Chris Quaidoo is the Content Acquisition Lead at Carry1st, a leading African mobile games publisher backed by investors like Bitcraft and A16Z. He's also a Venture Partner at Griffin Gaming Partners and hosts Venture Games, a podcast where he interviews key players in gaming and venture capital.

Tune in to this episode of the Here's Waldo Podcast to gain valuable insights into the African gaming market, highlighting its challenges, growth potential, and how Carry1st is driving innovation with local payment solutions. Chris also shares his perspective on what makes a game thrive in emerging markets and the importance of networking and mentorship in building successful careers in gaming.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• Growth potential of the African gaming market
• Strategic networking and relationship-building for career success
• Venture capital trends and winning game strategies
• Forecasting the Future of the Gaming Industry

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Here’s Waldo Recruiting
• Lizzie Mintus on LinkedIn
• Chris Quaidoo on LinkedIn
• Carry1st
• Venture Games Podcast on Spotify
• Griffin Gaming Partners
• Shawn Foust on LinkedIn
• Shawn Foust on the Here's Waldo Podcast
• Moritz Baier-Lentz on the Here's Waldo Podcast
• Tripp Hawkins on the Venture Games Podcast
• Noah Falstein on the Here's Waldo Podcast

Episode Transcript

Welcome to the Here's Waldo podcast, where we sit down with top visionaries and creatives in the video game industry. Together we'll unravel their journeys and learn more about the path they're forging ahead. Now, let's get started with the show.

Lizzie Mintus: Hi, I'm Lizzie Mintus, founder and CEO of Here's Waldo Recruiting. We are a boutique video game recruitment firm, and this is the Here's Waldo Podcast. In every episode, we dive deep into conversations with creatives, founders, and execs about their journey. You can expect to hear valuable lessons and get a glimpse into the future of the industry.

This episode is brought to you by Here's Waldo Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm for the game industry. We value quality over quantity, transparency, communication, and diversity. 

Before introducing today's guest, I want to give a thank you to Shawn Foust for introducing us. Shawn, you're a very funny person. Check out his podcast. Although he's very serious on his podcast. And check out his LinkedIn for some LinkedIn trolls. 

Today we have Chris Quaidoo with us. Chris is the Content Acquisition Lead at Carry1st, the leading African mobile games publisher that is backed by investors, including Bitcraft and A16Z. Chris is also a venture partner at Griffin Gaming Partners, one of the leading gaming focused venture capital firms, and he is the host of the Venture Games podcast. 

Let's get started. Thank you for being here. I'm glad I could finally recruit you. 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, sure. Thanks for having me. I know we probably planned to do this about six months ago, so it's good to finally get the recording going.

Lizzie Mintus: Good. Yes, pre-GDC, I think. So I want to start a little bit about what you're currently doing and then work our way back. Can you tell me more about Carry1st as a company? 

Chris Quaidoo: Sure. So Carry1st is the leading African mobile games publisher, as you mentioned, backed by some of the leading investors in gaming, most notably, Bitcraft and Andreessen. There's also some strategies like Riot on the cap table. So it's a really impressive group of investors. And there's sort of a number of different business models that Carry1st has. One of which is enabling local payment methods for African players, which is a huge issue for a lot of gamers in Africa. Happy to talk more about that. 

And then we also do like just a number of different publishing services. So that's everything from co-publishing agreements, focus more on like marketing and player growth all the way up to local publishing. We'll actually license a game and then publish it in Africa, or in some cases Africa plus MENA. And then we actually do some global publishing as well. So that's sort of Carry1st in a nutshell. 

Lizzie Mintus: Many different things. And how long have you been there versus how long has it been? 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, so I joined in May of '22 and I think the company is maybe six years old now So I've been there for about a third of its existence, but we've grown pretty significantly since I've joined. 

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah. Can you tell me about what you were up to when you started and then the growth journey that you've been on there? 

