Podcasts about zynga poker

A Note from James:Mark Pincus is one of the true OGs of the internet. You probably know him as the founder of Zynga, the company behind FarmVille, Zynga Poker, and Words With Friends. Zynga was eventually acquired by Take-Two in a transaction valued at approximately $12.7 billion. Before Zynga, Mark started Tribe, one of the first social networks—before MySpace and Facebook. He has spent more than 25 years building, failing, and studying what gets millions of people to click, play, share, and come back. His new book, Life at the Speed of Play, inspired me to start coming up with new business ideas while we were still recording.What I really love is how Mark teaches people to copy like a master without looking like a copycat. He has a framework called “Proven–Better–New.” Start with something that has already been proven. Make it obviously better. Then isolate the new idea you want to test. It's one of the best systems I've heard for creating products people actually want.We talk about the early days of Facebook and MySpace, the failure of Tribe, the gaming industry, consumer psychology, AI coding, and how agents could eventually network and work for us while we're doing something else.I loved talking with Mark. I was still thinking about this conversation afterward—and I'm literally building businesses based on what I learned. His new book is called Life at the Speed of Play. Listen to this episode, and then read the book.Episode Description:Most founders begin with an idea and then spend months—or years—trying to prove that people want it. Mark Pincus thinks that process is backward.At Zynga, Mark's teams built “failure machines”: simple systems that allowed them to test hundreds of concepts before writing the code. They put unfinished ideas in front of real users, watched what people clicked, and refused to build anything until the demand was obvious. The objective wasn't to avoid failure. It was to make failure fast, cheap, and useful.Mark explains the framework behind that process: Proven–Better–New. First, study an existing success down to every screen, click, and design decision. Then identify one improvement that current users would immediately recognize as better. Only after that should a team add the unproven idea—the part most likely to fail.James and Mark also examine the problems facing today's consumer entrepreneurs. AI has made software easier to build, but distribution has become harder. People aren't searching for new apps, established platforms restrict organic growth, and algorithmic reach isn't the same as users actively sharing something with friends.Mark uses the failure of his early social network, Tribe, to explain why virality is not enough. Tribe grew quickly but lacked retention and trust. He ignored the communities users loved because they didn't match the business model he had already chosen. That painful mistake became the foundation for much of his later product philosophy.The conversation ends with Mark's current experiments: personal AI agents modeled after members of his family, a proposed work network built specifically for agents, an enterprise AI company called Hivemind, and the difficult decision to end a four-year passion project without abandoning the instinct behind it.This is a practical conversation about testing ideas, separating instinct from ego, learning from the past, and killing the wrong product before it consumes the right opportunity.What You'll Learn:How to build a failure machine: Test headlines, offers, videos, and fake doors before investing in a finished product.How to apply Proven–Better–New: Begin with a proven behavior, make one unmistakable improvement, and isolate the risky innovation.Why distribution is now harder than development: AI can generate a prototype quickly, but it cannot guarantee attention, trust, or adoption.Why Tribe failed despite rapid growth: Virality without retention, safety, and alignment with user behavior does not create a lasting network.How to copy without becoming a copycat: Study successful products at the pixel level, preserve what works, and innovate only where it matters.When to abandon an idea: Preserve the underlying instinct, but stop funding the particular expression of it when the evidence turns against you.How AI agents may change networking: Agents could eventually search for opportunities, exchange work, build reputations, and bring useful leads back to their users.Timestamped Chapters: [02:00] Finding the “OMFG” Moment [02:58] A Note from James [05:00] Build a Failure Machine Before Building a Product [06:25] Testing Demand With Fake Doors and Broken Links [08:08] Writing Copy That People Actually Notice [10:52] Test More Ideas in a Week Than the Industry Tests in a Year [11:53] Why Neglected Products Become Innovation Labs [13:26] How Mobile Apps Slowed Product Experimentation [15:09] Can AI Bring Rapid Testing Back? [17:08] Why Consumer Technology Feels Uninvestable [18:38] The 90/10 Rule for Investable Platforms [20:08] Why Nobody Downloads New Apps Anymore [21:20] Franchises, “Spicy New,” and Healthy Platforms [23:21] The Internet's Lost Cocktail Party [27:58] Why Tribe Failed While Facebook Won [30:26] Virality Without Trust or Retention [31:31] Ignoring What Tribe's Users Actually Wanted [33:22] Facebook, Raya, and Designing for Trust [35:03] Social Networks as Lead-Generation Engines [37:12] Facebook, Instagram, and the App Nobody Knew It Wanted [37:51] Net Promoter Scores and the Feeling of Quitting a Drug [40:25] Algorithmic Virality vs. People Sharing With Friends [42:00] Building Products That Help People Create [43:47] What Entrepreneurs Should Build With AI [44:54] The Proven–Better–New Framework [47:12] What “Obviously Better” Actually Means [48:25] Why “All New Fails” [50:23] Zynga Poker and the Power of Removing One Click [52:00] What AI Does Well—and Where Humans Still Matter [54:25] Picasso, Slack, and Copying the Past [55:11] Adding Fun to Boring Enterprise Products [57:39] The Moral Arbitrage of Killing Your Ego [57:58] How to Copy Without Looking Like a Copy [59:10] Why Old Internet Mechanics Keep Returning [01:00:16] Anonymous Social Apps With an AI Twist [01:01:17] Don't Invent