Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Victor Matthews. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Victor, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

My back story is pretty messed up, and so is my sisters, but we always found peace and joy playing games as a family. Especially when good food or coffee was involved. There wasn’t very much peace and joy, but when there was, it normally had to do with eating good food while playing a fun game. As we got older we started to see that this problem wasn’t special to us, but actually a common issue.

So we are fighting to change that at One Haven. A safe place where people can enjoy life. Friends, family, good drinks and food, with endless games and events that are awesome for the whole family. We wanted to create a safe place for all walks of life, where people could let their guards down and pursue the peace and joy they need.

As we opened our hearts and doors, it exploded. Most business only care about money. We care about people. Most places are cold and transactional. We are warm and relational, and anyone who comes in contact with us sees and feels that. Now we also are 100% celiac safe bakery as well, furthering our mission to protect and serve the community as best we can. Fighting fear and stress in everything we do.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Victor Ward Matthews the third. Victor meaning victorious. Ward meaning to watch over and protect. Matthew meaning the first book of the new testament. And 3 just being the best number ever for a bunch of reasons.

So my full name translates to: The first victorious guardian.

Which is why my life has been dedicated to helping people and saving lives as best as I can.

My entire business model is just a community. A group of family and friends that has grown so large I had to take it public. Turns out, people like safe places with healthy local food and drinks where you can sit down with any owner just like family in a living room.

All our food? Hand made from scratch every morning. And we only make enough for the day so theirs no food waste. Home cooking from a team of local chefs who just want to give healthy fresh clean safe food back to the community.

Our bakery? Hand made from scratch in house every morning. We are 100% celiac safe, so it means doing every single step ourselves everyday. Top shelf care and quality.

Our coffee? Local roasters fresh each week. Our Chai? real recipe and ingredients that we use the money to buy kids out of slavery. Our tea? A friend of ours with a farm right outside Tokyo

Our art gallery? All locals who we connect with people all the time. Local artists do not have enough ways to pursue their dreams and were going to help with that.

Our game store? Family focused, most stores only cater to 1 group of just dads or sons, but here there is something for everyone.

Problems we solve? Well, would you like to have a nice day? Cause there’s a lot we can do to help with that. More specifically though, we are a 100% celiac safe business which is fun.

What sets us apart? hahaha everything, your never gonna feel anything like this anywhere. This is a powerful new innovation on how modern business work.

A restaurant. Celiac safe. A bakery. a art gallery, a game store and much more… The only thing I can thing of that’s even similar is stuff like Ivywild or Mcminamins, or Third space, those business are actually a bunch of different business working together, and you could say that’s kind of close.

What I’m proud of? No matter who you are, what’s going on in your life, or what you need, we’ve got a good shot at helping you.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Well, I am down to about 100 hours a week which is cool, but I was closer to 120 hours a week before. Yeah 6am to 4am was a classic for me for a long time. That’s not a joke or an exaggeration.

The cost of a Dream, especially one that will impact countless lives, will always be higher then you can ever imagine.

When you start a business, you have to be the best employee ever. All the grunt work, cleaning, admin chores, accounting. It all falls on you, and sure you may get some help but at the end of the day only the hyper resilient will even get a small chance.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Videogames. Yup Videogames. They saved me, and there going to save countless people though me.

I went pro at my first game in high school. Made some money, and took all the money and invested it….. into going pro at a different game. Which made me even more money… which I then took all that and invested it…. into going pro at a third game…. which that professional [e]sports career gave me enough money to open up a brick and mortar.

Now I do a lot, but my experience has lead me into a lot of coaching opportunities which has been a blast. I still remember the moment that my dad realized that I was making more money then most people in physical sport careers.

Not to get all oddball, but I basically went through about 10 years of pseudo isolated confinement. That’s a whole bunch of free time, so I thought to myself what can I do with all this time? I could work out, maybe read. Or you know what? I could just play a bunch of videogames… Best decision of my life, saved my whole life, my family’s whole life, and now thousands of strangers whole lives.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one_haven5956?igsh=ZzM5MGhiY2twaXlj
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1G3JuJJQGr/
• Other: https://discord.gg/ppXbbzyDgv

Image Credits

Gabbie C

Eva M