Chris Quaidoo: Sure. So when I joined, I was maybe like employee #50 ish. We have a lot more than that now, I think well over a hundred employees. And I think just like the acceptance of a lot of games publishers as far as their interest in the African gaming market has changed substantially. I remember, and I talked about this from time to time, like early on when I was traveling for conferences after I joined Carry1st, one of the first things I had to explain was, what is Carry1st?

Nowadays, I think most folks, at least at the conferences I'm going to, have heard about Carry1st. We've been in the media for a number of different things, so that's been a big change. 

Lizzie Mintus: Can you tell me more about your role, what you do for Carry1st as the Content Acquisition Lead?

Chris Quaidoo: Sure. As Content Acquisition Lead, I'm tasked with finding gaming content for us to publish. And again, that falls into one of the different business models that I mentioned before, so potentially acquiring a game outright to publish globally or working on a licensing deal to publish a game on the continent.

Lizzie Mintus: And can you talk about what you look for in your search? 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, sure. I get asked this question a lot, like, what games are African players playing? And frankly, the top grossing games in Africa are pretty similar to the top grossing games worldwide. So, like, Candy Crush is one of the top grossing games in Africa, PUBG Mobile, Free Fire, those games all do really well in Africa. 

Where you'll see tilts largely are related to, one, demographics, and two technical constraints, right? So on the demographics, youngest continent in the world, the gaming industry still skews quite a bit male. And then in certain countries like Nigeria, for example, which is one of our core markets, there's a very sort of competitive culture in general, right? So you'll see like competitive games tend to do better.

And obviously, soccer or football is, most of the world calls, extremely popular in Africa. It's almost like religion, right? So sports games tend to outperform, but particularly like soccer games. FIFA is extremely popular, or I guess EFC mobile is extremely popular there. So at a glance, that's sort of how I think about it. 

And then technical constraints are actually a pretty important consideration. The average smartphone in Africa is something like, call it $150 to $20 android smartphone, right? So while the more affluent folks definitely have iPhones and have the highest end devices and are capable of running basically any game, there's a very large number of users who need games that are more technically suitable for their devices, right? So that's another consideration as well as we're searching. 

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah. So you want to work with a studio that is willing to make games for a device that is compatible? 

Chris Quaidoo: Potentially. So there are some games where, if it's a really popular IP, for example, like Call of Duty mobile, extremely popular IP, but a very large file size, very intense on the device. African players, because it's such a good game, in some cases are willing to sit on Wi-Fi for, call it, 45 minutes to an hour, or however long it takes for a game to download. 

I think, for a lot of American folks, that seems crazy, but it's honestly not that dissimilar from like 10 years ago when I was playing on Xbox 360 and digital downloads just started becoming a thing. If there's a game that I really wanted to play, I might be downloading it for 12 hours so that I can play this great experience.

Now in the US we have really good devices and really fast internet speed. This world seems so foreign to folks, but it's really not that different from what we saw not too long ago. 

Lizzie Mintus: Would you say if the game is famous enough in a more of a western or global market, then it becomes tolerable to wait a long time?

Chris Quaidoo: It's a good question. I think Google did a study actually that shows, especially for emerging markets, as file size gets bigger, the number of downloads tends to decrease. So it definitely is a constraint, right? To be clear, it's definitely better to have a game that's more accessible for folks if you're trying to grow in emerging markets.

But I do think there are some exceptions. There are some games, I think, and some IPs that are just popular enough where folks are willing to download the game, even if it takes a long time. 

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah. Okay, I'm very curious about the gaming market in Africa and how you have seen it evolve. You touched on it a little bit, and also two questions at once, but also why are people so much more interested in it these days? Is it because it's more known? Because it's more active? Combo? 

Chris Quaidoo: Sure. So on the market in general, I think depending on the source, it's roughly, call it, a billion dollar revenue market. There's something like, call it 300 million mobile gamers in Africa, right? So a pretty large market growing up in the, in terms of downloads. And then as far as why I think folks are increasingly becoming interested- I think one, frankly, Carry1st has sort of done a lot to put the African gaming market on the map.

