BROADCASTS.com

Adam Valkin, managing director at General Catalyst partners. General Catalyst have invested in tech startups such as Air BnB, Stripe, Kayak, and ClassPass. Adam\u2019s worked with top venture capital firms in Europe and the States, was the CEO of LoveFilm, and has many years of experience investing in startups. Listen in for a fascinating conversation on the future of online gaming, the process of investing in tech start-ups, and why it\u2019s better to disrupt than be disrupted.

Famous 5
Favorite Book? \u2013 Good To Great
What CEO do you follow? \u2014 Jeff Bezos
What is your favorite online tool? \u2014 GIPHY
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? \u2014That it\u2019s a young person\u2019s world. In your 20s, everything is possible for you. Don\u2019t wait.

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:33 \u2013 Nathan\u2019s introduction
02:43 \u2013 Welcoming Adam to the show
03:10 \u2013 How did Adam get started in venture capital?
03:40 \u2013 Got involved with European internet companies, looking for a new frontier
04:17 \u2013 After the dotcom boom, he helped incubate LoveFilm in 2003
05:10 \u2013 Was asked to be the CEO of LoveFilm, which he did for 2 years
06:40 \u2013 After iOS, Android, and social media in 2008, it became possible for entrepreneurs to rapidly develop a global reach
09:45 \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to break into content-rich areas like online film, because of the strength of big providers.\u201d
Companies like FlowSports are doing interesting things
11:00 \u2013 Adam worked with Excel, a venture capital firm based in London
11:50 \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ve always had more fun with disruption\u201d
12:30 \u2013 Moved from Endemol to Excel after realising he wanted to be on the disruptor\u2019s side
13:41 \u2013 Working with Hailo, a company trying to help commercial taxis catch up with Uber
16:45 \u2013 Moved back to the US in 2012 and began working with General Catalyst
17:40 \u2013 Met Payal, founder of ClassPass, in the very early stages of growth. Watched for a year and invested at the end of 2014 - highly successful.
19:45 \u2013 Currently investing in Super Evil Megacorp
20:30 - Super Evil Megacorp is a mobile game developer who believe the future of gaming will be driven by mobiles
21:35 - Believes that core gaming will be on mobile devices in the future
23:27 - The CCP investment: What\u2019s Adam\u2019s take on virtual reality?
24:33 - CCP developed EVE: Valkyrie - one of the most celebrated VR games
25:30 - EVE is driven by a subscription model
27:00 - When did Adam get involved with GIPHY and what\u2019s the experience been like?
28:30 \u2013 Connect with Adam on Twitter and Facebook
31:30 \u2013 Famous Five

3 Key Points:
When you\u2019re young, don\u2019t wait. Go and make things happen.
It\u2019s more fun to be the disruptor than the establishment.
Know when the party\u2019s over; be willing to move to new frontiers.
Resources Mentioned:
Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Host Gator \u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Leadpages \u2013 The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible \u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

\xa0