#13 – The Future of the Gaming Industry | Kai Bond

Ventured Growth with Hercules Capital

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Sports and games are a huge part of our lifestyle and culture and will continue to be for generations to come. But how can investors and creators encourage growth and take advantage of this unique market?
Investor, founder, and entrepreneur Kai Bond had spent over a decade in the gaming industry when he realized he wanted to approach gaming as an investable category. So he partnered with the startup Courtside VC, a venture capital firm that challenges the traditional definition of sports, digital media, fitness, and gaming.
In this episode, Eddie Lopez and Kai talk about Kai’s entrepreneurial journey, how to approach gaming as an investable category, Kai’s take on web3, the future of gaming, diversity in the venture community and more.
Topics Include:
- Understanding what it means to be a good CEO
- Challenge of coming from the corporate world to the startup world
- The state of venture capital in Q1 2022
- The importance of transparency and discipline in VC
- What Courtside learned during 2020
- Evolution of monetizing assets in gaming
- Kai’s take on Web 3.0
- The future of gaming
- Why timing matters in the venture market
- How to increase diversity in venture capital
- And other topics…
Kai Bond is a partner at Courtside, a VC company that partners with early-stage founders who are challenging the traditional definition of sports, digital media, fitness, and gaming. Before Courtside, Kai was a Principal at Comcast Ventures where he led investments in Catalyst Fund, a seed-stage fund focused on investing in underrepresented founders.
Kai was the founder of pixieTV, an interactive SmartTV platform that was acquired by Samsung in 2014. After that, Kai moved into the role of GM at Samsung NEXT. Kai has held leadership positions in product strategy, business development, and M&A at Microsoft, GLG, and Hatch Labs. Kai is a graduate of Wesleyan University.