Another reason is, as we see the gaming market as a whole, the growth of the gaming market as a whole rather, decline. Folks are looking for other areas for growth, right? And so emerging markets are one of the areas where you can get pretty good organic growth. So I think those are some of the main reasons.

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah. And you touched on this payment solution a little bit, and I listened to a Deconstructor of Fun episode. It was about India, but just about how so many people in India don't have credit cards. So you have to have completely alternative payment methods. Can you talk about how currency in Africa works? 

How do most people pay for stuff in general? How do most people pay for games then maybe touch on your specific solution? 

Chris Quaidoo: Sure. It's pretty similar in that a lot of folks in Africa don't have internationally accepted credit cards. So you'd see anything from call it 90 to 95 percent or more of people don't have internationally accepted credit cards.

Currently, the major app stores require that you have an internationally accepted credit card to make a payment, right? So even if these folks want to make payments, without some sort of third party solution, they literally can't pay for the content that they want. So we enable a whole lot of payment methods for folks, depending on the country that they're in.

As far as how they're paying today, it really depends on the country. Certain countries have local credit cards that they use that aren't internationally accepted. Some are more cash based. There is a number of digital wallet schemes, which are very, very popular in Africa, actually. Some folks even use crypto for money movement. So a number of different alternatives are popular. And we offer a number of them. 

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah, and you're getting MENA as well? 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, I mean, we've always served North Africa. Egypt is one of our core markets. I think in the Middle East, it's a region that gets a lot more coverage, frankly, than Sub Saharan Africa. It's an area that a lot of folks are interested in. What I can say for now is it's an area we're continuing to explore and increase our capabilities to serve the Middle East part of MENA.

Lizzie Mintus: Good answer. And for games that are actually developed in Africa, what does the overall market look like for game studios? Are they in a specific region and what kind of games are they developing? 

Chris Quaidoo: Sure. So a lot of the contents, well, I guess two things. One, a lot of the revenue in the gaming industry that's being generated in Africa is going to non African studios, right? That's just sort of the reality. They're better funded. They have better resources. But that's not to say there isn't talent, right? I think a couple years ago, Carry1st partnered with a studio that made a hyper casual game called, The President, and it became like one of the top downloaded games in the U.S., actually, briefly. 

And there's another example, Disney worked with an African studio to build a mobile game that ties into their show, Awaju. So there are definitely talented folks on the continent, but I definitely think there are fewer opportunities for them to show off their talents than in some other regions.

And then as far as countries, I think it's probably some of the countries that folks like us, you know, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, I think are among the regions where you'll see more talent and more studios. You know, again, it's still an area where more growth is going to be required. There's definitely some talent, but I just don't think there are enough opportunities yet for these folks. 

Lizzie Mintus: That makes sense. But I feel like for me, from a recruiting standpoint, watching all of these companies build their studios through COVID and go through intense hiring pushes and fights to get people. And now companies are thinking a little bit more strategically and financially savvy at this time. But a lot of companies are also looking at what other region can I build a studio in? I think I'll be interested to watch that. 

Are there any major game companies that have a satellite office somewhere in Africa?

Chris Quaidoo: There are African studios that are notable. I don't want to butcher any names or anything like that, but there's definitely talent. 

Lizzie Mintus: Interesting. Yeah. I'll have to check it out a little bit more.

And then as far as your role, it sounds like it's a ton of relationship building and research. How do you go about finding out what is going on? I know you have your podcast and I see you at all the conferences, but how do you stay up to date and figure out, I guess, your next strategic move? 

Chris Quaidoo: Sure. I mean, I have been a gamer, like, forever, and I have been an investor for a very long time. The first several years of my career, I was investing in publicly traded stocks, mostly in tech, but also covered some gaming as well back when there were a lot fewer publicly traded gaming companies. So I'd been following the industry from a business standpoint for a very long time, longer than a lot of the more established or more well known VC investors out there.

So I've been following the market for a long time. And I try to absorb as much data as I can, whether that's like looking at games on the charts, like data AI and center tower. Or just trying my best to keep a pulse on what is sort of growing in the industry or what's popular. I know that' a pretty generic answer. 