a New Business—Reinvent a Big One [01:02:00] Test 20 Variants Before Building One [01:02:58] Mark's Frustrating Experiments With AI Coding [01:05:29] Creating a Personal Team of AI Agents [01:07:57] Killing a Four-Year Passion Project [01:09:29] The “Social Membrane” of the Agentic Internet [01:09:57] Building a Work Network for AI Agents [01:12:16] Hivemind and the Human Side of Enterprise AI [01:13:52] Missing Twitch—and Knowing Your Zone [01:15:06] Why the Gaming Industry Still Isn't Social Enough [01:16:30] Chess Ratings, Competition, and Mark's Daughter [01:19:19] Writing Life at the Speed of Play [01:21:18] Don't Chase Every New Technology Race [01:22:05] Final ThoughtsAdditional Resources:Mark Pincus and the BookLife at the Speed of Play — official websiteLife at the Speed of Play — HarperCollins — published June 23, 2026. Mark Pincus on X — the account Mark recommends for updates on his agent-network experiments. Mark Pincus on LinkedIn Mark's interview about open-sourcing Stem Studio Zynga, Games, and Product ExamplesZynga's company history — covers its launch as a Facebook poker project and the development of FarmVille, CityVille, and Words With Friends. Words With Friends FarmVille Take-Two and Zynga acquisition announcement — the transaction carried an enterprise value of approximately $12.7 billion. Tribe.net history — the early social network Mark analyzes as a major product failure. Raya — the private community Mark discusses as an example of building trust through curation. Grow a Garden on Roblox See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Mark Pincus founded Zynga—the company behind Words With Friends, FarmVille, and Zynga Poker—and has arguably created more hit consumer products than anyone in history. At Zynga, eight of 10 major game launches became massive hits, reaching over a billion players. Over the past five years, Mark has been synthesizing everything he's learned about building successful consumer products and turning it into a book, Life at the Speed of Play, which comes out on June 23. This is the first interview he's done about the book.In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:1. His “Proven, Better, New” framework: copy what's proven, make it better so that 10 out of 10 people say “f*ck yes, I'll use this”—then add something new2. Why being less ambitious is the path to the most ambitious ideas3. His rule of thumb that your instincts are right 95% of the time, but your ideas are wrong 75% of the time4. “Kill hope before hope kills you”5. How to raise kids in the age of AI—Brought to you by:WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and moreVanta—Automate compliance, manage risk, and accelerate trust with AI—Episode transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-common-pattern-behind-successful—Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0—Where to find Mark Pincus:• X: https://x.com/markpinc• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markpincus• Website: https://www.lifeatthespeedofplay.com—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Mark Pincus(02:46) The Proven Better New framework overview(07:29) Earning the right to innovate(08:30) What “better” really means(12:03) Quick summary of the framework(12:40) Examples of the framework in action(13:30) How to use proven correctly on your platform(15:13) The moral arbitrage of copying(23:55) Be less ambitious(28:25) The Bolt.new story and staying humble(33:15) Kill hope before hope kills you(37:00) Using AI as a failure machine(40:08) Why Zynga's games succeeded (it wasn't virality)(48:36) The future of consumer social apps(57:05) How to know if your product is a B+(1:01:25) Distribution in the age of AI(1:15:39) Make everyone a CEO(1:18:18) Stay close to the metal(1:21:35) Why Mark says micromanagement is beautiful(1:23:35) The expert witness(1:25:05) The number one job of a CEO is to be right(1:26:35) What Mark is teaching his five kids(1:35:14) Mark's “why”(1:37:08) Mark's new book: Life at The Speed of Play—Referenced:• Tribe.net: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe.net• Zynga: https://www.zynga.com• Sid Meier: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier• Electronic Arts: https://www.ea.com• CityVille: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CityVille• Words With Friends: https://wordswithfriends.com/• Scrabble: https://playscrabble.com• Reddit: https://www.reddit.com• TED Radio Hour, MIT Media Lab founder, 1984 TED talk.: https://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_negroponte_5_predictions_from_1984• Peter Thiel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterthiel• FarmVille: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FarmVille• Craig Newmark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Newmark• How to consistently go viral: Nikita Bier's playbook for winning at consumer apps (co-founder of TBH, Gas, advisor, investor): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-consistently-go-viral-nikita-bier• Angry Birds: https://www.angrybirds.com/• OMGPop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMGPop• Draw Something: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draw_Something• Slack founder: Mental models for building products people love ft. Stewart Butterfield: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/slack-founder-stewart-butterfield• Brian Chesky's new playbook: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/brian-cheskys-contrarian-approach• Garry Tan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrytan• Brian Armstrong on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barmstrong• Jason Citron on X: https://x.com/jasoncitron• Stanislav Vishnevskiy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/svishnevskiy• Jeff Bezos on X: https://x.com/JeffBezos• Andy Jassy on X: https://x.com/ajassy• Niantic: https://nianticlabs.com• Pokémon Go: https://pokemongo.com• Bing Gordon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/binggordon—Recommended book:• Life at the Speed of Play: Launch Products People Love!: https://www.amazon.com/Life-Speed-Play-Launch-Products/dp/0063352575/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com

