Simply Driven celebrates the scrappy, brilliant, and often-overlooked small business owners redefining entrepreneurship. From side hustles and gig-driven startups to solopreneurs in non-traditional trades, these founders are shaping the future on their own terms. While they take the leap, Simply Business is building the tools to support them — because the businesses rewriting the rules today are the ones defining tomorrow.
Meet Jef
Jef Lippiatt is one of the many small business owners we’ll feature in Simply Driven, a new series that celebrates the often-overlooked entrepreneurs redefining what it means to run your own show.
For Jef, games are more than entertainment — they’re a way to reconnect. Through Bunker83, he creates original, illustrated games that blend humor, strategy, and just the right amount of friendly friction. What began as a game night idea has grown into a creative venture built on curiosity, collaboration, and purpose.
In this Q&A, Jef shares how he turned a passion project into a business, what fuels his designs, and why staying original matters more than ever in a digital world. This interview was slightly edited for length and clarity.
How did you come up with the idea of starting a game company?
It was the summer of 2019. My wife and I had just moved to a new town and we were hosting a lot of game nights. One day I got bored, so I decided to make my own card game and people kept asking to play it. My background is product design, so I thought I should turn this into a real game and eventually I got a prototype built. It was a journey.
What makes your game company unique?
The goal of Bunker83 is to have fun with friction. So you want a little bit of disagreement and a little bit of humor. Our games are designed to be unpredictably hilarious and temporarily frustrating on purpose to amplify your social competitiveness.
Our mission is to create games that encourage people to spend time with each other, face to face. As everything becomes more digital, you lose that in person connection.
What’s a favorite game that you’ve created?
The Wombattles — it’s a card game where you push your luck trying to help your wombat survive the battle. Wombats are one of my favorite animals. And because they’re critically endangered, a portion of each sale will be donated to charities dedicated to helping wombats survive. So, by purchasing the game, you’re also helping Wombats survive.
The game isn’t just fun — it’s educational. There are facts about wombats, and all of the actions are based off of real life wombat behavior.
Your games include a lot of beautiful artwork — is it all original?
The company is just me but I contract with artists. We don’t do AI art, it’s all working with real illustrators. As a creative person, I really appreciate that part. And I love to highlight the folks that really bring my games to life.
What are your biggest challenges?
A big challenge has been manufacturing. I started the business in 2021, but I didn’t have the actual product until 2022 because most manufacturers would not let me produce in small batches. I can now prototype one to hundreds or thousands with the manufacturer I use. That’s fantastic because I can really move at my own pace and make sure it’s the way I want it before it goes out to customers.
How do you handle inventory?
I work from home so it’s pretty crazy. I’m kind of overflowing with inventory. I would love to set up an actual store, but that’s in progress.
Early on, I learned that stocking up at lower prices doesn’t help if you can’t sell it — it just ties up space and money that could be used elsewhere. But working with a manufacturer that can produce those small batches on demand allows me to prototype and grow inventory as needed.
If I sell out of an item, I offer a discount that can be used once it’s back in stock. This helps keep potential customers happy and engaged with the brand.
How did you decide what kind of insurance you need?
For me, the challenge is being such a niche business and finding an insurance company that understands the type of coverage I need. With Simply Business, I know I can look at different carriers with all my coverages in the same place. So that’s a big plus because I’m so niche.
How do you market your business?
Instagram is currently my biggest platform. But I’ve also been doing a lot of vendor markets. The response from people is very interesting — they think I’m just selling the games, and when they realize I’m the one who designed them, they’re very intrigued.
I’ve also been doing more live streams — It’s really looking for those connections and making it a two-way conversation. Luckily, Blinker83 is not my primary source of income so I have the ability to be a little bit more experimental. I’d rather do that now and have the kinks worked out as I scale.
If you could give solopreneurs starting out some advice, what would it be?
First, I would say, even if you don’t think it’ll work, go for it. So many people have ideas, and unfortunately they just let them languish in their brain when some of them might not even be that hard to accomplish.
And then two is, don’t listen to people who aren’t doing it. I would rather be mentored by somebody who’s started and failed at 10 businesses than a business professor who never started a business.
One of the other things I always encourage is the world needs more originals and fewer copies. Lean into being you, as weird and wonderful as that can be. Stay teachable, stay humble, and take pride in what you’ve accomplished.
Small business owners like Jef are reshaping what success looks like. Simply Driven celebrates their vision and Simply Business is here to support them every step of the way with the tools to grow, manage risk, and stay protected.