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Make mistakes and innovate! Sebastien de Halleux – Playfish Co-Founder - VP of BD, EA interactive

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Belgian Civil Engineer Tech Entrepreneur Glu Mobile: nasdaq IPO ($337m) Playfish: sold to EA ($400m)

facebook.com/sdehalleux

Entrepreneurship journey

Startup launch sequence

Illustrated Playfish examples

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2.5 years post launch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZZj8pyHnXY

World in crisis needs innovation

Make meaning and live longer

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Watch: www.bluezones.com Read: “The Art of the Start” – G Kawasaki

Create value

and jobs

Getting started is toughest

Why launching matters

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startup launch sequence

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Start with people: team and attitude

Meet: Betagroup Connect: online interest groups (Ruby, Flash, J2EE, deviantArt)

Sami, our ninja CTO

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Define your passion, choose a problem

Act: team + pen & paper + lots of <your favourite drink> Outcome: state your selected problem as a vision

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People spend $50bn on video games today

Why?

Games generate emotions

Achievement Frustration

Wonder Joy

Suspense Horror Greed

Fear

But what about social emotions?

Anger

Love Friendship

Envy

Pride

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Movies make people cry – Could games?

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What about people who matter to you?

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Change how the world plays games

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aim to change the world, not just your town or your country

Brainstorm transformative solutions 4

Act: team + pen & paper + lots of <your favourite drink> Outcome: a series of potential solutions

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You + your friends = strong emotions

Your friends are now accessible

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18 Photo credit: jay1441

Games as social experiences with friends and family

Expression

Cooperation

Friendship Competition

Communication

Filter your solutions down to ONE BIG IDEA

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Does anyone care (enough to use or to pay) ?

Are you solving the problem you initially selected?

Would it scale (success x 1 billion) ?

Can it be built (by you or by someone else)?

Why now? Any tectonic shifts?

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Outcome: one liner description of your idea

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Fun games for friends

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Using social design

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to reach 1 billion users access barriers

audience 50m 100m 1Bn 500m 10m

PS3

Xbox 360

Wii

iPhone / mobile Free-to-play / online / social

Lower cost

More real

More social

More immediate

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monetizing via micro-transactions

Scale is the new challenge

game client

game server

social graph

canvas page

Fast CDN

Secure protocol

Rest API

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the cloud

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Blue Ocean check: Playfish

Create a new utility

Fun from playing with friends

Eliminate distribution costs

Design for viral distribution

Reduce development costs

Release early, run as service

Raise monetization ceiling

Micro-transactions & advertising

“No battle plan ever survives contact with the ennemy” – von Moltke

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Forecasts are usually (dramatically) wrong Keep your plan short Prototyping is key to test your ideas Timebox your development Help others visualise your solution

Planning: www.sequoiacap.com/ideas Building: must be able to hand prototype over to a test user

Build don’t plan 2

Self-expression

Competition Collaboration

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redder = smarter*

* Source: 500,000 datapoints from Playfish’s hit social game ‘Who Has The Biggest Brain?’

The game is available at http://apps.facebook.com/biggestbrain

Make mistakes, and iterate

Measure Nurture Evolve

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Think: what will your feedback loop consist of? Build: an offering capable of adapting quickly to feedback

time

+$$

-$$

Product success = create hits

Success = F (P, Q) price quantity

time

+$$

-$$

Service success = nurture hits

Success = F(α, β, γ) virality, engagement, monetization

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10

20

30

40

50

Dec-07 Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08 Jul-08 Aug-08 Sep-08 Oct-08 Nov-08 Dec-08

20m

Monthly active users (millions)

12 months

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10

20

30

40

50

55m

Monthly active users (millions)

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50m 20 months

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When traction, think BIG, think FAST 0

Ensure cash is not a limiting factor

Go global early – new growth model

Hire the very best people you can afford

Create constant feedback loops

Change the world

Playfish story

Oct 2007 Playfish starts in UK $3m seed 4 founders

Dec 2007 Who Has the Biggest Brain? 1st game released Sent to 100 friends

Oct 2009 12 live games 200 million games distributed 60 million monthly active users High growth, high margin

Nov 2009 Acquired by EA for $400m

2010 FIFA & MADDEN First billion $ franchises on Facebook

2008 Opened offices in US, China, Arctic Raised $18m Created great games

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London

San Francisco

Tromsø

Beijing

The global startup

Getting ready to launch Start with a team and an attitude

Define your passion, chose your problem

Brainstorm transformative solutions

Filter your solutions down to ONE BIG IDEA

Build don’t plan

Make mistakes and iterate

When traction, think BIG, think FAST

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Thank you!