to Yesodei HaTorah in Toronto for elementary school, and then I went to Telz in Cleveland for the beginning of high school. Because of our background, I always felt a bit out of place, so I was looking for an out-of-town yeshivah. Cleveland seemed to fit the bill without being too far away.
“After ninth grade in Telz, I felt I would do better in a less-than-mainstream yeshivah. But I really liked Cleveland and its community. I discovered a yeshivah called Mesivta and went there for the rest of high school. After graduating, I went to learn in Eretz Yisrael for a year at Toras Simcha, run by Rav Asher Rubenstein. I had a great year there.
“Afterwards, I went back to Toronto, where I earned a degree in business at York University over the next three years. I started dating while in college. Although I was open to dating local girls, I was particularly interested in shidduch prospects from Cleveland, as I really liked the out-of-town vibe.
“In my last year of college I met my wife, Rina. Luckily enough, she was from Cleveland. We considered living in Toronto but ultimately decided on Cleveland. The fact was that, back then, a house that cost $93,000 in Cleveland would have cost $930,000 in Toronto—only a slight difference!
“I landed my first job working for Pollak Foods, a food and medical supply distribution company. I started by packing boxes and slowly worked my way up to becoming the purchaser. While there, I taught myself how to code and started building a better system for keeping track of inventory. It was a multiyear process, but by the time I left in 2014, all of the company’s purchasing was being done on my system.
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