Guest: Mark Pincus, founder & chairman of Zynga, and managing member & co-founder of Reinvent CapitalBefore Zynga and Facebook made social gaming mainstream, the video game industry was “extreme on this being about art and crafting,” recalls Zynga founder Mark Pincus. He believes his winning instinct was the realization that games were “at least 50 percent science” — but it's not enough to just have the instinct. Mark says entrepreneurs like him have to quickly take multiple shots on the goal and “look for feedback loops that tell you your instinct is right ... you need to get to a minimum viable idea state and you need to find true signal around that idea state, that it's right or wrong, and move on.”Chapters:(01:40) - Rubbing sticks together (07:01) - Virtual businesses (12:10) - Pre-Zynga companies (13:51) - Setting the real intention (17:44) - Internet treasures (23:21) - Disrupting gaming (30:14) - The chip on Mark's shoulder (33:19) - The end of Tribe (37:24) - Zynga Poker (42:59) - Explosive growth (46:57) - Making the virtual real (52:02) - The downturn (58:12) - Stepping aside (sort of) (01:01:50) - Back into the fire (01:08:45) - In the abyss (01:11:46) - What “grit” means to Mark Mentioned in this episode: Dot Earth, Elon Musk and the Boring Company, Uber Eats and Dara Khosrowshahi, ChatGPT, Roblox, Madhappy, Reid Hoffman, Craigslist, Google, Napster and Sean Parker, the California Culinary Academy, Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, Yahoo, John Doerr, Words with Friends, LinkedIn, Tribe.net, Supercell and Ilkka Paananen, FarmVille and Hay Day, Parker Conrad and Rippling, Bing Gordon, Fred Wilson, Brad Feld, the Game Developer's Conference, CNET, Matt Cohler, Don Mattrick, Microsoft and the Xbox, Joe Biden, Jason Citron and Discord, Steve Jobs, Super Labs, Marcus Segal, Frank Gibeau, The Courage to Be Disliked, and Stewart Butterfield.Links:Connect with MarkTwitterLinkedInConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

"Da bih napredovao u industriji morao sam da kalkulišem rizik." U 243. epizodi Pojačala, Ivanu Miniću se u razgovoru pridružuje Nebojša Radović, stari prijatelj i gost u povratku iz sada već davne 3. epizode. U razgovoru sa Ivanom, Nebojša nam pruža dubok uvid iz same unutrašnjosti industrije koja kod je kod nas i dalje u ranom povoju, a to je mobilna gaming industrija. Kao direktor za performance marketing u kompaniji Zynga (na našim prostorima poznata po popularnim aplikacijama Zynga Poker i FarmVille) Nebojša će nam otkriti par pojedinosti o tome kako funkcijoniše marketing i istraživanje tržišta u okviru mobile gaming industrije kao i par stvari koje treba da znaju oni koji žele da pronađu zaposlenje u toj sferi. Nebojša takođe pravi osvrt dane kada je odlučio da se preseli u Ameriku, teškoće sa kojima se suočio u tom periodu i lekcije koje je iz svega toga izvukao. Nebojšino prvo gostovanje možete pogledati ovde - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdeLPvfta8U Teme u epizodi: - Uvod - Kad porastem biću... - Obrazovni put - Uhvatio sam pravac u Americi - Jezička barijera - Marketing u svetu mobilnih igara - Mobilni gaming - Trendovi u mobile gejmingu - Milionske skale korisnika - Brzina nasuprot stabilnosti - Naučene lekcije Podržite nas na BuyMeACoffee: https://bit.ly/3uSBmoa Pročitajte transkript ove epizode: https://bit.ly/49Qi5Zx Posetite naš sajt i prijavite se na našu mailing listu: http://bit.ly/2LUKSBG Prijavite se na naš YouTube kanal: http://bit.ly/2Rgnu7o Pratite Pojačalo na društvenim mrežama: Facebook: http://bit.ly/2FfwqCR Twitter: http://bit.ly/2CVZoGr Instagram: http://bit.ly/2RzGHjN