Lizzie Mintus: No, that's okay. It's all about networking and who you know. And obviously I'm sure of your investment roots, you have so many connections in the industry. 

I want to talk a little bit more about you. You're also a partner at Griffin Gaming. And podcasting and doing all the things. What can you share about your role at Griffin? 

Chris Quaidoo: Sure. So I'm a venture partner for Griffin. For a couple of years I was an investor on the team. But since I've joined Carry1st, I moved into the venture partner role. I think venture partner means different things that a lot of different VC firms. I think in general it's typically an external role.

My role is more around helping source deals and things like that. I still do maintain some relationships just with folks I knew while I was at Griffin. But yeah, for the most part, like sourcing is the biggest thing. 

Lizzie Mintus: And you have secretive methods for your sourcing. I know a lot of people read up on reports, you game yourself.

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, I mean, you know, my podcast, for example, has helped me expand my network and those sorts of things. One thing that I think sort of differentiates myself, or at least has worked out well as far as networking is I try to do it authentically. I think it helps me because I'm a big gamer, right?

And I think one thing that a lot of people say is like, if you're trying to get into the VC world for gaming, as a lot of folks were a couple of years ago when the industry was like a lot hotter, it's very clear to folks, especially founders or people who have been working in gaming for a while, like if you are actually into gaming versus if you've just played like Call of Duty for like six months when you were in college, right? There's a very, very big difference. So I think that does resonate with some people. 

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah, absolutely. I like what you said about being authentic. I think that's the secret to any relationship driven business. That's why I started my company too. You don't need to get a bunch of spam emails. I mean, I'm sure like there's some investor. I don't know if some investors do it that way. But lots of sales is, in theory, done by all of this cold outreach, especially with AI. They send so many emails. I get so many junk emails asking if I want to purchase these services for my company, but I very much do not. 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, I mean, I can tell you one way to not make it easy to fundraise is like spamming. And yeah, I listened to the episode you did with Moritz and he mentioned this as well. But at most VC firms, everyone on the investment team is speaking to each other frequently. It shouldn't be that surprising.

So if you send a note to one person and they don't respond, I don't think it makes much sense to send it. Or if they give you a no, actually, I think it's even better, right? I don't think it makes sense to just go to the person that's maybe sitting right next to them and ask them. I don't think that's very effective.

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah. So obviously not tied to Griffin, but you've been in the investment space for a long time for yourself. Can you talk a little bit about what, I guess, resonates well with you from a pitch standpoint or an investment standpoint? And I know you listened to Moritz so you can hear his two cents too, but it's interesting to hear what all the different investors like and what are the commonalities.

Chris Quaidoo: Sure. Again, I'll keep it pretty generic and just speak on my opinions and not on behalf of anyone else. But I think it's almost a cliche at this point, like the team is probably the most important aspect, at least in my opinion. I think when you start getting into later stage stuff, like metrics and revenue and profit and cash flows, those things start to matter more. But definitely at the early stage, the team is probably the biggest thing, I think even more so than the idea.

Some folks who are founders will send NDAs and stuff when they're meeting with VCs. I think generally that is sort of frowned upon or at least not advised. And I think the reason for it, frankly, is because the idea doesn't typically make the company. Especially in gaming recently, I think the trend has been more towards sort of doing what has been done and maybe innovating a little bit and just doing it really well, executing really well. That's a lot more important than like the idea. So I think the team is definitely the biggest thing. Things like valuation and those sorts of things are also considerations as well. 

Lizzie Mintus: Hmm. I've never heard that. That's a really good insight. I'm friends with David K. too, and he posted the other day, which I appreciated. If you send a drive link to your pitch, and he has to request access to it, that's one of the biggest annoyances. Obviously, these are just little things, but I'm sure things add up, right? 

