Joe Terrell is a UK-based tech entrepreneur. He started his career as a front-end web developer, working for multiple household name brands as a contractor, before pursuing his entrepreneurial journey full-time in 2018.
Growing up in Cambridgeshire in the 1980s, Joe developed an early interest in computers and gaming, influenced by his father Martin, who had a successful career as a software developer.
Joe made the transition from just playing with software to writing it when the internet reached his small village in the form of dial-up broadband in the 1990s. Publishing his first website at the age of 14, Joe was instantly hooked on the potential of digital publishing.
Drifted - where did it start?
Joe has had an obsession with cars and Japanese culture since he was a teenager. In 2009, he had the opportunity to forge these interests together with the founding of Drifted (drifted.com).
Drifted is an automotive portal for all things drifting - arguably the most exciting form of motorsport which originated in Japan in the 1980s. In 2018, Joe left the professional web development world and took the reigns at Drifted full-time.
What happened next with Drifted?
In the years since, the website saw considerable success, serving over 650,000 monthly visitors with car content, car tuning guides, drift games and everything in between.
Drifted has grown into the most popular and comprehensive online destination for drifting enthusiasts. Two highlights from this journey were designing, developing, and publishing two Drifted exclusive drifting-themed browser games.
In 2020, Drifted released its first game - Touge Drift & Racing. After learning essential lessons from the development of this first game, it was followed up in 2022 by the development and release of the sequel to the most successful free drifting game (Drift Hunters) with Drift Hunters MAX.
Drift Hunters MAX has since surpassed 2 million plays and enjoyed two major game updates so far, with much more in the pipeline. The team chose to build this game on the base of the original popular Drift Hunters game, and shaped the sequel using fan feedback from surveys of players on the Drifted website. Drift Hunters MAX is the most popular and highest rated game on the Drifted website.
Further online projects
Joe has also been working on new projects in the automotive and gaming sectors, run under his UK-limited company, The Terrell Empire.
The Terrell Empire operates the following websites in the gaming niche:
- Smart Driving Games (smartdrivinggames.com)
- Smart Shooting Games (smartshootingames.com)
- New Browser Games (newbrowsergames.com)
- Scary Games Vault (Scary Games Vault)
Great Without Gluten
Joe works directly with his wife Becky on a gluten-free specialist recipe website called Great Without Gluten.
His favourite part of the Great Without Gluten website is all of the fabulous champagne testing that the couple does in order to find the best possible products to recommend. Hard work indeed!
Smart Bike Games
Smartbikegames.com was originally launched in 2019 as an SEO experiment in the power of exact or partial matched domain names for the purposes of ranking a new site in Google Search. This worked well, however the traffic monetisation did not match the marketing budget required to promote it.
In the summer of 2024, Joe rebooted the website with a new theme, all new games and game categories. The site was built upon the knowledge gained from the gaming side of the drifted.com website and Joe has big ambitions for the rebooted bike gaming website.
Smartbikegames.com hosts the largest collection of online bike games, from motorcycle games, to dirt bike games and mountain bike games, anything on two wheels is covered.
Joe Terrell trivia
So, you want to know more about Joe Terrell? Here is some trivia:
Joe Terrell has a famous JDM car
Joe's obsession of Japanese cars has not waned; he currently owns a 1999 Nissan Silvia S15 Spec R that he has been restoring and building up as a high-specification fast-road car for nine years.
As a testament to the car's exceptional condition, it was requested on set and shot at Warner Bros studio, London - in the latest Fast & The Furious movie, Fast X. You can see Joe's Silvia three times in the film. You can follow Joe's S15 progress on Instagram.
Joe was coached by professional business coaches
There are no overnight successes, and Joe is no exception. Having launched over a dozen websites during his entrepreneurial career, and with most of those failing, he realised he needed professional guidance.
Looking to refine his thought processes and business habits further, Joe invested in a journey of professional coaching. You can see a recent coaching testimonial about his experience here:
What is Joe Terrell doing right now?
Joe continues to work on scaling Drifted, and is currently investigating the potential positive applications of AI in the business, alongisde his other projects. You can keep up to date with him here.
Contact
If you would like to reach out to Joe, you can contact him here.