Jordan Mazer
@justmazer
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Talent @a16zgames - ex @RiotGames , @Scopely , @Amazon - Lover of games, poker, surfing, running and living in Los Angeles.
Venice, Los Angeles
Joined November 2012
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
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@jeffreyjhardy
@oledoteth
Agree on Vegas, but… NY is literally the most populous city in the US by a huge margin.
It is most certainly a reflection of part of America.
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We had a Riot employee who felt Mt Dew and Diet Mtn Dew cans were too hard to tell apart and asked HR (?) to make it more clear… not sure what they had in mind, but they were truly upset when we told them nothing could be done.
I was at a FAANG company when a product manager resigned after a week to go back to another FAANG company because the coffee was better. Recently I think about him often.
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@roshanpateI
I used to run HR operations for a global company, and I would categorize docusign as both indispensable and dirt cheap relative to the alternative of manual document management - not to mention the legal and compliance benefits it generates. Your take is not based.
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👇 So many cool jobs in the
@a16zgames
portfolio right now. Take a look at a few of them below. Feel free to share, refer, DM, retweet to your heart's content: 1/8
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🤯 I'm not dreaming - I really am at
@a16z
games! Some thoughts on why I made the the jump... 🧵 1/13
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🤔 Not sure if dreaming, or if I'm actually working at
@a16z
, heading Talent for GAME FUND ONE.
@andrewchen
/
@Tocelot
/
@Chen
/
@DougMcCracken
/
@JoshLu
/
@justinspaine
/
@zebird0
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I've spent >10 years interviewing people daily. For seven of those years, especially during my time at Riot, I averaged >12 interviews a day. I saw the good, the bad, the ugly, and the totally weird - here's what I saw: 1/11
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Hiring is hard. Getting it wrong: excruciating, torturous pain. Getting it right: nirvana.
Guess what: most teams and leaders suck at hiring. But they don't have to.
Here are ten tips to help you hire the best:
🧵🧵
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🧵Managing a team is hard. If you're new to it, or need some motivation, take a few lessons from some truly world class leaders: 1/7
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🧵 Founders: no one cares about or wants to work for your startup, which can easily lead to either a.) failing at hiring, or b.) hiring an ineffective team.
Here's my advice on avoiding feeling like Jerry, trapped by the living embodiment of your hiring failures:
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I spent nearly 5 years cleaning up Riot’s hiring process - it definitely needed improvement.
This tweet from
@LukePlunkett
still has me tilted.
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Are you looking for a job that is...
🕹️ In gaming
🏡 Remote
⚓️ Stable (a16z-funded!)
🚀 At a startup
Then read on, bc we've got some fresh opportunities for you to consider... 👇 1/7
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Game jobs deserve to be [at least] in the same pantheon as tech jobs.
Here's why:
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@a16zGames
wants to get you into a gaming startup.
Interested? Tell us here:
>>> <<<
Our growing & global >50 company portfolio includes...
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NVIDIA CEO's 🤯 management approach:
- 40 direct reports, no 1:1s
- No status reports
- Everyone has all the context, all the time
- No closed meetings (hard to believe)
- No formal planning cycles
🚨 Planning to follow in Jensen's footsteps? Tread carefully...
The way that Jensen Huang runs Nvidia is wild:
40 direct reports, no 1:1s
- Believes that the flattest org is the most empowering one, and that starts with the top layer
- Does not conduct 1:1s - everything happens in a group setting
- Does not give career advice - "None of my
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You should live in Los Angeles if you a.) work in gaming, b.) want to maximize opportunity, and 3.) are a sane human
❌ San Francisco
❌ ❌ Seattle
❌❌❌ New York
Let's compare:
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@Glennisamenace
@roshanpateI
when I was the buyer (1-2 years ago), none of the competitors offered highly secure integration capabilities into other enterprise systems. No idea if that’s changed, but those integration capabilities were extremely valuable in our (purposefully) non-verticalized SaaS
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Looking for: A.) a list of folks affected by recent studio layoffs (ex: 343) / tech layoffs with potential game overlap (ex: Google), or B.) connections to someone with a list.
The goal: help connect those affected by the layoffs with opportunities throughout the game industry.
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I live in Venice CA. I've also been playing a lot of Rust lately. I think Rust is just a Venice CA simulator.
- My neighbors are unruly
- My property is expensive and difficult to maintain
- I live in fear of the night
- Leaving my house is dangerous
- But... its fun.
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@machiavellin342
@riotgames
@Ghostcrawler
I can say with confidence there are many more to-be-posted jobs 🤓
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When I was at Amazon in 2012, I met a Recruiter that would message >10k candidates per week.