Mark Pincus was at the forefront of mobile technology when it was just being born. He is a recovering venture capitalist who co-founded his first company with Sunil Paul in 1995. FreeLoader was at the forefront of giving people the news through push technology, just as the IETF was in the process of ratifying HTTP2. He sold that for $38 million only to watch it get destroyed. But he did invest in a startup that one of the interns founded when he gave Sean Parker $100,000 to help found Napster.  Pincus then started Support.com, which went public in 2000. Then Tribe.net, which Cisco acquired. As a former user, it was fun while it lasted. Along the way, Pincus teamed up with Reid Hoffman, former PayPal executive and founder of LinkedIn and bought the Six Degrees patent that basically covered all social networking. Along the way, he invested in Friendster, Buddy Media, Brightmail, JD.com, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter.  Investing in all those social media properties gave him a pretty good insight into what trends were on the way. Web 2.0 was on the rise and social networks were spreading fast. As they spread, each attempted to become a platform by opening APIs for third-party developers. This led to an opening to create a new company that could build software that sat on top of these social media companies. Meanwhile, the gaming industry was in a transition from desktop and console games to hyper-casual games that are played on mobile devices. So Pincus recruited conspirators to start yet another company and with Michael Luxton, Andrew Trader, Eric Schiermeyer, Steve Schoettler, and Justin Waldron, Zinga was born in 2007. Actually Zinga is the dog. The company Zynga was born in 2007. Facebook was only three years old at the time, but was already at 14 million users to start 2007. That's when they opened up APIs for integration with third party products through FBML, or Facebook Markup Language. They would have 100 million within a year. Given his track record selling companies and picking winners, Zynga easily raised $29 million to start what amounts to a social game studio. They make games that people access through social networks. Luxton, Schiermeyer, and Waldron created the first game, Zynga Poker in 2007. It was a simple enough Texas hold 'em poker game but rose to include tens of millions of players at its height, raking in millions in revenue.  They'd proven the thesis. Social networks, especially Facebook, were growing.. The iPhone came out in 2007. That only hardened their resolve. They sold poker chips in 2008. Then came FarmVille. FarmVille was launched in 2009 and an instant hit. The game went viral and had a million daily users in a week. It was originally written in flash and later ported to iPhones and other mobile platforms. It's now been installed over 700 million times and ran until 2020, when Flash support was dropped by Facebook. FarmVille was free-to-play and simple. It had elements of a 4x game like Civilization, but was co-op, meaning players didn't exterminate one another but instead earned points and thus rankings. In fact, players could help speed up tasks for one another. Players began with a farm - an empty plot of land. They earned experience points by doing routine tasks. Things like growing crops, upgrading items, plowing more and more land. Players took their crops to the market and sold them for coins. Coins could also be bought. If a player didn't harvest their crops when they were mature, the crops would die. Thus, they had players coming back again and again. Push notifications helped remind people about the state of their farm. Or the news in FreeLoader-speak.   Some players became what we called dolphins, or players that spent about what they would on a usual game. Maybe $10 to $30. Others spent thousands, which we referred to as whales. They became the top game on Facebook and the top earner. They launched sequels as well, with FarmVille 2 and FarmVille 3.  They bought Challenge Games in 2010, which was founded by Andrew Busy to develop casual games a well. They bought 14 more companies. They grew to 750 employees. They opened offices in Bangalore, India and Ireland. They experimented with other platforms, like Microsoft's MSN gaming environment and Google TV. They released CastleVille. And they went public towards the end of 2011. It was a whirlwind ride, and just really getting started. They released cute FarmVille toys.  