We believe that play reveals a fundamental part of a person’s personality & outlook. Our goal is to use deep data science to uncover it - to both the people who run game environments and the players themselves.
Chethan is the co-founder and CEO of Playnomics, responsible for the company’s strategy and vision. Prior to Playnomics, Chethan was an early stage investor focused on technology joint ventures. Before that, Chethan was part of the founding team (along with Playnomics Chief Scientist Shalom Tsur) of a information security venture focused on predictive threat detection. Chethan did his undergrad studies at Berkeley.
As COO and co-founder of Playnomics, John is responsible for day-to-day operations of the company including product development and customer development. A reformed serial investment banker, John has spent his career working with early stage software companies at Broadview, Bank of America, and Credit Suisse. John did his undergrad studies at Berkeley, and holds an MBA from Kellogg.
Ryan is a multi-faceted technologist, with expertise in everything from system design/architecture to coding to large scale technical operations. He leads the technology efforts for Playnomics, focusing on building a next-generation data processing infrastructure. Prior to Playnomics, Ryan was the head of systems at Conviva, a video-streaming infrastructure company. Ryan holds a PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley.
As Chief Scientist of Playnomics, Dick is responsible for keeping the company on the cutting edge of data science and algorithm development. Dick is one of the pioneers of data mining, having over 30 years experience working with large data sets. Dick’s experience includes starting and running Hitachi Labs in the Bay Area as well as holding an adjunct position at Stanford. He holds a Master’s and PhD in Computer Science from the Hebrew University and the Technion.
Brendan plays a dual role at Playnomics – focusing on both understanding how players interact with games through the use of predictive analysis, and helping game publishers utilize that information on an ongoing basis. Prior to Playnomics, Brendan was in the Bioinformatics PhD program at Stanford, applying algorithms to predict the mutation rates of infectious diseases. He holds degrees in Biology and Political Science from Stanford.
Chris is motivated by understanding the "why" of it all. At Playnomics, Chris focuses on creating scoring frameworks for players, and is responsible for Playnomics’ next generation analytics platform. Chris spent most of his career prior to Playnomics as a software engineer and cyber security researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. At LLNL, he focused on information security R&D, with an emphasis on large scale data analytics. Chris holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Computer Engineering from Union College, and Dartmouth College, respectively.
Some invest in entrepreneurs. At FirstMark Capital, we invest in visionaries — those who not only envision the future but make it happen through high-growth businesses in key technology markets. You’ll find us at the forefront of the most complex and rapidly evolving industries, among them media, advertising, financial services and telecom.
Metamorphic Ventures invests in start up and early stage technology companies in digital media and digital commerce. The Metamorphic team has hands-on operating experience, from start up to exit. We have all personally experienced the ups and downs of building new businesses and see our role as true partners and advisors to help an entrepreneur to succeed. We are truly the entrepreneur's fund.
David is a digital media veteran with over 15 years of business development and operational experience with Web services companies. David joined Metamorphic after eight years at Google where he was the second employee in Google's New York office and on the founding team that launched Google's advertising monetization strategy and execution.
X/Seed Capital is a very early stage venture fund providing capital, resources, time and attention to entrepreneurs pursuing breakthrough innovations.
A Founder and Managing Director of FirstMark Capital, focuses on investments in the emerging media & advertising and data & analytics sectors. Prior to founding FirstMark Capital, Rick was a Partner with Pequot Ventures. Rick also serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Venture Capital Association.
Michael Borrus is the founding General Partner of X/Seed Capital Management. Prior to founding X/Seed, Michael was an EIR at Mohr Davidow Ventures. From 1999 to 2004, Michael led the technology banking unit at The Petkevich Group, a financial services start-up. Before that, Michael was Adjunct Professor in UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering and a partner in the business consulting firm Industry and Trade Strategies.
Accelerator Ventures is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that invests in early stage technology companies. We work with talented entrepreneurs to create the next generation of great companies. We actively help companies with financing strategy, business development, customer introductions and management team development.
Alexander Lloyd is the founder and managing partner of Accelerator Ventures, a venture fund focused on seed-stage investments. Prior to founding Accelerator Ventures, Alexander was a venture partner at Rustic Canyon Partners, where he oversaw the development of their seed-stage investment strategy. Before working in Venture Capital, Alexander was the Business Development Manager in Microsoft's Silicon Valley office responsible for Microsoft's relationships with the West Coast venture capital and startup community.
TriplePoint Capital is a Sand Hill Road-based global financing provider to high growth venture capital-backed companies throughout their lifespan, providing customized debt financing, leasing, and direct equity investments.
Kai Tse is a Managing Director at TriplePoint Capital. He has a wide array of experience in cleantech, software, digital media, enterprise applications, and IT infrastructure. While at Triplepoint, Mr. Tse has been involved with outstanding companies such as You Tube, Riot Games, Gaikai, Livegamer, IMVU, Mobitv, One Kings Lane, Soraa, Harvest Power, among others. Prior to TriplePoint, Mr. Tse served as a Principal at two information technology oriented venture capital funds, Osprey Ventures and GKM Ventures.