When I receive snide / rude / entitled responses from candidates, I sometimes feel a wee bit offended.
Then I remember that Recruiter.
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"🤌 The good. The folks who did well:
- Did their research
- Showed up as themselves
- Spoke honestly to their strengths & weaknesses
- Came with a binder full of questions
- Didn't bring fish to interviews, insult their interviewers, or lie about their skills 2/11"
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A few interesting jobs at intersection of AI & Gaming....
@Altera_AL
-
@GuangyuRobert
(led MIT autonomous agent lab),
@shuying_luo
, and Andrew Ahn
- Building autonomous agent companions
- Outperformed Voyager 🤯
- Went viral 2x in 1 month
UI Dev ()
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@gchorba
Tbf when I was at Scopely they replaced all drink options with healthy ones. As a Diet Coke drinker, this was a concern. At the same time, I was asked by the CFO to make a critical hire. I asked if he would buy me a pallet of DC if I could hire in 8 weeks. I got my DC.
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@alexfsinger
and the
@VoldexGames
team acquire & supercharge UGC IP from the
@Roblox
/
@Minecraft
world. They're hiring "mini-CEO" profile mobile PMs to lead a few of their franchises. The
@zynga
/
@scopely
/
@MachineZone
profile will fit for this role:
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Offer rejections are painful. I've made thousands of hires, and have a few pointers on how to arrive at a "yes."
1.) They aren't chasing you. You are chasing them... 1/12
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I've spent the past 2 months meeting founders from dozens of portfolio companies. The through-line for all: it's hard to find talent.
At the same time, there's a massive influx of available talent from both big tech + gaming layoffs.
How do you square those two realities?
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I sound salty, but this is not a woe is me. I'm incredibly happy for everyone at Scopely, they deserve this GIANT win and have spent more than a decade making it happen. Bravo to everyone involved, y'all are gangsters. 13/13
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😹 The funny. At lunch, one of the Game Designers asked a candidate "who is your favorite LoL champion?" The candidate immediately responded "that's too hard to answer, but I can tell you who I hate: [[insert champ]]." The interviewer was the Lead Champion Designer. 7/11
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One of my mentors once asked me a simple yet powerful question when I was considering moving to
@a16zGames
. The question:
"Do you want the job, or do you want the job the way you want it?"
This question changed the way I approached my interview... 🧵 1/8
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If you take anything from this thread - just remember: don't bring a fish to an interview unless you're applying to PetSmart. 🐡
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At
@a16zgames
, I'll be advising founders / portcos on hiring practices, and connecting them to best-in-class talent. This is a bit of a look back on how I got here after 10 years in the industry, and nearly 8 years with
@riotgames
2/13
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Did you see
@PlayOmega
on the
@Nintendo
list of games to play? I had a chance to work w/
@OdysseyMaple
/
@OdyLUNCHBOY
/
@RKRigney
- a great group who consistently makes great games. They're looking for a Sr. VFX Artist () to join the footbrawl. 6/8
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I begged (unsuccessfully) for a Sega Genesis at 7, and eventually segued to a steady diet of Everquest, Halo, WoW, Starcraft, CS, etc., after finally convincing my parents to invest in a gaming rig. TL/DR: gaming was (and is) my life. 4/13
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>330k laid off in tech + gaming since Jan '23. It seems plausible that 5% of those people have ambitions to build their own business.
If you're part of that 5%, you should take your shot at the $30M
@andrewchen
wants to invest via SPEEDRUN003
🗓️ Why Now...
- There's more
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1. Considering joining a startup? Hear me out.
Yes, most startups fail. It's business gravity.
But here's the twist: A business death ≠ career death.
In fact, as a high-skilled worker, you might just thrive. Let me explain in this thread. 🚀
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When I worked at Riot, swag was the most contentious topic:
- Who got swag?
- Could teams have their own swag?
- What about contractors???
- How did we manage tax treatment of swag?
- Could a swag vendor have HRIS write access
... was this Riot-specific? Or is this common?
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Special thanks to
@andrewchen
/
@Tocelot
for bringing me onboard (and to my parents for finally buying me a gaming rig!), and I'm beyond excited to partner with all the current and future PortCos and talent in the space! 12/13
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We're looking for a Lead Recruiter to help build out the newly acquired Radiant Games in SF. Send me an email via…
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@EskiyaSC
IMHO visual fidelity is nice, but it’s not what drives love for (most) new games - esp not for RTS. Hard core competitive gamers want great balance, unique strategy elements, etc.
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If you're in an interview and someone asks you "how's it going" they aren't inviting you to a therapy session.