They also released Project Z, Mafia Wars, Hanging with Friends, Adventure World, and Hidden Chronicles. And along the way they became a considerable advertising customer for Facebook, with ads showing up for Mafia Wars and Project Z constantly. Not only that, but their ads flooded other mobile ad networks, as The Sims Social and other games caught on and stole eyeballs. And players were rewarded for spamming the walls of other players, which helped to increase the viral nature of the early Facebook games. Pincus and the team built a successful, vibrant company. They brought in Jeff Karp and launched Pioneer Trail. Then another smash hit, Words with Friends. They bought Newtoy for $53.3 million to get it, after Paul and David Bettner who wrote a game called Chess with Friends a few years earlier. But revenues dropped as the Facebook ride they'd been on began to transition from people gaming in a web browser to mobile devices. All this growth and the company was ready for the next phase. In 2013, Zynga hired Donald Mattrick to be the CEO and Pincus moved to the role of Chief Product Officer. The brought in Alex Garden, the General Manager for Xbox Music , Video, and Reading, who had founded the Homeward creator Relic Entertainment back in the 1990s. The new management didn't fix the decline. The old games continued to lose market share and Pincus came back to run the company as CEO and cut the staff by 18 percent. In 2015 they brought in Frank Gibeau to the board and by 2016 moved him to  CEO of the company. One challenge with the move to mobile was who got the processing payments. Microtransactions had gone through Facebook for years. They moved to Stripe in 2020. They acquired Gram Games, to get Merge Dragons! They bought Small Giant Games to get Empires & Puzzles. They bought Peak Games to get Toon Blast and Toy Blast. They picked up Rollic to get a boatload of actions and puzzle games. They bought Golf Rival by acquiring StarLark. And as of the time of this writing they have nearly 200 million players actively logging into their games. There are a few things to take from the story of Zynga. One is that a free game doesn't put $2.8 billion in revenues on the board, which is what they made in 2021. Advertising amounts for just north of a half billion, but the rest comes from in app purchases. The next is that the transition from owner-operators is hard. Pincus and the founding team had a great vision. They executed and were rewarded by taking the company to a gangbuster IPO. The market changed and it took a couple of pivots to get there. That led to a couple of management shakeups and a transition to more of a portfolio mindset with the fleet of games they own. Another lesson is that larger development organizations don't necessarily get more done. That's why Zynga has had to acquire companies to get hits since around the time that they bought Words with Friends.  Finally, when a company goes public the team gets distracted. Not only is going through an IPO expensive and the ensuing financial reporting requirements a hassle to deal with, but it's distracting. Employees look at stock prices during the day. Higher ranking employees have to hire a team of accountants to shuffle their money around in order to take advantage of tax loopholes. Growth leads to political infighting and power grabbing. There are also regulatory requirements with how we manage our code and technology that slow down innovation. But it all makes us better run and a safer partner eventually. All companies go through this. Those who navigate towards a steady state fastest have the best chance of surviving one more lesson: when the first movers prove a monetization thesis the ocean will get red fast. Zynga became the top mobile development company again after weathering the storm and making a few solid acquisitions. But as Bill Gates pointed out in the 1980s, gaming is a fickle business. So Zynga agreed to be acquired for $12.7 billion in 2022 by Take-Two Interactive, who now owns the Civilization, Grand Theft Auto, Borderlands, WWE, Red Dead, Max Payne, NBA 2K, PGA 2K, Bioshock, Duke Nukem, Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, Battleship, Centipede, and the list goes on and on. They've been running a portfolio for a long time. Pincus took away nearly $200 million in the deal and about $350 million in Take-Two equity. Ads and loot boxes can be big business. Meanwhile, Pincus and Hoffman from LinkedIn work well together, apparently. They built Reinvent Capital, an investment firm that shows that venture capital has quite a high recidivism rate. They had a number of successful investments and SPACs.  Zynga was much more. They exploited Facebook to shoot up to hundreds of millions in revenue. That was revenue Facebook then decided they should have a piece of in 2011, which cut those Zynga revenues in half over time. This is an important lesson any time a huge percentage of revenue is dependent on another party who can change the game (no pun intended) at any time. Diversify. 

