Mitch Lasky, a general partner at Benchmark and a legendary figure in the video game and venture capital industries, is known for his sharp, incisive thinking on interactive entertainment, consumer behavior, and what it takes to build enduring franchises. His essays and interviews are a masterclass in understanding the intersection of product, culture, and business.

On Investment Philosophy & Venture Capital

  1. "The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit." A direct quote from Marc Andreessen that Lasky wholeheartedly adopts, emphasizing that everything else—team, competition, market size—is secondary to a product that users desperately want.
  2. "Great consumer companies almost always begin with a hit product." He stresses that for consumer businesses, a breakout product is the necessary starting point, not just a great team or idea.
  3. "The team is the one thing you can underwrite as a VC... but even the best team, in my experience, can't make a bad idea good." Highlighting the primacy of the product idea over the team itself.
  4. "We are in the business of backing outliers. We are not in the business of backing incremental improvements." The Benchmark philosophy of swinging for the fences.
  5. "The biggest mistake I've made in my venture career is selling winners too early." A common lament among VCs, emphasizing the power law of returns and the importance of letting truly great companies run.
  6. "Venture capital is not a mentorship program... It's a high-stakes financial services business." A candid take on the true nature of the VC-founder relationship.
  7. "As a VC, you are defined by the companies that you didn't invest in as much as the ones you did."Acknowledging the pain and importance of anti-portfolio misses.
  8. "The job of the VC is to provide the capital and the network and then get out of the way." A belief in founder autonomy.
  9. "I'm not looking for a company that has a 10% chance of being a billion-dollar company. I'm looking for a company that has a 1% chance of being a $100 billion company." The scale of ambition required for top-tier venture returns.

On Gaming as a Business

  1. "Games are not a hit-driven business. They are a franchise-driven business." The goal isn't to make one hit game, but to build an IP and a community that can sustain multiple hits over time.
  2. "The ‘core loop’ is the beating heart of a successful game." The series of actions a player repeats over and over should be inherently satisfying and compelling.
  3. "The best games are the ones that create a new genre or sub-genre." True innovation comes from creating new forms of play, not iterating on existing ones (e.g., League of Legends and the MOBA genre).
  4. "Free-to-play is the most honest business model in gaming." It forces developers to create a game so good that players want to spend money, rather than forcing them to pay upfront.
  5. "Your game has to be a hobby. It has to be something that people want to come back to every day." This is the key to retention and long-term success in games-as-a-service.
  6. "The community is the moat." In an age where games can be copied, the loyal, engaged community around your game is the most defensible asset. This was a key insight in the Riot Games investment.
  7. "The future of entertainment is interactive." A core belief that drives his investment thesis.
  8. "Esports is not a business model. It is a marketing expense." A controversial but pragmatic view that esports' primary value is in retaining and engaging the player base for the core game, not as a standalone profit center.
  9. "A game is a series of interesting decisions." (Quoting Sid Meier). Lasky uses this to emphasize that gameplay is about agency and choice.
  10. "The best monetization mechanics are ones that feel good to the player." They should enhance the experience, not feel like a tax.
  11. "Never bet against the kids." Young people are the leading indicator of future cultural and technological trends. His investment in Discord is a prime example.

On Product, Design, and Creativity

  1. "Save the Cat" for Games: Lasky famously adapted Blake Snyder's screenplay structure to game design, arguing that the best products and games follow a clear narrative arc that hooks the user, provides escalating challenges ("the promise of the premise"), and delivers a satisfying conclusion.
  2. The "Opening Scene": "The first 30 seconds of your product experience is the most important part." If you don't hook the user immediately, you've likely lost them forever.
  3. "A great product is a story." It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It has a protagonist (the user) and a goal.
  4. "The best products have a point of view." They are not designed by committee. They reflect the strong, opinionated vision of their creator.
  5. "You have to be willing to be misunderstood for a long time." This applies to both founders and investors who are backing a truly novel idea.
  6. "The role of the CEO is to be the chief product officer." The leader must be obsessed with and deeply involved in the product.
  7. "The most valuable skill for a founder is the ability to tell a compelling story." This is crucial for recruiting, fundraising, and marketing.
  8. "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." The best products are easy to learn but hard to master.
  9. "Focus on the emotion you want the user to feel." A great product is not just a set of features; it's an experience that evokes a specific feeling.

On Startups and Founders

  1. "The best founders are missionaries, not mercenaries." They are driven by a deep passion for the problem they are solving, not just financial gain.
  2. "I look for founders who are ‘pre-product/market fit’." He wants to back people who are so obsessed with their idea that they would build it even without funding.
  3. "The best founders have a chip on their shoulder." A deep, intrinsic motivation to prove the world wrong.
  4. "Founder-market fit is as important as product-market fit." The founder's unique background and passion must be authentically connected to the market they are serving. The Riot Games founders' passion for MOBAs is a classic example.
  5. "The ability to recruit is a superpower." The first 10 hires will define the company's culture and trajectory.
  6. "Don't outsource your core competency." If you're a game company, you need to be the best in the world at making games, not marketing or finance.
  7. "The importance of a 'maniacal' focus on a single thing." Startups die from doing too many things, not from focusing too narrowly.
  8. "Culture is what people do when no one is looking." It is the unwritten rules that guide behavior.
  9. "A startup is a race against time." You have a limited amount of capital and runway to find product/market fit.

On Market Dynamics and the Future

  1. "The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed." (Quoting William Gibson). Lasky uses this to explain how to spot emerging trends by looking at niche communities.
  2. "Look for platforms, not just products." A product solves a problem. A platform allows others to build businesses on top of it.
  3. "The next big thing will start out looking like a toy." A classic VC insight (popularized by Chris Dixon) that Lasky embraces, explaining why disruptive innovations are often dismissed by incumbents.
  4. "Technology is a deflationary force." It drives down the cost of production and distribution, which is why free-to-play became the dominant model in gaming.
  5. "The democratization of creativity is one of the most powerful trends of our time." Tools like Roblox, Unity, and TikTok empower anyone to be a creator.
  6. "The lines between gaming, social media, and entertainment are blurring." Companies like Discord and Epic Games are at the forefront of this convergence.
  7. "Attention is the new oil." The most valuable commodity in the digital economy is a user's time and focus.
  8. "User-generated content is the most scalable form of content."
  9. "The metaverse is already here, it’s just in a bunch of different games." He has a pragmatic view that the metaverse will be a collection of interconnected experiences, not a single monolithic world.
  10. "Augmented reality will be bigger than virtual reality." He believes AR has a broader set of applications that will integrate more seamlessly into daily life.
  11. "Web3/Crypto gaming has a 'play-to-work' problem." He has been skeptical of many early crypto games, arguing they feel more like jobs than fun.
  12. "The best way to predict the future is to build it." A call to action for founders.

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