20VC: Niccolo De Masi on The Bursting Of The Tech Bubble and What It Takes To Be A Celebrity Partner with Glu Mobile

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The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2016

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Niccolo De Masi is the CEO & Chairman @ Glu Mobile, one of the world’s hottest gaming companies with title including the current No 1 Game in the App Store with the Kendall and Kylie Game, Glu is also the maker of the Kim Kardashian game and the likes of Deer Hunter and many more. Prior to Glu, Niccolo was CEO at mobile entertainment company Hands On Mobile and before that Niccolo was the CEO at London listed mobile entertainment company, Monstermob Group Plc.

We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) What does Niccolo make of the wildly unrealistic pricing applied to early stage startups today? What will result from this incredibly optimistic pricing?

2.) If Niccolo were a VC today, how would he respond to the impending implosion of the early stage startups? What are the best VCs currently doing and what can startups do to preserve as much value as possible?

3.) How central a role does first mover advantage become in a down turning market? Will we see large scale consolidation and if so what will the effects of this be? How can startups position themselves to be the consolidator not the consolidated?

4.) How do Glu pick the celebrities that are featured for their celebrity feature games? What are the KPI's? What are the requirements in terms of existing brand and audience for a celebrity game to be a success?

5.) Why are women better at establishing larger social following than men? What celebrities would Niccolo most like to have on Glu's platform who they currently do not have?

As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Niccolo on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the 20-minute VC with your host, Harry Stebbings. And today's show is going to be a little different.
0:05.4	It's going to be a first. And it's the first ever episode of News Night with Niccolo.
0:09.9	Yes, I like the name too. That was my stroke of genius. But this will be a monthly show where we chat with the awesome Niccolo Damaseep CEO at Glue Mobile, who are the makers of the Kardashian Games, Deer Hunter,
0:22.5	and most recently announced Gordon Ramsey Game, absolutely phenomenal company,
0:26.8	and a huge congratulations to him on the Gordon Ramsey Game.
0:30.2	And in this Newsnight episode, and in the coming episodes with him, once a month,
0:34.3	we will discuss the current market situation, recent funding rounds, and really get a
0:39.1	perspective for the wider market view to sometimes the crazy world of startups in Silicon Valley.
0:45.2	And I want to give Niccolo credit here because this episode was actually recorded pre-first-round
0:50.3	capital writing the Watney Rule for Startups article, which if you haven't read is a must read.
0:55.4	But this was recorded pre and a lot of the ideas and suggestions in this are very much outlined in the article.
1:01.2	So a huge hand to Niccolo for that.
1:03.3	But before we dive in, if you haven't checked out the official Sasta podcast on iTunes,
1:07.7	then go and check it out.
1:09.0	After this episode, that is, of course.
1:12.0	This comes straight from the Sasta factory with the legend Jason Lempkin and I, and we really deep dive on the nitty-gritty
1:17.1	of all things Sass, from hiring to scaling, to growth marketing. It has it all. So check it out
1:23.2	and let me and Jason know by tweeting us at Jason LK and at Harry Stebbings.
1:29.2	And we'd also like to thank Matamark for providing all the data and analysis for our first ever news night with Niccolo.
1:35.3	Really, really appreciate that and where else will we be without Mattermark's data, to be quite frank.
1:40.3	And if you haven't signed up for the Mattermark daily, then go and do it now for the best VC and startup articles on the web,
1:47.0	done by my good friend Nick Frost at Thinker on Twitter.
	...

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