In this episode, we're talking to Justin Waldron, former 19-year-old co-founder of Zynga and current founder of Storyverse, a web3 venture aimed at bringing NFTs to life. Justin has also advised ​​Dapper Labs, CryptoKitties, Decentraland, and Immutable (probably nothing). Justin unpacks all of his learnings from his years at Zynga working on Farmville, Mafia Wars, & Zynga Poker, and how he's implementing these first principles into his current NFT ventures. He also explains how Storyverse is helping bring NFTs to life through the storytelling tools it enables and why he thinks people play games and how NFTs make this reason even more compelling! ------

In this episode, we're talking to Justin Waldron, former 19-year-old co-founder of Zynga and current founder of Storyverse, a web3 venture aimed at bringing NFTs to life. Justin has also advised ​​Dapper Labs, CryptoKitties, Decentraland, and Immutable (probably nothing). Justin unpacks all of his learnings from his years at Zynga working on Farmville, Mafia Wars, & Zynga Poker, and how he's implementing these first principles into his current NFT ventures. He also explains how Storyverse is helping bring NFTs to life through the storytelling tools it enables and why he thinks people play games and how NFTs make this reason even more compelling! ------

Join former NFL Player, Investor and Entrepreneur Dhani Jones as he sits down to speak with the Founding Managing Partner at Plexo Capital, Lo Toney, on this episode of The Pathfinders, presented by Ansarada. This is a show about uncovering stories of modern dealmakers and empowering people to carve their own path forwards. Plexo Capital is an institutional investment firm Lo incubated and spun out of Google Ventures. They invest in emerging seed-stage VC's led by diverse teams that invest directly into companies sourced from the portfolios of VC's where Plexo Capital has an investment. Lo is here to tell us a little bit about his career, the challenges he's had to overcome, and how he, as well as Plexo Capital, are trying to change the venture capital landscape. You'll get to listen as they discuss his days at LearnStreet and the motivation behind wanting to help aspiring computer scientists learn how to code online. Hear about his time working at Zynga, what it was like being the GM of Zynga Poker and how under his leadership they were able to increase web bookings by 150%. Also, learn about what the original idea was that led to Plexo Capital being spun out of Google Ventures and understand some of the values that it was founded on. Get some first-hand insight into a few of Lo's guiding philosophies for identifying exciting, new deals during their early stages, as well as how he is cultivating and encouraging diversity in the investment and venture capital landscape. Together, Dhani and Lo have a thoughtful discussion and touch on the importance of betting on yourself, being resilient and so much more.  It's about time to press that play button and get ready to enjoy another episode of The Pathfinders, brought to you by Ansarada! Follow UsLinkedIn @AnsaradaTwitter @ansaradaFacebook @AnsaradaPlatformInstagram @ansarada_Presented by Ansaradawww.ansarada.com

With long histories in product management specifically in the games industry, we have a REAL discussion on what it takes to be a great PM. Hardcore and real talk from guys who have worked on very successful products. I led the #1 top-grossing game King of Avalon plus a lot of other shit. Brett was a lead PM on Zynga Poker which was contributing 22% of Zynga's revenue at the time. Real talk you won't get anywhere else. This talk is for hardcore PMs only! Follow this channel if you want to hear more philosophy on current and important issues in the F2P games industry. The story behind JK getting assassinated: HERE Recommended Books on PM: 1. The Principles of Product Development Flow by Donald G. Reinertsem 2. Principles by Ray Dalio 3. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink 4. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz 5. Atomic Habits by James Clear 6. The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh Read about it in the GameMakers newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/gamemakers/message

On this episode, we talk with Bill Mooney, who was the former Studio Vice President of Zynga from 2008—2012, leading FarmVille, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars, and other apps during their peak DAU numbers. He is currently the CEO at Proteus Games, a new venture in mobile gaming. We ask what makes a game stand out from the pack, and how to know a good bet when you see it? How do you find new, strategic opportunities in the gaming space and have the wherewithal to follow through? Bill speaks to the importance of curiosity when confronted with trends you don't understand, how to stick to a vision without partners, colleagues, and peers diluting it, why we can't get enough of tiktok's extremely niche content, and much, much more on this episode of Creators at Work.

In Episode 11 of Venture Games, my guest Lo Toney, Founding Managing Partner at Plexo Capital, discusses his firm's strategy of investing in LPs and startups with a focus on underrepresented founders, leading the migration of Zynga Poker to mobile, how he thinks about investing in emerging markets such as Africa and Latin America, his thoughts on how diversity in VC has improved since he has been in the industry, and his hopes for further changes going forward.

On this episode we speak with Alden Seabolt. Alden started at Zynga as an Associate Producer before being promoted to a Lead Product Manager for the Zynga Poker team after just five months. After leaving in 2014 he co-founded Infuse, a business that works to provide solutions for payment processing services and the healthcare industry. Alden now works at Blend as the product lead for the Consumer Banking team, and strives to facilitate lending practices for consumers by making the process simpler and more accessible. We discuss the tools Alden utilized to facilitate his success, the importance of identifying your comparative advantage to set you apart from the pack, how balancing objectivity and empathy can establish effective communication and empower a team to find solutions, and much more on this episode of Creators at Work.

On this episode, we chat with Eddie LeBreton who is currently Head of Product Management for the Spark Camera & Augmented Reality Platform at Facebook, and former general manager and vice president of Zynga Poker. We delve into the research process that helped completely revitalize Zynga Poker, how Eddie and his team used Max Diff studies and customer feedback to drive meaningful revenue change.

