In this fireside chat with dot.LA and Pacaso co-founder and chair Spencer Rascoff, Jam City President and co-founder Josh Yguado explores what the acquisition of Ludia means for the future of Jam City and mobile gaming. The discussion covers what it means to sit at the intersection of traditional entertainment and mobile gaming and why L.A. is the perfect place for this work.  Jam City is reimagining the future of mobile gaming. Already an award-winning company behind the world’s most enduring mobile games, the company’s recent acquisition of Ludia bolsters its global portfolio of top studios that develop and publish top-grossing games.

Office Hours with Spencer Rascoff

The Future of Mobile Gaming, A Conversation with Josh Yguado, co-founder of Jam City

My friend, serial entrepreneur and legendary real estate coach, Tom Ferry, shares his career trajectory from sales to coaching phenom, the single biggest pitfall for work performance and his take on California’s business climate.

Why Legendary Real Estate Coach Tom Ferry Says A Legacy is Better Built than Inherited

Chris Webb rejected attending college in favor of diving into a finance career at eighteen years old. Now, he’s the CEO and co-founder of ChowNow, an app and online ordering system for restaurants that doesn't charge the onerous fees required of other delivery services. Hear Chris share how his education steeped in Wall Street and his mother’s surprise restaurant investment came together to ultimately inspire ChowNow.

ChowNow’s Software Empowers Restaurants To Digitize Their Businesses

Shoeboxes full of invoices and receipts ignited the idea of Service Titan for Ara Mahdessian, the company’s CEO and cofounder. An Armenian immigrant from Iran, Ara came to the U.S. with his family as a young boy. He watched his parents assimilate to their new country while toiling into late hours of the night in order to give their family a good life. Their hard work paid off. Ara attended Stanford where he studied software engineering. He and his cofounder, Vahe Kuzoyan, also a software engineer, applied their knowledge to create automated software for home and commercial service businesses like plumbing and electrical. This includes scheduling, dispatching, payroll, recording, payments, invoicing, etc. Hear why Ara feels having an engineering background makes him a better leader, what to look for in investment partners and the values he emphasizes at Service Titan to ensure a high-quality, supportive and productive company culture.

Immigrant Grit And Parents’ Experience Inspired Co-founders To Create Service Titan

Before PayPal, there was Bill Point, a company cofounded in the late 90s by Keith Richman, now cofounder of Boosted Commerce, which buys top-rated companies on Amazon and other e-commerce ecosystems and helps take them to their next level. Hear how the arc of his serial entrepreneurship follows the trajectory of the internet, what Boosted looks for in their acquisitions and what Boosted offers their companies to help them grow.

Visionary Keith Richman Of Boosted Commerce On Acquiring Ecommerce Companies

As a self-taught teenage computer programmer in Brazil, Henrique Dubugras launched his first company, Pagar.me at age 16. After he sold it, Henrique was accepted and enrolled at Stanford, but dropped out early to follow his entrepreneurial instincts. This led him to co-found Brex with Pedro Franceschi, a business-to-business fintech unicorn disrupting the century old industry of banking small businesses.

Co-Founder Of Brex, FinTech Unicorn, On Second-Time Founder Status, Hypergrowth And Leaving SF for L.A.

Birds were the first dwellers Austin Allison, CEO and co-founder of Pacaso, served with his boyhood bird-house business. Now, with Pacaso, the serial entrepreneur aims to democratize second home ownership by enabling people to co-own an amazing second home --- for 1/8 the cost. Hear his take on what it meant to have his first company acquired, his number one tip on how to keep his crew focused and how to best navigate what seems like weekly iterations of the start-up environment.

Pacaso Aims To Make Second Home Ownership Possible For Millions

If there’s one thing to be learned from CEO and co-founder of Health-Ade, Daina Trout, it’s to pay attention to the opportunity in front of you and be prepared to pivot. Hear how Health-Ade Kombucha evolved from a hair-loss remedy to a huge brand of healthy drinks, learn about Daina and Spencer’s philosophy around hiring and gain insightful learnings around fundraising.

Health-Ade Kombucha Was Born Of A Surprise Pivot

Hear from GOAT cofounder and CEO Eddy Lu about big, public and most importantly, resolved founder fights, insight on when to know it’s time to pivot or quit, how GOAT differentiates itself from other sneaker e-commerce sites -- and one of GOAT’s early and clever growth hacks to convince consumers the company had more merch than they actually did.

How The E-Commerce Sneaker Company GOAT Achieved GOAT Status

The burgeoning Los Angeles start-up and tech scene led to the founding of dot.LA one year ago. Today, we hear from its CEO and Spencer’s cofounder, Sam Adams, on how its mission both celebrates and holds accountable the burgeoning Los Angeles tech and start-up scene, how it’s baked DEI into its mission -- and why LA is the place for entrepreneurs to dig roots.

dot.LA Celebrates First Anniversary Covering Los Angeles Tech And Start-Up Scene

Ynon Kreiz served on the board of Mattel before stepping in as CEO in 2018. Hear about how Mattel is leverage its massive brand portfolio across multiple platforms, from toys to films, how Mattel is working towards environmental sustainability and the priority Mattel places on DEI. Also, hear the answer to a burning UNO game question hotly debated in Spencer’s family.

Mattel CEO On Leveraging the Power of Brands -- Barbie and More

A free-flowing conversation packed with entrepreneurial lessons with serial entrepreneur, Beauty Counter founder, Gregg Renfrew. Hear what to look for in an investor, ideas about scaling, her passion for multi-channel business -- and why people should get rid of non-stick pans.    

For Beauty Counter Founder, Gregg Renfrew, It’s Not Just Makeup, It’s A Movement

Cameo’s highly-anticipated 2017 launch tanked. Its only talent was furious. But the startup persisted, and through grit has grown massively. Hear Steven Galanis, founder and CEO of Cameo, share the colorful story of the young company’s turnaround, how Galanis breaks down the best way to handle employee dysfunction and how he built up Cameo’s roster of tens of thousands of celebrities and influencers ready to send custom-crafted messages.

Cameo’s Custom-Crafted Celebrity Videos Is The New Autograph

Bill Gurley, Legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist, is a general partner at Benchmark and famously known for investing early in trailblazing companies including Uber, GrubHub, my company, Zillow and so many others. Hear a conversation he and I had at the recent dot.LA Summit where we discuss marketplace-based companies, how work-from-home will accelerate business opportunity and why startups, though they might be attached to their autonomy, should pick up the phone when a big company calls. Plus, hear his thoughtful take on big tech and antitrust.

Bill Gurley Drops Knowledge: Startups, Venture Capital And Scaling

Huge musical success is not enough for the electronic musical group, The Chainsmokers, made of Alex Pall and Drew Taggart. As part of their hunger to grow and learn, they've started their VC firm, Mantis, where they focus on investing in Seed and Series A startups. Hear about how they see the similarities between building startups and making music, the value add they give to companies beyond their fame and reach, how they write their songs and the why behind what might be considered a controversial move -- selling their music catalog.

The Chainsmokers Grow Into Venture Capitalists

When a couple of CEOs get in a room together, what do they talk about? Listen in as Zillow Group’s Spencer Rascoff has the kinds of conversations that can only happen between peers: tackling tough questions, sharing hard-won insights, and defining what leadership means today.

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Office Hours with Spencer Rascoff

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