Bing Gordon
General Partner at KPCB
Discussion
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bing gordon
@bingfish · partner
Hi, I’m Bing Gordon, former chief creative officer at EA and current Chief Product Officer for KPCB. I am an avid gamer; favorite games include World of Warcraft, the Sims, Diablo, and Civilization, and I love helping entrepreneurs build successful products, Happy to be here; so ask away!
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Allegra Gordon
@allegra_gordon
When you look back at your career at EA and KPCB, what are your proudest moments? How did you celebrate those wins?
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@allegra_gordon Sims, because my daughters played it. SSX Snowboarding, because you were on the cover. Rock Band, because it won our Christmas two years in a row. Madden Football, because i helped design it. Lottso, because it was the first game with a coopetition mode, and I designed it. Bard's Tale, because I wrote the ad tagline "When the going gets tough, the Bard goes drinking." And then all the times I got to work with the devs of my fave games of all time: Sid Meier, Brian Reynolds, Will Wright, Scott Orr, John Schappert, Hanno Lemke, Don Mattrick, Peter Molyneux, Richard Garriott, Chris Roberts, Mark Pincus, Warren Spector. But never got to work with Rob Pardo or Gabe Newell. Oh, and Andy Berlin, Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby on the original EA ads and packages. But the best moments were always when daughters visited and played the games.
Allegra Gordon
@allegra_gordon
@bing_gordon Do you do anything special to celebrate wins? Other than smiling when daughters are playing games on your lap?
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@allegra_gordon hehe. I like to break into song. Kung fu fighting. Volare. If I remembered more of the real lyrics, I wouldn't have to make up new ones.
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@allegra_gordon and remember that a smile and a very specific compliment can make someone else's day. Pay it forward, and they will, too.
Allegra Gordon
@allegra_gordon
How do you stay motivated, positive and happy every day, despite frustrating days, weeks, months?
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@allegra_gordon Oatmeal for breakfast. After that, happiness is an act of will. And metabolism.
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Two very important questions, Bing:
1) If you were stuck on a desert island for the rest of your life. Which game would you take with you?
2) Your Twitter username is @bingfish. Why? 🐟
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
Austin Teague
@austin_teague · Full-Stack Marketer and Entrepreneur
@bingfish As an investor how do you find startups to invest in? Specifically is it through referrals, cold emails, specific searches/sites?
Second, what is the biggest frustration leading up to investing in a startup?
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@austin_teague @bingfish Hi Austin. Mostly through referrals. Nothing beats a warm intro from someone you admire.
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@austin_teague @bingfish Biggest frustration? Hard to sort out the real relationship from the normal posturing of selling.
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@austin_teague @bingfish and we always have to remember that the pitch correlates with communication skills, but not necessarily business success.
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@austin_teague @bingfish When KP announced the iFund in 2008, we got something like 2800 business plans over the transom. @_Lee_Linden_ real all of them, culled the list to just 5 whom we met. When we get a reference, we usually meet with every one, unless we are already invested in a competitor. Do the math.
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@austin_teague @bingfish But you can always send a plan to me. bgordon@kpcb.com esp if it's about games or more broadly, gamification.
Austin Teague
@austin_teague · Full-Stack Marketer and Entrepreneur
@bing_gordon @_lee_linden_ Sounds like a pretty brutal and time consuming process! Do you ever run into any frustration from getting the information needed to do your due diligence on a startup?
Megan Matt
@meganmatt42 · Megan, Augl
@bing_gordon @austin_teague @bingfish @kpcb Do you have any great models of B2B tools using gamification that you can recommend? Or B2C productivity tools?
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@austin_teague @_lee_linden_ yes. diligence is hard. esp if you try to diligence people, and don't have an informal link between networks. product market fit is easier to diligence, but many of the best investments are provably "stupid" early on. It's always a problem to learn the wrong lessons from past failures, and to outsmart yourself in the face of innovation.
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@meganmatt42 @austin_teague @bingfish @kpcb i like the completion bar on linked in, and the sales rank number on Amazon (authors obsess on it). Betterworks completion score and peer cheers are excellent, founded interestingly enough by Kris Duggan, founder of Badgeville, who also wrote Gamification for Dummies. The first B2B tool, as you know, is the sales quota. And the first B2C tool is a gold star for kindergartners. the worst B2B tool: market development funds, very hard not to corrupt this. the worst B2C tool: religious pardons.
Megan Matt
@meganmatt42 · Megan, Augl
@bing_gordon @austin_teague @bingfish @kpcb I like the completion bar on Linked In and some badges, like from Fitbit. But I'm also interested in in-app gamification, the more subtle rewards you get for using a product. I used to run an accounting business and Xero has this Xero touch app that allows you to reconcile bank activity in a subtly gamified way. Usually the expense matches the account and you just click ok, then a graphic of two cards (like memory) flipping over. It's as silly as the Linked in but gives you this little dopamine and makes you want to reconcile expenses. I think more people should be making the tedious fun =).
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@meganmatt42 @austin_teague @bingfish @kpcb Agree that fun > tedium. Xero sounds kind of cool! thanks for sharing.
Cuan-Chai Megghross
@iamcuan · Angel Investor, Brainyloft
@bingfish How is KPCB tackling diversity? What are you doing to encourage start ups to be more diverse?
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
Megan Matt
@meganmatt42 · Megan, Augl
@iamcuan I think one of the answers could be found scrolling through the attendees here #sausagefest. I count four of us woman and I'm pretty sure one is Ricky Ma's ScarJo blowup doll.
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@meganmatt42 @iamcuan sounds like the world needs more people like you, then.
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
http://www.kpcb.com/blog/how-to-...
Distill your pitch to a geometric proof, and then show how great and passionate you are.
Jacqueline von Tesmar
@jacqvon · Community, Product Hunt ✌️😻
What are the first tabs you open on your computer/phone every morning?
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@jacqvon Farmville Country Escape or Legendary, when I'm in the midst of a timed event. And then the calendar, to see what I'm already late for. Bleacher Report, to see what I missed or to relish the Warriors, Sharks or Giants victories. Or to see what dumb things are going on with the Forty Niners today. I was hoping Kaepernick and Elway would team up.
Steve Rechtschaffner
@steverecht · Creator & lover of fun
Hi Bing, where do you see gaming behaviors becoming more important than they are today?
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@steverecht Education, medicine, fitness, training, dating/love, work place. Shucks, probably even space travel.
Andrew Flynn
@andrewpflynn · Growth, Staance
Bing- what do you think about Nintendo finally entering the mobile app space?
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@andrewpflynn Way overdue. But it's so hard to give up making hardware, because hardware is the crack of the tech business. it's addicting to make hardware.
Bing Gordon
@bing_gordon
@andrewpflynn Nintendo has such a treasure trove of properties. I often wonder whether it should become part of the Disney empire. Imagine Mario Kart, the ride by Imagineering, or Legend of Zelda, the movie starring Johnny Depp.