Building the Electronic Arts of Casual Gaming: PlayFirst CEO John Welch (Part 5)

SM: What was the market landscape like when you founded the company? Competition? Competitive Positioning? JW: There was no formal publisher in the casual games space prior to PlayFirst’s entry. It was like authors not only writing books with no editor and no research staff but also having to scurry around from bookstore to bookstore

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Building the Electronic Arts of Casual Gaming: PlayFirst CEO John Welch (Part 4)

SM: Sounds like Shockwave was a great place to experiment and learn! JW: During this time I built a friendship with the principal software architect of the project, Brad Edelman, who is now co-founder and CTO of PlayFirst. I also met three other great people who now work at PlayFirst. Unfortunately, Shockwave spent most of

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Building the Electronic Arts of Casual Gaming: PlayFirst CEO John Welch (Part 3)

SM: Where did you get the idea for your current venture? What is your domain experience in the segment? Any particular reason that led you up to this venture? JW: I co-founded my first startup in 1997, with that same roommate from Boston. While trying to raise capital and recruit a head of engineering, the

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Building the Electronic Arts of Casual Gaming: PlayFirst CEO John Welch (Part 2)

SM: Mowing your way to MIT! JW: I used my mowing money to pay my half of the cost for one of the first Intel 8088 processor personal computers. I guess I didn’t use my old TI-994A enough, so my parents were convinced that the new ‘toy’ would just gather dust unless – or even

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Building the Electronic Arts of Casual Gaming: PlayFirst CEO John Welch (Part 1)

The Internet is changing the content business dramatically, and in this story, we will explore the casual gaming industry through the eyes of entrepreneur John Welch, a gaming industry veteran, who hopes to build a brand as high-impact as Electronic Arts in video gaming, through his venture PlayFirst. I met John a long time ago

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Jim Satloff & Neal Goldman’s AI Engine, Inform (Part 5)

SM: Let’s discuss your financial history, in the final segment of the conversation. Who financed the company at the very beginning? I assume it was some of Neal’s Capital IQ proceeds that went into Inform. JS: It was friends and family, yes. SM: Did you raise Venture money? How much? From whom?

Jim Satloff & Neal Goldman’s AI Engine, Inform (Part 4)

SM: What is the business model of your company? JS: As I showed you, Sramana, we have 2 different business models, one a fee-for-service model that has a consistent, recurring revenue stream, and a revenue-share, ad-based model, which is more consistent with the lighter implementation of our products that I demoed for you. SM: What

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Jim Satloff & Neal Goldman’s AI Engine, Inform (Part 3)

SM: What is your personal background? JS: I have an undergraduate degree in computer science with a specialization in artificial intelligence and natural language processing. I also have a graduate degree in business (an MBA). Both degrees are from Columbia University. Prior to joining Inform, I was the CEO and President of C.E. Unterberg, Towbin,

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