Some Seriously Great News. No, Seriously …
Exactly six years ago today I received an email from my friend Ynon Kreiz introducing me to Andrew Stalbow and Petri Järvilehto. Ynon had been the CEO of Maker Studios and I trust his opinion a great deal so of course I took the meeting.
Andrew and Petri had left game developer Rovio (of Angry Birds fame) and were creating a new games company called Seriously that would combine compelling intellectual property (characters), great narratives, and fun game play in a mobile-first application. Their initial release would be a product called “Best Fiends,” which is now one of the most successful mobile games.
Our meeting was memorable both because the pitch was compelling but also because it was the first pitch meeting I ever took in our new Santa Monica offices. By “first” I mean — we hadn’t even signed a lease, it was a building site, there was nowhere to sit and the building itself looked somewhat dilapidated. But I thought it would be fun to meet on the (someday would become) roof deck with ocean and meet in makeshift environs. I imagined what it would feel like if we worked in this location. It felt pretty, pretty good.
Their vision was “if Disney were going to build a media company today they wouldn’t start by creating films, they would build compelling characters in a mobile game and then create media products and physical goods in support of the game. With mobile we can reach hundreds of millions of players very cheaply and once they fall in love with our characters the stories will be revealed.”
We went on to lead Seriously’s first round of financing and since I’m not a video games expert and we do have a video games expert as a partner at Upfront (Kevin Zhang) — he went on to eventually be the lead partner for Seriously at Upfront. In case you aren’t aware, the video games industry globally is now larger the the global film industry, which is why we have a practice area that funds this sector. The video games industry is worth > $150 billion and mobile gaming is now the largest sector of it.
And while Kevin went on to guide our role on the board at Seriously and deserves 100% of any Upfront credit, Andrew went on to become a dear friend. Not only was his commitment to LA tech enormous but we happened to have kids on the same traveling soccer team where Andrew was the assistant coach! I’m sure he could have done without his VC asking him on the sidelines our latest revenue forecasts :) but we really just kept it personal. Ok, I did occasionally pepper him with questions about Seriously.
Petri built the studio and they developed the majority of game play in Finland, where there are a deep pool of talented video games professionals. We found tremendous value in this idea of a two-city startup with some business leadership / management in one city (LA) and much of the development in another (Helsinki). Essentially we got the best of both worlds and we find ourselves investing in more companies with this model.
I guess by now you have figured out the next chapter in the story. Today the company announced it was acquired by gaming powerhouse Playtika.
It is an understatement to say that I am thrilled for Andrew and Petri who have both been delightful to work with all of these years. They had a vision, executed perfectly and deserve every amount of success they have achieved. They innovated on so many fronts including being one of the first game developers to seriously engage video game influencers on YouTube and well as building world-class video shorts that “aired” inside of the game itself and paid for the production++ by driving increased game engagement.
Oh, and when I asked Andrew how he wanted to celebrate together he said, “I want to grab fish & chips.” How very British. We did just that. :)
I am also thrilled for my partner Kevin. Kevin has been a fantastic investor and board member all of the companies he serves (I know because co-investors always pull me aside to tell me) and it’s wonderful to see a younger partner get their first big win. Congrats, Kevin. We’re proud to call you our partner.