On this episode of Creators at Work, we chat with Justin Wickett, who worked at Zynga from 2010-2013, and was the former Director of Product for Zynga Poker. We unpack his takeaways from his time at Zynga like the balance between analytics and player experience needed to make impactful decisions, the importance of short and long-term goals to unify a company, and the perils and pitfalls around hackers, bots, and fraudulent accounts.

On today's episode, Brett talks with Berto Alvaro, one of the earliest employees at Zynga who was the Lead UX Designer and then Art Director for Zynga Poker. They discuss in detail the process that they took to create a bold beat that became one of the most successful features released in Zynga Poker.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we listen to Frank Gruber’s interview with Lo Toney at the Startup of the Year Summit in the fall of 2020. Lo is the founding managing partner at Plexo Capital, which is an institutional investment firm he incubated and spun out from Google Ventures. Plexo Capital invests in emerging seed-stage VCs led by diverse teams and invests directly into companies sourced from the portfolios of VCs where Plexo Capital has an investment. Prior to founding Plexo Capital, Lo was a Partner on the investing team at Google Ventures where he focused on marketplaces, mobile and consumer products. Before Google Ventures, Lo was a Partner with Comcast Ventures where he led the Catalyst Fund and worked with the main fund where he focused on mobile messaging and marketplaces. Lo also worked with Zynga as the GM of Zynga Poker with full P+L responsibility for Zynga’s largest franchise at that time. He has also held executive roles with Nike, eBay, as well as startups funded by top tier investors. On another note, we have a very exciting SXSW event planned on March 15 - 20. Our programming will also include a segment for Government Funding Opportunities for Startups and a Venture Capital Reverse Pitch, where investors will actually pitch their funds to startups...which everyone is really excited about. If you are interested in learning more or getting involved visit: www.est.us/sxsw21. We also invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country. It is also that time of year again when the Startup of the Year 2021 Application is open. So if you are a startup looking for exposure and to become part of an amazing community make sure to apply at https://www.startupofyear.com/application. We also want to congratulate Kamana Health (Established Venture Portfolio & 2019 Top 100) for announcing that they've been acquired by Triage. Kamana is a software platform connecting healthcare providers and staffing agencies with traveling nurses and other medical professionals. Learn more at the following: https://www.kamanahealth.com/an-open-letter-to-our-customers/. Lastly, check us out on the Clubhouse App, where we are planning a bunch of new rooms and sessions coming out regularly and we will also have some rooms during our SXSW festivities. Follow our Club - Startup Community Club. Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/ Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/ Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

Two world class industry experts in mobile social casino talk to us today about the latest overview, updates, trends, and predictions for the market. Our guests today include: Brett Nowak, CEO of market research firm Liquid & Grit (www.liquidandgrit.com). Brett was formerly Lead PM on Zynga Poker at Zynga, and was a Director of Product at Blue Shell Games before starting Liquid & Grit. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-now... Lloyd Melnick has an incredible background in social casino working at Merscom, Playdom, Disney, FiveOneNine Games, Spooky Cool Labs, Zynga, and The Stars Group.Lloyd is currently GM of Chumba Casino for VGW and a board member of MURKA. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloydmeln... The video version of this interview can be found here on the GameMakers YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/S2qIAYgr7Kw Host: Joseph Kim @jokim1 (Insta, Twitter) Guests: Lloyd Melnick @LloydMelnick (Twitter) Brett Nowak @bnowak15 (Twitter) --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/deconstructoroffun/support

The story of videogame company Zynga is of rise and fall, but unlike many others, it climbed its way back up, thanks to the resilience of games like "Words with Friends," and "Zynga Poker." With new games in the wings for Snapchat and a GOT game, Zynga's president of publishing Bernard Kim sits down with Jefferson Graham for a chat.

In a jam-packed episode about the happenings in the world of online poker, Nick and Mike discuss the upcoming release of The State of the Online Poker Industry Spring 2019 from Poker Industry PRO, the newest game from partypoker - Short Deck Hold'em, West Virginia welcoming online poker, more info on the UFC-themed games on PokerStars, updates to Stars Rewards going global, Zynga Poker introducing Spins, and more!

Niko Vuori is founder and CEO of Drivetime.fm, a company focused on creating games that you can safely play while you drive. The company's first title is a voice interactive trivia game that mimics a morning radio show and substitutes gameplay for music. Niko was formerly co-founder and COO of Rocket Games which was acquired by Penn National Games in 2016. He was formerly head of product at Toy Talk (which eventually became Pullstring) and studio general manager at Zynga where he oversaw Zynga Poker and FrontierVille which together generated over $300 million in annual revenue. We discuss voice interactive games, why Drivetime.fm is betting it all on the car, and how you can get people to incorporate a 30-minute game into their daily routine. Niko earned an MBA from Berkeley's Haas School and an undergraduate degree from the University of York. 

