YOUNGSTOWN — What happens when you graduate last in your class from high school with a less-than-impressive grade-point average, are asked to leave a major university, get fired from two restaurant positions and initially have no desire to run a company?

If you’re Wayne Mackey, you become a neuroscientist and build a company product into platforms used by more than 40 million people.

“I did not want to be a CEO. I just wanted to build something cool, and everything came after that,” Mackey, founder and chief executive officer of a business called Statespace, said.

Mackey shared part of his success story in the gaming and technology industries with about 40 Youngstown State University students, early-stage founders, developers and others during an “Engine Connect: From Vision to Venture” gathering Thursday evening in the Youngstown Business Incubator Engine Tech building, 252 W. Boardman St., downtown.

The event was a collaborative effort between the YBI Engine Tech Incubator program and Code Youngstown, which was established more than 10 years ago and is a social group for software developers, Joe Duncko, who co-organized Thursday’s gathering, noted.

Code Youngstown hosts events roughly every two months to encourage software developers to come together “to lift up the community and be sure we exchange ideas and job opportunities, talk about technology people are working on and best practices,” Duncko said.

Mackey recalled having graduated from Warren Christian School with a 1.9 GPA. He disliked math and science, “but I loved video games,” though he was unaware of how crucial the two subjects were for that pursuit. As a result, he became self-taught regarding learning computer coding for such games, Mackey remembered.

The father of three young children also said he had at that time a strong affinity for role-playing games.

Before leaving his deeply embedded footprints in the industries, Mackey “was kicked out of Kent State University,” fired from Applebee’s and another restaurant, worked as a telemarketer and for a car dealership. He also dabbled as a mixed martial arts fighter, he told his audience.

A takeaway from his time in the MMA arena was seeing the value in refraining from placing unnecessary and burdensome “mental ceilings” on himself during a period in his life that was filled with uncertainty, including whether to go to college, Mackey said.

By his own estimate, callers turned Mackey down perhaps 99% of the time when he worked for the telemarketing company, but being persistent helped pave the way for him to develop a valuable skill of meeting with and relating to venture capitalists who could potentially provide start-up funds for his business, he explained.

Another pivotal step forward for Mackey came when a KSU professor advocated for him, even though he had been asked to leave. The professor wrote a letter to the dean on behalf of Mackey, and having someone believe in him proved invaluable, Mackey said.

Later, he returned to college, at ITT Tech and a community college, where it dawned on the nearly 30-year-old Mackey that he could capitalize on his computer science knowledge and acumen.

In addition, he attended Temple University in Philadelphia, where Mackey discovered his love for science after having taken a highly challenging neuroscience class and saw some parallels between engineering and how certain parts of the brain functioned.

He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Temple University.

From there, he earned a doctorate degree in neuroscience cognition and perception from New York University.

Statespace combines neuroscience, artificial intelligence and video games to improve cognitive functioning and motor skills. Aim Lab is the company’s first product and has in excess of 40 million casual gamers, professional Esports athletes and other users.

Much of Mackey’s work centers on how the brain supports flexible behavior and decision-making processes. In addition, he had conducted research with the Universities of Delaware and Indiana as well as other institutions to examine his company’s technology applications regarding strokes, childhood movement disorders and traumatic brain injuries.

Another influence on Mackey was having watched an interview on ESPN with Steve Arhancet, CEO of Team Liquid, said to be one of the world’s leading Esports organizations that manages more than 150 athletes. Doing so allowed Mackey to further see how certain skills combined with athleticism relate to the gaming world.

Working with those who had strokes required him to have them “make the same moves over and over and over again,” Mackey said, adding that he’s also assisted children who have cerebral palsy.

For more information about Code Youngstown’s free events, visit its website, www.codeyoungstown.com.