Chris Quaidoo: Sure. I mean, most investors, especially at like all the large gaming VC funds, they're going to be seeing a thousand plus pitches a year. And they're obviously of various quality. And so the best way is always going to be to get a warm intro. Reaching out cold can work and does work sometimes. But I guess every incremental added friction sort of just decreases the chance of you getting funded. So I would consider all those things. 

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah, so no NDA. NDA plus request access really lowers the chance.

Chris Quaidoo: People still send NDAs, including some strong founders, right? But I think generally, a lot of long standing VCs tend to say, or tend to advise against it, I think. Also, no VC is going to steal your idea and then, like, build your company. That's just fantasy land.

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah. It'd be a good movie, though. So what led you to the game investment space in the first place? 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, for me, it was pretty simple, right? I was always a gamer and I was an investor for most of my professional career. So doing both of those things together seemed fun and I think it was. 

Lizzie Mintus: And how did you get in the door in the first place?

Chris Quaidoo: That's a good question. So on VC in general, I have a story that nobody is going to be able to tell a similar one, right? 

Lizzie Mintus: Oh, I can't wait. It's like the best part of the podcast. Tell me. 

Chris Quaidoo: So years and years ago, I used to be a pretty big poker player. And I used to live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So I was actually at a poker club. poker game , at a casino in Pittsburgh. And there were these two guys who started a VC firm, like relatively recently. And at the time I wanted to get into VC. So I talked to them about that, but it was a relatively small firm. So they weren't really in a position to hire someone full time. They offered me the opportunity to move to New York and shadow them. I unfortunately wasn't really in a position where I could do that either. But I stayed in touch with them for a while. And then, as I was going to Berkeley Haas to get my MBA, I just asked if I could intern with them. So that was like how it started. And then I was introduced to the Griffin folks through a mentor of mine. 

Lizzie Mintus: I like that. And how did you connect with this mentor? 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, so it's through this program that the Dorm Room Fund runs. Dorm Room Fund is like a student VC fund, under First Round Capital, or it was previously under First Round Capital. I think it's been spun out. But yeah, they had this mentorship program. I was just really fortunate to really connect with the person who's my mentor. 

He's Chris Freilich. He's been a VC investor for like 15 plus years- early investor in Roblox, a number of other really interesting companies. And we have a really good relationship even to this day. I actually just saw him a few days ago when he was in LA. That has really, really, really impacted my career. 

I think VC and the startup world in general tends to be pretty clubby, very heavily leans on credentials and how you look on paper and those sorts of connections, right? So if you don't have a lot of that, right? Like I grew up in Rochester, New York. My parents are immigrants. I don't have a secret rich uncle who founded some company or works in VC or whatever. It's just way, way, way harder for folks like that, right? So I'm very grateful to have this relationship.

Lizzie Mintus: Do you think that if you hadn't met those poker players at the casino that you might not have gotten into VC? Do you think that tipped you over the edge? 

Chris Quaidoo: I definitely think it's possible, right? And by the way, they're not poker players, they're VCs, playing poker. 

Lizzie Mintus: Okay, VCs playing poker. 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, I just want to be clear, I just want to be clear. But yeah, it's a good question, right? I don't know. I would say at the time, I didn't really have a super, super clear path. But with that said, I was going to Berkeley Haas to get my MBA. It's obviously in the Bay and it's a pretty good program. So, you know, I think there's a chance I could have potentially networked my way in, but it's really, really difficult. So I'm grateful I had the opportunity. 

Lizzie Mintus: That's interesting. I met someone at a bar who was a recruiter, and he told me about what recruiting was, and I think about that a lot. Like, what if I didn't go to the bar that night? What would I be doing? Maybe I would have still ended up in it. 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people understate the role luck plays in, in life in general, right? But I think especially in your career, I think things like the school you go to have such a big impact on your outcomes, right? I didn't go to an Ivy League. And there were plenty of folks who were qualified on paper to go to one of these schools. But because it's such a competitive process. Maybe the interviewer didn't like their interview or the reviewer didn't like their essay or whatever. That can dramatically change your life, right? 

