In 1997, aged 21, I flew to San Francisco and signed a deal with Electronic Arts. Six weeks later a fax arrived: game cancelled. “Boat racing games don’t sell.”

That fax shaped the next six years. I decided I wasn’t going to run a business that stayed vulnerable like that – so I built one where we owned the IP, picked the partners, and wrote the terms. By 2003 we’d licensed the Stargate rights directly from MGM before going near a publisher, and signed what was then the largest publishing deal in Australian history. The bedroom startup became Australia’s largest independent video game developer: an $18M international business across three continents, with deals including MGM, Disney and other global rights holders.

The full story of what that taught me – including the question that ambushed me ten months after the deal – is here.

Now

I’m the Founder and CEO of The Perception Collective, a Sydney-based strategic consulting and technology agency. TPC is a Zoho Partner operating across three divisions: Perception (strategic consulting and technology), Family Member Care (SaaS for families coordinating health and care information, with FMCC the provider-facing brand for NDIS and aged care operators), and Challenge The Frame (course and community for operators rebuilding how they make decisions).

The Perception Collective was named with intent. Perception: the way you view a problem shapes the solutions you find – and it nods to the original Perception, the games studio. Collective: a deep bench of trusted experts and partners across disciplines, delivering what no single viewpoint could. In 2004, the Australian Financial Review ran a profile under the headline “Lenzo alters the usual perception.” Twenty-two years later, it’s still the job description.

Governance

I joined the board of Orana NSW Inc – disability support services across regional New South Wales – in October 2022 and was appointed Chairperson in October 2024. Earlier, I served on the Management Board of JoWooD Productions AG, listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange, through a governance turnaround.

I’m a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD), currently progressing AICD’s Boardroom Mastery programme, and pursuing Non-Executive Director appointments across technology, professional services and care sectors.

Writing, frameworks and teaching

I write The Perception Check – by Ben Lenzo: a newsletter for founders, operators and directors who think operating advice should engage the question underneath the strategy, not just optimise the strategy itself. The name is the discipline it argues for – checking your own perception before acting on it.

The frameworks come out of that practice. The most recent, published in Issue 3 (May 2026), is the MAD Rules of Reinvestment: M = More (the same thing, larger), A = Adjacent (the same logic, new surface), D = Different (something genuinely new). Only Different builds a Transformational and Compounding business. It now runs through TPC consulting engagements and board conversations alike.

I’ve guest lectured at the University of Sydney on ethical design and pitching, and written for the ABC and The Good Men Project on fatherhood, masculinity, and trying to be a decent human.

Connect

Consulting enquiries through The Perception Collective. Board, NED and governance conversations via LinkedIn. The newsletter is free – subscribe below.