Hardware Podcasts

Riot Games: Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill

How I Built This · 14 Dec 2020 · 1h 31m

What this episode covers

Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, co-founders of Riot Games, explain how they pivoted from a failed MMO prototype to creating League of Legends, pioneering the free-to-play model with microtransactions. They detail the struggle to secure funding from skeptical investors and publishers who favored traditional boxed retail, leading them to self-publish and build their own infrastructure. The founders describe critical failures, including a $1 million backend technology collapse and a last-minute payment system failure, which forced them to launch without an in-game store and partner with THQ for physical boxes to gain credibility.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Riot Games, Bethesda Softworks, Blizzard Entertainment, THQ, Tencent, U.S. Bank
Products
League of Legends, Oblivion, Warcraft 3, Dota All-Stars, Valorant

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 59m

    Jeri Ellsworth and the demise of CastAR

    Jeri Ellsworth, founder of Cast AR, details the company's rise and fall, explaining how a $15 million Series A from Playground Global led to rapid scaling, loss of founder control, and eventual shutdown due to misaligned leadership and poor fundraising strategy. She describes the chaotic product development, including multiple failed prototype iterations (Proto-1 through EVT) and endless rebranding exercises, before purchasing the assets for pennies on the dollar to launch a new venture. The episode highlights critical failures in board governance, investor relations, and hardware execution, offering lessons on choosing strategic investors and maintaining founder control.

    Starting a product companyFundraising & investors
    9 chapters

  • Oxide and Friends · 1h 02m

    Rooting for the Home Team with Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel

    Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel, founders of the Oakland Ballers, discuss the startup's rapid growth from building a ballpark in a month to winning a historic championship season. They detail the operational challenges of launching two teams simultaneously, the strategic pivot to focus on the Oakland franchise, and the creation of 'BallerMetrics' to quantify fan impact. The episode also highlights a new collaboration with Oxide Computer Company to host a hackathon aimed at democratizing baseball technology.

    Validation & product-market fitMarketing & brand
    8 chapters

  • Product Startup · 32m

    085: Scaling Your Product Up After Crowdfunding

    Ben Drury, founder of Yoto Play, explains how the company used a Kickstarter campaign to validate demand and raise $17 million in Series A funding. Drury details the transition from a Raspberry Pi Zero W-based prototype to a scalable product, leveraging early user feedback to refine the hardware and software. He emphasizes treating the initial 750-unit run as a stepping stone to gather data, attract investment, and build a community, rather than focusing on immediate profitability. The episode highlights the importance of unit economics, subscription revenue from Yoto Cards, and maintaining strong customer relationships during scaling.

    Crowdfunding & preordersFundraising & investors
    7 chapters

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 09m

    Vellicate Videogame Vocation

    Jeff Kaiser, founder of the MightyOhm electronics kit business, discusses his transition from self-employment to joining Valve as a hardware engineer. He details Valve's unique flat organizational structure, the rigorous interview process, and the importance of maintaining a public portfolio of open-source hardware projects to demonstrate engineering breadth. The conversation also covers the scaling challenges of the Pebble Kickstarter campaign and the legal implications of Twitter's Innovators Patent Agreement.

    Careers & educationCrowdfunding & preorders
    8 chapters

  • Thoroughly Considered · 46m

    62: Ten Years

    Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost of Studio Neat celebrate the 10th anniversary of their original Glif Kickstarter campaign, reflecting on a decade of intentional, small-scale growth. They discuss the evolution of their product line from the Glif and Cosmonaut to software like Framographer and Simple Bracket, and physical goods like pins. The founders highlight their strategy of remaining 'out of their depth' during manufacturing, using the Cosmonaut tip failure as a key example of how rigorous quality control defines their partnership. They also touch on cultural milestones, including a White House press release and appearances at MacWorld, while drawing parallels between their journey and the recent success of Widgetsmith.

    Crowdfunding & preordersDesign for manufacturing & NPI
    5 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by How I Built This. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.