Hello readers,
Been a short while! The final yr has been a whirlwind each personally and professionally, and I’ve not had as a lot time to put in writing as I want I had. I discover it superb I as soon as had sufficient time to really write a e-book — now I largely write e mail 🙂 Nonetheless, I’ve a ton of subjects to share and need to get again into it.
Nevertheless, there’s one huge factor I’ve to do earlier than I bounce again into writing — first, on the non-public aspect, Emma and I are engaged! Right here’s a photograph from Badlands Nationwide Park (which btw, I extremely encourage you all to go to). I’ll have to inform all of you the “how we met” story someday, however let me preview it to say that it entails lockdowns, a snowstorm in Austin, a number of flights, and at last discovering the neighborhood of hipsters/boutiques/canals the place we dwell now — in Venice, CA.
I revealed this announcement earlier on social media (comply with @andrewchen!) and acquired many good messages from a lot of you. Thanks a lot.
We are literally getting married in a number of weeks, and visiting Japan for our honeymoon. Hopefully I’ll have loads of time to put in writing and tweet (err.. X? and re-X?) throughout my journey. I’ve an extended matter listing to undergo. So that you’ll be listening to from me quickly.
Within the meantime, I needed to share a fundraising deck for a16z’s GAMES FUND ONE that we put collectively somewhat over a yr in the past. In fact a number of fundraising decks have been revealed for our favourite firms — in truth, I’ve a folder filled with the v1 pitch decks for Dropbox, Coinbase, Uber, and many others — however hardly ever do you see decks for enterprise capital funds. I needed to share this deck with some voiceover so you will have a way for what’s concerned. Clearly there are many redacted slides, however you’ll not less than get a taste.
Thanks, Andrew. (Venice, CA)
A16Z GAMES FUND ONE PITCH DECK
We’ve hit the 1 yr mark!!!! 🥳🥳🥳
A yr in the past, we raised GAMES FUND ONE, our first $660M fund targeted on video games. 25 investments and 10 new hires later, we’ve realized a lot.
To have fun, I’m going to share some slides we used to boost the fund. Sure, even VCs must pitch 🙂
We structured our pitch deck right into a dialogue and overview concerning the video games business – many people outdoors the business wanted some context to catch up. After which our funding areas, after which how we approached the staff. (I’ve redacted notes about returns/firms/and many others, in fact)
For the overview – Video games are driving the GenAI Revolution and this video games are having their “Marvel Second” showcasing their cultural energy as among the prime reveals – The Final of Us, Motion pictures – Tremendous Mario Film, and Video games are increasing leisure IP like Hogwarts Legacy.
And by the best way, the business has modified considerably from when folks have been shopping for cartridges one after the other to decade-plus long-running video games the place associates come collectively as a subsequent gen social community.
Video games are sometimes the killer app for brand spanking new applied sciences. 3D, GPUs, and digital objects all got here from video games, although we would re-label them as metaverse, or NFTs. Earlier than freemium, there was shareware. Video games helped convey computing to the house, with Atari and Nintendo.
Right here’s the “why now” slide – and at this time we’d replace this slide with AI AI AI AI AI AI 🙂 – however there are some superb tailwinds that the industy has seen over the previous decade
Final yr we have been very targeted on studios, web3, and infrastructure. This yr we’ve continued to keep up that focus, however have actually began to lean into AI. In Q1 alone, we met over 100 AI x Video games firms. And in 2023, 80% of the Video games Fund’s investments have had a serious AI part – both reinventing core gameplay or creating instruments
We have to steadiness our strategy to incorporate all key areas of video games, but additionally adapt to new tendencies.
As we make investments throughout the ecosystem – each recreation studios but additionally infra, subsequent gen client, and different areas – we have to additionally assist the businesses succeed. We do this by constructing a staff that’s “video games native”
A significant a part of a16z’s differentiation has been our Working Group that helps firms. In actual fact the overwhelming majority a16z’s workers focuses on that, and it’s a small minority that focuses on investing Gaming startups need assist right here: – hiring – creators – launching – publishers
Final yr, we employed operators like Doug McCracken from Supercell to guide Advertising and marketing, Lester Chen from Youtube to guide Creators, and Jordan Mazer from Riot to guide Expertise. Everybody has a startup mindset all of us act like house owners and work with out clear directives. (Many extra people to come back!)
Given the financial downturn, we’ve spent innumerable hours working with our portfolio to maximise their likelihood of long run success. That is when the working staff is so highly effective. However the video games market is resilient!
As we spherical out the yr, we’re persevering with to construct and innovate. Builders are wanted to assist builders. We’ve been constructing the staff in yr one and employed from Blizzard, Supercell, Youtube, Riot, Twitch, and Unity. Be part of us!
Due to everybody who’s supported us in Yr One!
Kudos to the brand new staff, our founders/co-investors, and our associates throughout the ecosystem
And naturally, my shut colleagues Jon Lai, Marc, Ben, and the complete staff who’ve been constructing this initiative from the beginning!
PS. Lastly, our legal professionals made me add this on the finish 🙂
PS. Get new updates/evaluation on tech and startups
I write a high-quality, weekly e-newsletter overlaying what’s taking place in Silicon Valley, targeted on startups, advertising and marketing, and cellular.
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