SXSW Startups: Learn2Play
The Forrest Four-Cast: February 17, 2019
Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. Winners in 10 categories will be announced at the Pitch Award Ceremony at 6:30 pm Sunday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin.
A finalist in Sports and Performance Data, which will pitch at 12:30 pm Sunday, March 10, Learn2Play is an international eSports EdTech company offering gamers a platform to improve their skills. L2P counts over 1 million subscribed users on its two platforms, MoreMMR and MoreLegends, which make use of AI to provide a match analysis for Dota 2 and League of Legends, respectively. The platforms also count with video lessons and their own tournaments. They combine stats, interpreted by their post-match personal analysis designed by AI and game experts, in-game quests and video lessons developed by top players into a solid smooth product that aims to help players improve as fast as possible.
CEO and Founder Max Dreval shared some insight into his company.
What gives Learn2Play a competitive edge?
Each competitor usually provides only one feature: plain game stats, video lessons, personal coaching or post-match analysis. Each feature answers certain question, but this approach can’t provide the necessary educational value for fast improvement.
The goal is to answer three questions for every user — How, Why and What to Do in order to constantly improve. Driven by that vision, we design and develop our solutions to deliver valuable insights on each question, so the user can see the whole picture of how to perform better.
What are your goals for L2P in 2019?
Apart from developing products, in 2019 we are going to launch three new products for three new games, expand to four new language markets and reach the severn million user milestone.
Apart from training, where do you see AI playing an increasing role in esports?
From our perspective, AI will be applicable and valuable for scoring and scouting of new talents for competitive teams, as well as providing deep analytics for teams, helping them to choose the right setup and tactics against certain opponents. So, the role of a team coach will be partly replaced by AI insights.
Learn2Play is currently based in Limassol, Cyprus. Tell us about the startup ecosystem there.
The company is based in Cyprus, while the team is fully remote and operates from different places. We’re based in Cyprus because it provides us with good and easy-to-support infrastructure to operate on a global market.
If your team members weren’t involved in building Learn2Play, what would they be doing?
This is our second startup, the first one ended with a successful exit. We came to the decision to launch L2P quite consciously, understanding the enormous potential of both the market and our solution.
Looking at the entire tech industry, what trend is your team most excited about?
Artificial intelligence and everything that it brings to life, for example, unmanned vehicles, call center robot-operators, waiter robots, etc. In the near future, this will lead to a powerful change in the world — more than half of the world’s population is engaged in specialties that AI replaces before our eyes.
Another couple of the most interesting technologies are 3D printing and discoveries in the field of bioengineering, which will allow us to radically reconsider the issue of human longevity.
What has the startup experience taught you about life?
I learned to balance between confidence in success and constant doubts about it. Only by being on the edge of these two states can you build a sustainable business and a strong team.
Name three people, in any field, alive or dead, you’d like to meet and tell us why.
Hayao Miyazaki: I love cinema and would love to talk to outstanding directors, one of whom, in my opinion, is Hayao.
Lee Kuan Yew: I read his biography and history of Singapore, this is a very informative case, plus I love politics, so I would love to talk to Lee.
Kip Thorn: I am very interested in the topic of space, new discoveries and hypotheses.
What’s one piece of advice you wish you’d had that you’d give to others wanting to join the startup journey?
I advise you to consider investing your time carefully as good funds evaluate the advisability of their investments.
Before you rush into a risky voyage for several years — strengthen your boat with experience in good companies, then you will have something to borrow. Make as many mistakes as possible in all business processes at the expense of a large stable company, and not your new startup.
Look for more interviews with other SXSW Pitch finalists in this space between now and March.
Click here to see all 50 finalists for SXSW Pitch 2019, along with the links to their interviews on Medium.
Also, if you are an entrepreneur, check out all the cool panels and presentations in the Entrepreneurship and Startups Track, which runs March 8–12 at SXSW.
Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; other times they focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.
