Founder’s Quest

Ep 12: Irena Pereira, Unleashed Games

Irena is a kindred spirit for me. She founded Unleashed Games in 2023 to pursue making games that tackled social design and brought players together. She hasn’t always wanted to start a studio, but after spending a career at places like Scopely, 38 Studios, and Blizzard working on World of Warcraft, she didn’t see anyone focused on the problems or opportunities she was most passionate about. If no one else is doing it, the sometimes you need to take the lead.
I deeply enjoyed my conversation with Irena, I hope you do as well. Let’s jump in

Ep 11: Jeanne-Marie Owens, Critical Path Games

I've known Jeanne-Marie Owens (co-founder of Critical Path Games, 2024) since 2020 when we worked together at Phoenix Labs. There she had the interesting experience of being the first employee of a startup and going on the whole founding journey through to an exit. It was a remarkable run and amazing learning experience, which she was then able to carry with her as she decided to be in a founder seat fully from the start on this journey.
 
We also talked a lot about the work that DigiBC - The Creative Technology Association of British Columbia does for the Vancouver startup ecosystem and the fulfillment and enjoyment she's gotten from participating and becoming the executive chair of gaming for the org. It really shows the power that local organizations can have on a founding journey, and the power of communities they can build.
 
Let's jump in.

Ep 10: Ran Mo, Proxima

Ran Mo, founder of Proxima in 2021, didn’t always work in games. He initially spent time as more of a consultant and corporate strategy side of things before transitioning into product management at Electronic Arts. That said, entrepreneurship and games was always the goal and so he spent time learning what he felt he needed to before making the jump. And despite being a very hard jump, Proxima has been successful! Releasing Suck Up, one of the first embodied AI games, earlier this year to strong success and building off of that. Ran’s journey has definitely had some wild turns and was wonderful to listen to. Let’s jump in.

Ep 9: Mickael Zerihoun, Caldera Interactive

I met Mickael through the local development community in Vancouver Canada. He’s one of the founders of Caldera Interactive which spun up in 2019. As you’ll hear, Caldera really came together in the classic game industry fable way of folks who wanted to make games, doing it on the side, then make a play to do it full-time and succeed. In this case, the play was applying for the Canadian Media Fund, or CMF. I wanted Mickael to come on and share his story so that folks could hear about how local ecosystem funding can be a source as much as the classic tales of publishers and VCs. Not an easy road, but a viable one.

Ep 8: Andy Mauro, Storycraft

Andy Mauro founded Storycraft in 2023 after spending a lot of time in the "chatbot" tech space, including a previously founded and exited company. He and I got to know each other through our mutual investor, London Venture Partners. I've always really enjoyed his insights from the tech side as he approaches building a game studio and merges his prior founding experience with being a lifelong gamer. Andy also has spent a lot of time both being and receiving Coaching and spends time in the episode to talk about how that experience has shaped him as a founder, and his team. 

Ep 7: Guy Costantini, Stealth Studio

This episode I talk with Guy Costantini who heads up a studio that is still in stealth. His journey is a unique one as he comes from a marketing background into entrepeneur life. He's worked as some major studios - Riot, CD Projekt, and Skydance - and is now translating a decade of lessons and experiences into a unique founding journey. We talk quite a bit about how he jumped in, how he's navigating fundraising in a tough market, and how his team and co-founders have come together. All in all its quite unique.As a note, the sound here is a little rougher than past episodes -- we'll get that cleaned up in the future. This episode is also a little on the longer side -- Guy is a self-proclaimed talker, and had a lot to share. 

Ep 6: Jenny Xu, Talofa Games

In this episode we talk to Jenny Xu who founded Talofa Games in 2021 right after graduating from MIT. I personally haven't run into someone before who said that they started a studio because it was easier than finding a job, but I have now. I think this may be a more common perspective these days with the current job market in games.As you'll hear, Jenny is incredibly driven and that has propelled her on a very different founding journey than other guests I've talked to thus far. From having family as cofounders, to learning leadership and management on the fly, to using her passion for fitness and health as a way to network into opportunities, Jenny's path is really amazing to listen to. 

Ep 5: Zabir Hoque, Torbie Games

This episode we talk with Zabir Hoque, who founded Torbie in 2022. He’s a digipen graduate who’s worked at large companies as an engineer both in and out of games, as well as having a front-row seat to startup life as an early employee at System Era Softworks. It was interesting to hear how all of those experiences really molded the kind of journey Zabir has gone on, and what kind of studio he’s built because of it.
 
Torbie’s first game is coming soon, check it out on Steam here and wishlist! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1891280/Everbloom/

Ep 4: Emily Greer, Kongregate & Double Loop Games

This episode I sit down with Emily Greer who co-founded Kongregate in 2006, and then went on her second founding journey with Double Loop Games in 2019. We talk about how her first journey led to her second, and how both were learning experiences in different ways. 
 
I think we often over-mythologize successes like Kongregate - which defined web based games for a generation - and (for very human reasons) under-discuss journeys that end with studio's closing their doors. I'm endlessly appreciative of Emily for being open about the challenges of both kinds of founding journeys, and successes within both, and her personal story of navigating them.

Ep 3: Paul Sage, Ruckus Games

This week we sit down with Paul Sage who founded Ruckus Games in 2021 after spending most of his career in larger, and notable, AAA studios. It was a real learning journey going from someone who didn't really believe he would ever start his own studio to starting one with seven cofounders.
I really loved how Paul took on this challenge, researched, and dove into going from a game developer to CEO. He also shared a ton of how he did that and I hope you find it all useful. As a note, he mentioned a book early on, which he couldn't remember the name of: It was Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson -- a very well regarded and seminal book for anyone going down the VC path.