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🤔 The weird. At Riot, some interviews included a "Teach Us Something," a section where candidates were supposed to teach about any topic they chose. One candidate flew in from Seattle, and arrived holding a fish tank, a live fish, and tank accoutrements. 3/11
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That's where
@a16zGames
comes in. The team is passionate abt games, knows the mkt potential, and works w/ dozens++ of companies. I might have the same breadth working at an agency, but it'd be difficult to be seen as a true partner 9/13
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a16z founder is looking for 45 mins to pick the brain of a tech contributor (eng, eng manager, etc) who has:
- Built metrics / data pipelines for consumer apps
- Done this in the context of a Seed or Series A co
Ping me if you are / know this person!
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Stoked about
@Altera_AL
team's $9M raise - been amazing to watch them go from zero --> viral product resonance in such a short time frame.
fyi - they're hiring:
Excited to share we raised a $9M Seed round @ Altera to build digital human beings: machines with fundamental human qualities that AI today lacks.
We are starting w/ agents who can play any game w/ you, just like a friend.
See more @ our website/TechCrunch/VentureBeat
The round
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Musings on: the game jobs market, team building in fledgling studios, how to assess talent, and the impacts of AI on gaming.
Honored to be included - thnx fellas
@jasonoliver
@slimborama
@brianjcho
We’re excited to drop the second episode of /all chat, our roundtable podcast where we discuss some of the most interesting and current topics within the gaming industry, startups more broadly, and venture capital.
In this episode,
@brianjcho
and I are joined by
@slimborama
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What new gaming companies / titles / upcoming titles are you most excited about? And why are they exciting?
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Our friends over at
@PahdoLabs
are building an MMO x Anime, and are using
@godotengine
to do it. If you want to work on a cool game, with a seriously zen engineering leader (this guy: ), this Sr. Gameplay Eng role might be for you:
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My first job in gaming was w/
@scopely
, then transitioned to
@riotgames
. I'll never forget my first discussion with
@brandonbeck
and
@marcmerril
- we talked about Everquest, the history of MMOs, and Bards. 5/13
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Looking for... a generalist BizOps-type leader who can manage work across HR / Finance / Legal / IT, and who also loves Anime.
Ping me if you are this person, or know anyone who is - it's for a very interesting opportunity.
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I previously worked at
@amazon
, but quickly realized I wanted to match my personal passions with my work. I'm an avid gamer... For perspective, I learned to type with Mario Teaches Typing, and was playing Doom via floppy at age 6... 3/13
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HOW TO GET A VC's ATTENTION
1. Research firms (they write and talk a lot)
2. Find firms that invest in your stage
3. Find firms that invest in your idea space
4. Figure out who the GPs / investors are
5. Figure out who they've invested in previously
6. Contact the people they
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A pre-seed founder of ours is searching for a technical co-founder...
Ping me if you or someone you know is...
- Technical
- Wants to work in bio x gaming - imagine Foldit, but immersive ()
- Wants to be a founder in an a16z-backed company
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I want to contract the most capable meme-lord on the planet - literally to make memes for socials:
Must...
-> Be an OC maestro
-> Have managed large channels
-> ??
DMs open, @ your recommendations, reply with memes
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I got a serving job straight out of college at a nice Sushi restaurant. I was making >100k, in Florida, no state income taxes.
I quit to take an entry-level recruiting role for 35k + bonuses.
It hurt at first. It doesn't any more.
I don’t know who is telling these kids that a generic degree is equivalent to experience or makes you qualified for high-paying roles, but it simply does not
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Tanked WC (wow hc) tonight - one DPS kept engaging the whole run, then decided to dps before sunder on the big boss.
Watching him die: top gaming moment all time.
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My past 24 hours in LA:
Leaving work - realize E-bike stolen (out of WeWork)
Wake up, take dog out - see a passerby tore a wood panel out of my front gate (wtf?).
Get in the car to go back to work, pull out of garage - someone tagged by garage gate.
Are we the new SF?
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PS - interested in exploring a new opportunity? DM me, or you take a look at available portfolio company roles via this link: 13/13
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🎥 Watch a few streams
🔊 Listen to the podcast about Riot
🗞️ Read some articles
🎮 Go to an esports event
Take some time to learn about a business, and practice your ""why I want to work there"" pitch. Even better, compare it to competitor employers. 10/11
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Every Sr. "X" - now leveraging ChatGPT & "prompt engineering" - who used to rely on coordinators / associates to build:
- Keyword lists
- Document outlines
- Summaries
- etc.
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@LiQuiD112
@TeamLiquid
@Harvard
gg Steve - crushing… how do I get my hands on this?! I want to read the case!!