And not to exaggerate it too much, there's plenty of good schools. You don't have to go to the best schools in the world. But I do think that those things do give you sort of an unfair advantage. That's just one example, right?

For example, being born to whatever family you're born into, or just like, different folks that you meet, or you might meet the right person, but you might not connect with them for one reason or another, right? All those things sort of add up. But I don't think people really weigh how important some of those things can be.

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah. I mean, I think you're right. I think school though, for me, like if you know what you want to do and this is your career, that's great. But for me, I went to community college. I did my college in high school. And that was just never the path that I personally chose. But for me, I feel like I figured out business and for my role in recruiting, there's not a clear career path.

So I'm personally grateful I didn't go to school, but I agree. I feel like, the more ways you can kind of up the ladder, but also you signed up for that program, right? Like, you were in your MBA, but you put yourself in the program to get a mentor, right? 

Chris Quaidoo: Oh, absolutely. 

Lizzie Mintus: It's also putting yourself in there.

Chris Quaidoo: Sure, but had I, for example, got a mentor that I didn't connect with? Yes. There's just so many different things, right? I don't know. I think things going right makes a huge difference. 

To your point, it's not always the right path for everyone, to like going to a good college or whatever. But I think especially as associate roles in VC are increasingly going to folks with MBAs. It definitely makes a huge difference, right? Like if you went to Harvard, and there's actually stats on this in VC. I think something like 70, 80 percent of folks in VC went to either Harvard or Stanford or Penn at some point. And so that's a ridiculous number, right? Had you not gone to one of those schools, the odds are just like way, way more difficult. 

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah. I mean, for you, you're in the right place, but I also really think a lot of it too, outside of school, outside of the factors you mentioned, it is just going places, like even a bar, going out to lunch. I read this book early in my career and it said basically the more places you go, the more luck you have. The more you put yourself out there, which is true. Luck is part of it. But. You have to go places and you have to talk to people and you have to build a relationship with people and make that effort.

And I feel like for me, at least in my career, it's like this initial person that I reached out to. And then like 10 connections later, they connect me to someone who connects me to someone. And Yeah, that's like how my whole business is. 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, don't get me wrong. I'm not understating the role of hard work at all. Hard work's definitely important and creating your own luck. You know, the cliche is definitely very important as well. But I'd rather be lucky than good, I think. 

Lizzie Mintus: Interesting. I've never had anyone say that. Okay. So you're also a podcast host. Can you talk a little bit about your podcast?

Chris Quaidoo: Sure. So my podcast is Venture Games. I basically have, call it 45 minute to an hour conversations with folks that I want to talk to. They tend to either be VCs or startup founders or executives, or C level folks at large gaming companies. That's largely who it's been. And yeah, we just talk about different stuff. 

I usually talk about their background and then talk about their business and then maybe other things that I think are interesting in the gaming industry or related to the work that they're doing. 

Lizzie Mintus: And after all of those interviews, you've done 60, 70?

Chris Quaidoo: 45, something like that. 

Lizzie Mintus: Okay. 45, a lot. 

Chris Quaidoo: Mhmm. 

Lizzie Mintus: What have you learned? What are some common threads between the different people you talk to? 

Chris Quaidoo: Sure, I think one thing, and it's kind of related to what we were talking about. One thing that I think a lot of the folks that I've talked to have really emphasized is just the value of like connections throughout their careers, right?

I think there's another thing too that you hear from startup founders, especially multi time startup founders. I think starting a business with some folks, and then in your next business, working with them again, that's something that I've heard from some of these folks that have said it's really been a significant contributing factor to their success in their careers.

 So that's one piece of advice I've heard pretty commonly. 

Lizzie Mintus: So if you have a really, let's say you start a company and you have an exit to bring some people with you, the founding team to your next company would be a great thing to do. 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah. That's something that I've heard definitely as a consistent theme. I just think the value of networking in general is really high based on the conversations I've had with some of these folks. 

