Moore co-founded Red Engine with Paul Barham a little over a decade ago when the technology to allow concepts such as Flight Club and Electric Shuffle was not available.
Now there are 14 Flight Clubs in the UK, one in Ireland with 10 franchised sites in the US and four in Australia. While Red Engine’s other brand – Electric Shuffle – has five UK sites and three franchised in the US.
He says: “We launched our first round Flight Club 10 years ago this year so it’s exciting that we’re a decade old this year.
“I didn’t actually come from the sector itself. I just came up the idea with my friend Paul [Barham] about 12 years ago and we were one of the first to fuse technology with hospitality.
“We launched Flight Club Shoreditch but it took about two and a half to three years in development on the gaming side, the hospitality side, interiors and branding.
“Nothing like the tech needed for Flight Club existed back then so it had to be invented and that’s pretty wild.”
There have a been a lot of highlights in the short time the business has been around.
Moore explains: “I would say [Flight Club] working in the first place is a highlight! We were trying to pull off something that hadn’t been done before. We thought we were going to do one venue and for that to work out nicely.
“However, the launch of Electric Shuffle in New York City on my birthday last year has got to be a highlight.”
He says the New York opening for Electric Shuffle was “a hard one to do” because there was a lot riding on it including the fact it is located pretty much on Broadway.
“It’s fundamentally very cool so that was one hell of an achievement for sure,” Moore states. “And then it’s got to be somewhere like Sydney. Being able to pull off something of absolute pure quality on the other side of the world with the franchise partner was crazy.
“We’ve got Flight Club in Sydney and we’ve got Flight Club in Las Vegas both with the franchise partners but to be lucky enough to go to both of them. That is bizarre… what the hell is going on?!”
Moore adds the company may have franchised a touch too early but is “in really good shape for it now”, revealing that Chicago has gone really well but the international undertaking is pretty hard as a whole.
Productive during Covid
On the theme on difficult times, Moore says the beginning of Covid was a tough time for everybody but Red Engine took a lot of good out of that period by developing and creating new ideas with Moore stating: “We were pretty productive in that but it was ‘pokey’ for a little what with everything that was going on and tough being closed for such a long period of time”.
Equally balancing a family and work life is “challenging”. He reveals: “It’s a seven-days-a-week business. It’s not straightforward but the family has grown up with it – and they love it as well. They’ve been to the New York one and the UK ones so I think they get a buzz from it as well.”
Being the boss of a company means “there’s a lot riding on you”, Moore says.
He continues: “What’s difficult is knowing which way to go next. It’s not like you turn up and you get told what to do. There’s different ways you could go, different territories, different types of product – all that sort of stuff.
“I suppose what surprised me is how difficult it is, for example, strategy. No one can really prepare you for that.
“It’s bizarre to think that from all these sets of choices you can pick from, it can define the world for your people so it sits quite heavily.
“We get counsel from a good support mechanism of people in the sector so that’s good.”
If starting all over again, would Moore do anything differently? He says: “From the beginning, not a lot, I’d say, because ignorance is bliss, right? I don’t think you would do half the stuff if you actually knew how hard it was.
“Obviously, we made lots of errors, but I don’t think we would necessarily change the approach because it’s the mistakes that make it, really.”
Moore give advice on how anyone could reach a lofty height in the competitive socialising hospitality sphere.
“It’s the standard of being the stupidest person in the room, you just got to keep surrounding yourself by smarter people,” he says.
“You don’t actually need to be a specialist. You just have to be the best generalist you can so I learned about every discipline I could and I’m OK at most disciplines. You must make sure you just get somebody who is excellent. I understand gaming, I understand tech, I understand marketing and branding and all those sort of things but then surround yourself with people who are way better at it.
“You’ve got to have breadth rather than depth. You need to know a lot of disciplines and what it all means and how it all connects – and that’s really hard in itself.”
Stay connected to the guest
He adds one also needs a very clear vision and says there was no point the senior team stated its mission or vision was to open a certain number of venues or to make a certain amount of money.
He continues: “I have a very clearly laid-out strategy. We spend a lot of time on that and that points very clearly to a particular vision and to have a very concise and well communicated ‘why?’ as well. It can’t be underestimated how much we always lead back to you know why we’re doing it in the first place.”
On being successful as a competitive socialising business, he says: “Ensure you stay super connected to the guest and the guest experience, don’t assume anything because customer behaviour seems to shift quite quickly at the moment. The biggest thing is keeping on top of current trends and trying to truly understand what people like about your brand. That’s hard.”
It can be lonely at the top Moore admits but with the senior management team, he tries to make sure that isn’t the case.
“I know some people who find it pretty dark and it is kind of spooky and lonely but I try to avoid that by partnering up with people because you can go mad trying to make decisions by yourself,” Moore says.
“Quite often I partner up with the CFO quite a lot or the COO or others in the senior management team and that is really important because you can go mad when you can’t make a decision.
“It’s very hard to make objective decisions by yourself. You often end up where you’re going to end up anyway but it’s super important I know so many people who really did struggle with their mental health.”
On the top three qualities a good leader should have, Moore says: “Empathy’s the big one – and consistency. It doesn’t come naturally sometimes but consistency is everything, both on the upside and the downside.
“It’s a cliche but it’s about being passionate as well. It’s about how much you care and how much you put into it.”
Finally, when asked if he does anything in his personal life that improves his leadership skills, Moore jokes: “I can’t really have a personal life anymore, so no, absolutely f*****g not! No, nothing.”