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⏩ years later, I led games recruiting at Riot, working with hiring teams & candidates who were hungry to build the best player experiences possible. I wanted more of that - supporting more teams, games, game-related ventures, builders 8/13
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I'm soft launching a new website!
First (of many) weekly jobs digest post(s) in the followup tweet.
Also, for those that don't know me personally, that's my most precious dog Bacon in the logo. She deserves your comments, likes, and shares because she's the goodest girl 🙏
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Excited to work with
@jest1
/
@kassadin_riot
/ Chow / Snow again. There are very few teams with as much experience delivering modern hit games that both delight players & drive healthy business outcomes. Can’t wait to get my hands on their game.
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10. Don't let leaders be above process.
Leaders wing it? Interviewers wing it. Leaders don't take notes? Interviewers don't take notes...
Can't be a good interviewer? Then either remove yourself from the process or be better. Seriously.
11/12
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The idea: teach us how to set up an aquarium. The problem: he had no plan for the fish or the aquarium, and he was flying back to Seattle that evening. My girlfriend at the time ended up the proud owner of Goldy. Gif below of candidate + opportunity.
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The
@readyplayerme
team is building a x-game interoperable avatar platform. They need someone who is part coder, part content creator, who can act as Dev Advocate for this role (). The coolest bit: they want you to keep your channels! 4/8
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So - takeaways:
- joining an early startup doesn't necessarily equate to losing income potential
- it's good to be be an early employee in an early market (ex: native mobile in 2013)
- base pay isn't everything (and neither is equity exposure or comp, to be fair) 12/13
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I get to support (more) visionary game makers, which should translate to more amazing games --> 😊 players -- > 😊 devs --> 😊 Jordan. 11/13
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I've received A LOT of (deserved) critical feedback throughout my career. 1 of the themes: I often highlight the problems, rarely the successes. I struggled to adjust approach. Then, I got a dog.
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When I broke my neck (yes, literally) the RN tried to discharge me, then audibly complained in the hallway about his “webMD patient demanding an MRI.”
He was embarrassed when the result of the scan led to me being referred to a neurosurgeon.
had undiagnosable chronic pain for 3 years. 24 doctors visits and about $7k in medical spend.
finally found the issue with ChatGPT, a prenuvo scan (2k), and an anonymous twitter poster
the system cannot continue as is
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Excited for
@ankithharathi
and
@nitinrajini
and Closing Theory Studios - from the moment I met them, I was hooked on the first prototype game they put in our hands.
Excited to see what they do with some resources, talent, and partners to help along the journey.
I started a new company with
@nitinrajini
!
We’ve raised $2.3M led by
@a16zGames
SPEEDRUN for Closing Theory Studios - a new, independent game studio.
Games have traditionally been all about fantasy, a hard fork from the real world. We started Closing Theory because we believe
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Memes --> clicks 📈
(ps, these are for the lovely portcos in the A16Z GAMES portfolio
@iamjasonlevin
)
Do your investors shitpost?
Maybe they should.
@anothercohen
shows how a shitpost got 1000s of clicks for one of his portcos
This is meme marketing 101
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5. Think like Billy Beane:
- Don't expect "premier" talent
- Be inventive about team construct
- Make bets on high capability / limited xp people
Do this by turning stones, talking to lots of people, and seeing value others do not.
TL/DR: find the uncut gems
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@eriktorenberg
The people who (already) do this know that the value of the information is radically higher when kept confidential and leveraged as an input for their own means rather than sold as a product.
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1. Interviewers evaluate skills, not candidacy
eg: "can the candidate do "X" - IE can they add, Index Match, land the big contract or client.
Don't ask your interviewers "should we hire this person." 2/12
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My high school and college writing courses taught me to proactively address all counterarguments.
Social posting has taught me the opposite - by leaving openings / perceived flaws, you invite engagement that you can then address later.
Q: Is this a dumb approach to twitter?
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I was the first recruiter on
@PlayVALORANT
, helping leaders like
@slimborama
and
@micevans
build a genre-defining shooter. The job was incredible - I was chatting with the core contributors to the games that I'd put 1000+ hours into playing 7/13
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🙄 The bad. Riot was a passion-driven company. I'd ask candidates why they wanted to work there, and many would talk about "how big the market was" or "how bleeding edge Riot was" but knew nothing about our products. They didn't have to be "gamers" to do some homework - 9/11
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On the VC side, I'll have the opportunity to work in the space I love, and to be welcomed as a 🤝 true partner 🤝 to the portcos and talent in the space. I get to supersize the kind of impact I both want, and am most able, to make: 10/13
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