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah, me too. And I always think it's really interesting to talk to somebody you think is so famous, and they have it, quote, figured out, but they feel like they don't have it figured out. And then to hear them say, Oh yeah, I didn't know how to do this thing. And then I talked to this person who's my mentor. I think it's really important to remember, even people who you think have it all figured out have mentors. 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah. One really great example of that- I interviewed Tripp Hawkins, who founded Electronic Arts, right? Electronic Arts is a company everyone knows. It's one of the most successful gaming businesses ever created in history, period. 

And in my conversation with him, he talked about a number of things that he has learned through his career. And then a number of things that he wished he had done differently, right? Despite the fact that he had a level of success that a number of entrepreneurs will never get close to that level, right? But I thought that was just really interesting, seeing that after all these years in his career, he still has that level of humility and he himself is still really actively trying to learn and get better.

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah. What did he wish that he had done? 

Chris Quaidoo: I'll direct books to listen to the episode of my podcast. They can hear from him directly. 

Lizzie Mintus: What a good guest. Congrats. 

So you have such an amazing pulse on the industry, your podcasting. You're Carry1st-ing. You're investing. What are your thoughts on the state of the industry in 2024? 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, so this is a theme that I've talked to a lot of guests about recently. I guess I'll tackle it from two standpoints. One as a gamer, right? I think as a gamer, folks are seeing a lot, so I don't remember who put out this data. But recently, there's some survey that showed that something like 80 percent of time spent is time spent gaming is spent on games that are six years old or older, right? So there's like the Roblox's, the Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty. It's like a handful of games that are dominating the industry.

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah. 

Chris Quaidoo: As a gamer, historically, I was always sort of like a one game person, but I always enjoyed new, really interesting games that innovated and I was drawn to them for one reason or another. As a gamer, I'd say it definitely feels like there are fewer of those opportunities and even when those opportunities are created, it's hard for them to sustain, right?

Because in today's gaming environment, you not only need to have a really good game, but all the large games have really robust live ops teams, right? So like Fortnite is a game that's gonna be around probably forever. And they spend tons and tons of money. I'm really, really excited to be creating content and doing all these other things to keep the experience fresh, right?

If you're sort of a new startup founder and you are able to have one of these crazy hits in this really competitive industry, it's really, really tough to maintain that. And keep your content fresh when you don't have the same sort of budgets and same resources. So I think that's a consideration. With that said, I'm still pretty bullish.

We've seen like Manor Lords and Pale World and Helldivers 2 and a number of other recent examples of really good games that have broken in despite those dynamics. I think industry growth rates seem to be slowing down compared to a few years ago. I think it's an open question as to whether that's due to a significant pull forward from the pandemic versus something structural, right?

So I think there's plenty of reasons to be optimistic. I understand why there's concern, right? There have been some challenges. But I still think it's a really, really great industry. It's a large industry, something like 200 billion in annual revenue in the industry, 3 billion gamers. It makes people happy. So overall, I'm still bullish. 

Lizzie Mintus: I just had Noah Falstein on my podcast, but he was talking about how healthcare is making games too, and what a big market that is for mental health and potentially even fixing your eyes. There's so many different applications for a game. So I think that's a really interesting and exciting space. VR meets reality- we'll see how, when that becomes common, but I think we're headed kind of in that direction. 

Okay. Who in your career, I know you talked about your mentor. Maybe this is your answer, but who has been your biggest mentor and what have they told you that's just kind of really stuck with you? I feel like sometimes you get this advice and it's like an aha moment. 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, it's definitely Chris, Chris Freilich, as I mentioned before. He's been a really great mentor, both as a hands on person. I basically connect with him every other week just to discuss things that are going on and ask him questions, whatever.

And I think one thing he also is known for is sort of being a really good networker and connecting with people authentically. He has some really, really valuable connections and I think people generally just speak highly of him, both based on what he's done professionally, but also his character. So that's an example of something that I hope to live up to you, or is something that resonates with me. 

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah, maybe you'll have a mini you someday that you can mentor. That'd be awesome. 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah. It's funny. In one of our first meetings, one of the things he told me was that he had an investor who also had a great career at a very large VC firm who sort of took him under his wing early on.