On this episode, we discuss the massive Red Dead Redemption 2 leaks that gave us a glimpse into what the Rockstar game might look like. Regulars Rishi Alwani and Mikhail Madnani join host Pranay Parab to discuss. Red Dead Redemption 2 leaks (0:50) Trusted Reviews’ report GTA V and Take-Two’s revenues Red Dead Redemption 2 multiplayer Red Dead Redemption Story Strange quests Why the game was so popular Why PC release never happened RDR multiplayer community Soundtrack RDR 2 battle royale mode? RDR 2 release date Single-player details RDR 2 companion app GTA V companion app PC release date? What happens to other Rockstar IPs? Games we’ve been playing this week (25:58) Yakuza 0 Cat Quest Splatoon 2 Yakuza 6 Kingdom Come: Deliverance Music: Popular Potpourri and Path Complete from PPPPPP by Magnus “Souleye” Pålsson.

On this episode, I chat with co-founder and VP of Growth at Balanced, Jareau Wade. We discuss financial technology (FinTech) startups, getting more kids involved in technology, and ramble a bit about our history with the music industry. Part 2 features Lo Toney, a venture capitalist at Comcast Ventures. He spent time as the chief executive officer at Learnstreet that provided online education for computer programmers. He was also the executive in charge of Zynga Poker at Zynga. We talk about startup funding, Miles Davis and Rachmaninoff, and his journey in technology.

SrslySirius guest co-hosts in place of Drexel. We discuss the real money poker coming to WSOP.com and the beta test for Nevada residents, along with Caesar's aggressive promise that it will be running in 2013. Lock Poker is having even more money problems. Druff confirms and gives more details about his upcoming appearance in a DVD Extra of a major theatrical movie. We talk about a PFA member being cheated in Carbon Poker's Last Man Standing contest. We discuss the recent confession by Peter "Zupp" Zepsen that he multi-accounted against Viktor Blom in 2009. Ray Bitar is getting no jail time, and we give our reactions. We analyze the situation with the Royal Bank of Canada sending warning letters to online poker players. Zynga Poker is offering real money poker, but not the way you might think. Erik Ryland calls in to talk about bitcoins. We play clips from the trailer of upcoming online poker documentary "Bet, Raise, Fold". We attempt to call a few more leaked celebrity phone numbers. badguy23 gives us a number to prank call of a strange guy in Los Angeles.

SrslySirius guest co-hosts in place of Drexel. We discuss the real money poker coming to WSOP.com and the beta test for Nevada residents, along with Caesar's aggressive promise that it will be running in 2013. Lock Poker is having even more money problems. Druff confirms and gives more details about his upcoming appearance in a DVD Extra of a major theatrical movie. We talk about a PFA member being cheated in Carbon Poker's Last Man Standing contest. We discuss the recent confession by Peter "Zupp" Zepsen that he multi-accounted against Viktor Blom in 2009. Ray Bitar is getting no jail time, and we give our reactions. We analyze the situation with the Royal Bank of Canada sending warning letters to online poker players. Zynga Poker is offering real money poker, but not the way you might think. Erik Ryland calls in to talk about bitcoins. We play clips from the trailer of upcoming online poker documentary "Bet, Raise, Fold". We attempt to call a few more leaked celebrity phone numbers. badguy23 gives us a number to prank call of a strange guy in Los Angeles.

Links from this episode: PETA gets a .XXX domain http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20094995-71/report-peta-to-launch-porn-site/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 Warcraft: Patch 4.3 Updated Information, Transmogrification Preview: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2419-Patch-4.3-Updated-Information-Transmogrification-Preview Teen dies of rare disease caused by "brain-eating" amoeba: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20093447-10391704.html http://imgur.com/Wb8UM Lawful Good - Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo) Neutral Good - Gabe Newell (Valve) Chaotic Good - Tim Schafer (Psychonauts, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Day of the Tentacle) Lawful Neutral - Peter Molyneux (Fable, Black & White, and Populous) True Neutral - John Carmack (ID Software) Chaotic Neutral - Notch (Minecraft) Lawful Evil - Bobby Kotick (Author of "How to make more Money-O's") Neutral Evil - Fernando Melo (Bioware) Chaotic Evil - Mark Pincus (Farmville, Mafia Wars, Zynga Poker, etc) http://prime.paxsite.com/schedule.php