I do think these things are really important. Again, tying into what I said before. Especially if you're someone who doesn't have one of these Illuminati networks that you can lean on, right? It definitely helps to have mentors that can help you out. 

Lizzie Mintus: I think also being a mentor is valuable for you. I'm in this business group and there's an accelerator program and everyone who coaches the accelerator says that they learn so much from the accelerators too. It goes both ways. It's not just one. 

Chris Quaidoo: Definitely. It's something that I would like to do more. If people reach out to me for advice, especially like college students or whatever, I try my best to take those calls if I have the time. I do think it's very, very important.

Especially because for some people, they might be coming from a situation where you might be doing what they consider to be a dream job. And they might literally think that it's impossible, right? There are people who come from areas, I'm not talking about some like remote area, right? I'm talking about Cleveland, for example. No disrespect to Cleveland, right? In Cleveland, you probably haven't grown up around VCs and these huge venture backed companies and all that stuff, right?

And so you might not know about this whole world, or know much about it, right? So just having someone from this world that a lot of people, for one reason or another, aspire to so much, just to get that recognition I actually think can go a really long way. 

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah, I think to know what it is, even for recruiting, I can give someone this advice, like, hey, say this thing, do this thing in an interview, put this on your profile, and it's like this big change, this big unlock. But for me, it's so built into me, and I know it so, so well, it seems obvious, but you can give people these little nuggets and it really helps them. 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah. I grew up in Rochester, New York so similarly, VC isn't really a thing there. I still remember early on when I was just figuring out what I wanted to do, certain conversations I had with people that I respected or that I knew were successful and things that I thought were interesting. And those first conversations or those first like pieces of advice or encouragement actually mean a lot to some people. 

Lizzie Mintus: Totally. In the future, I'll check in. I feel like you can start this funnel, this school funnel to VC. 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, I hope so. Again, for me, something that would make me happy doing that is if it were helping people that otherwise wouldn't really have the opportunity, right?

I'm not trying to bash anyone. I know there are a lot of people who like to keep it in their school network or whatever. To me personally, I don't think it's that interesting helping out someone who wants to like some really exclusive school who's going to make it anyways. I'm still happy to talk to those people, but to me, that's a lot less interesting than helping out someone who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity.

 I think you should help everyone. But to me, it's more impactful or more meaningful to help people who need it. 

Lizzie Mintus: That's true. That's the fun part about recruiting too. Maybe take a call a week. I don't have a role for you. Maybe you graduated college or something, but I know that I can guide you or give you that little boost of confidence that you need. And then, yeah, it's fun to watch people grow. We have similar likes. 

Okay. I have one final question. You get to peek under the hood of like hundreds or thousands of companies and see what games make sense from an investment standpoint or content acquisition standpoint. What do you think the recipe is for making a successful game?

Chris Quaidoo: That's a good question. You know, again, I think it's execution. I'll focus more on mobile, right? I think for a mobile, especially as we're seeing a lot of somewhat similar games tend to be the most dominant or most successful or even fastest growing, there are some exceptions to that. There are some new gameplay mechanics or play patterns that are emerging and have been successful.

But for the most part, I think it's just like executing really well. I think on the specifics, probably a better question for so many is focused more on growing these games. But yeah, that'd be my general advice. 

Lizzie Mintus: We've been talking to Chris Quaidoo, who is Content Acquisition Lead at Carry1st, Venture Partner at Griffin, and podcast host.

Chris, where can people get in touch with you for investment or about Carry1st, or maybe listen to your podcast? 

Chris Quaidoo: Yeah, my podcast is on Spotify, SoundCloud, and Apple, maybe more into other places. And then I think I'm pretty accessible on LinkedIn if people want to reach out to me. 

Lizzie Mintus: Thank you.

Thanks so much for listening to the show this week. To catch all the latest from Here's Waldo, you can follow us on LinkedIn. Be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes. We'll see you next time.