Best Joakim Achren Podcasts (2024)

1
20Angel: Philipp Moehring: Co-Founder of Tiny VC on Giving Founders Permission to be Extreme, Becoming Europe's Most Active Investor & How Large Pre-Seed Rounds Can Lead to Disaster 38:12

2M ago38:12

38:12

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 17 features Philipp Moehring, Co-Founder of Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company (Tiny), One of Europe's most active pre-Seed investor with 350+ investments. His portfolio includes companies such as Sorare, Synthesia, 11x.ai, Amie, Wayve and many more . Previ…

1
20Europe: UK: Julien Bek (Sequoia Capital), Georgia Stevenson (Index Ventures) & Finn Murphy (Nebular VC) on the UK Punching Above its Weight, Why a $100bn Business Can't be Built in Europe, and Lighting ... 38:53

3M ago38:53

38:53

20Europe is a new series profiling European ecosystems. Each episode is a roundtable format featuring investors based in countries including Germany, France, UK, Sweden and more. Half of the show will focus on how these local ecosystems operate, with the other half focused the tech and venture landscape. For Episode 3, we profile the UK. I was join…

1
20Europe: France: Roxanne Varza (Station F), Jonathan Userovici (Headline) & Reza Malekzadeh (Partech) on the French AI Revolution, Why French Founders Win on Product and Suck at Sales, The Fight for Top ... 36:20

4M ago36:20

36:20

20Europe is a new series profiling European ecosystems. Each episode is a roundtable format featuring investors based in countries including Germany, France, UK, Sweden and more. Half of the show will focus on how these local ecosystems operate, with the other half focused the tech and venture landscape. For Episode 2, we profile France. I was join…

1
20Europe: Germany: Filip Dames, Co-Founder of Cherry Ventures & Dom Wilhelm, Partner at Headline on why Germany is the top tech ecosystem in Europe, why multi-stage funds are dangerous for seed companies ... 37:37

5M ago37:37

37:37

20Europe is a new series profiling European ecosystems. Each episode is a roundtable format featuring investors based in countries including Germany, France, UK, Sweden and more. Half of the show will focus on how these local ecosystems operate, with the other half focused more generally on the tech and venture landscape. For Episode 1, we profile …

1
20Angel: Joakim Achren: Co-Founder of Next Games (Acq. Netflix) on How To Build an Angel Syndicate, What Data to Study When Investing in Gaming & The Stress & Loneliness When Building a Startup 32:57

8M ago32:57

32:57

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 16 features Joakim Achren, angel investor & co-founder of Next Games, acquired by Netflix in 2022. Joakim also built Elite Game Developers, an online resource that helps entrepreneurs in starting their first games company. The newsletter and podcast have a com…

1
20Angel: Paul Forster: Co-Founder of Indeed.com on Building a $7bn Revenue Business, Why Founders Are The Best Angels, Why he Said no to a Deal Led by Sequoia & Why he Passed on a $2.5bn Company at Seed ... 25:28

9M ago25:28

25:28

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 15 features Paul Forster, angel investor & co-founder and former CEO of Indeed, the #1 job search and recruitment service worldwide, now with 12k employees and $7bn in revenue. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and Master’s degrees from Cambridge & Oxford Universiti…

1
20Angel: Finn Murphy: Announcing Europe's Latest Solo GP, Why Backing Google Is The Only Thing That Matters, Why European Companies Need To Raise In The US & How The Deal Process Is Like Texas Hold'em 33:08

10M ago33:08

33:08

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 14 features Finn Murphy, angel investor & previously a Partner at Frontline Ventures, where he made 24 fund investments and 8 angel investments in his 4 and half year tenure. In that time, he has seen 3 companies through to exit with Workvivo selling to Zoom, …

1
20Angel: Marc McCabe: Ex Airbnb Exec & Angel Investor on Why Operator Experience is Essential For an Angel, Passing on Coinbase at Seed, Punchy Y Combinator Valuations, & The Best Way to DD Investments ... 32:47

11M ago32:47

32:47

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 13 features Marc McCabe, angel investor & solo GP of Nomad Capital, a seed stage fund focused on B2B software and marketplaces. Prior to starting Nomad, Marc worked at Google, SV Angel and was an early employee at Airbnb where he led numerous projects includin…

1
20Angel: Steve O'Hear: Ex TechCrunch Editor on The Unspoken Misalignment Between Investors & Founders, Turning Story-Flow Into Deal-Flow, & The Best Portfolio Construction Advice From Tom Blomfield, Founder ... 31:54

11M ago31:54

31:54

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 12 features Steve O'Hear, CEO and Founder of strategic communications agency, O'Hear & Co, and an executive at Zapp. Previously, Steve spent over 15 years as a technology and business journalist, including more than 10 years reporting for TechCrunch, covering …

1
20Angel: Mark Cummins: Why AI is as Important as The Wheel, How He Helped Canva Before They Raised a Round, Selling Two Companies to Google, And Experiences With Bad Angel Investors 30:36

12M ago30:36

30:36

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 11 features Mark Cummins, a 2x exited founder and long-time angel investor. He was the CEO and Co-Founder of computer vision company Plink, which became Google's first ever UK acquisition back in 2010. He then went on to co-found Pointy, a retail search compan…

1
20Angel: Jens Lapinski: Co-Founder of Angel Invest, 100+ Portfolio Companies 34:39

12M ago34:39

34:39

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 10 features Jens Lapinski, one Europe's most active angel investors. He is the Founding Partner of Angel Invest, an angel fund which has invested in 100+ companies. Formally, he was an MD at Techstars, Partner at Forward Labs (now Forward Partners) and co-foun…

1
20Angel: Roxanne Varza: Director of Station F, Sequoia Scout 32:43

1y ago32:43

32:43

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 9 features Roxanne Varza, Director of Station F, the world's largest startup campus, located in Paris. She is also an angel investor, Sequoia Scout and previously had roles at Techcrunch and Microsoft. Some of her angel investments include Figures, Claap, Folk…

1
20Angel: Johan Brand: Co-Founder of Norwegian Unicorn, Kahoot! and Co-Founder of We Are Human 27:56

1y ago27:56

27:56

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 8 features Johan Brand, Co-Founder of Kahoot!, a Norwegian online game-based learning platform that has raised over $500m, and as of July '23, is valued over $1.3bn. Johan is also the Co-Founder of We Are Human, which builds and invests in technology enabled c…

1
20Angel: Sarah Drinkwater 32:02

1y ago32:02

32:02

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 7 features Sarah Drinkwater, angel investor and Founder of Common Magic, an early stage fund backing products built with community at their core. Previously, she spent 15 years as an operator and angel investor in the European ecosystem with a focus on communi…

1
20Angel: Andy Ayim 30:04

1y ago30:04

30:04

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 6 features Andy Ayim MBE, angel investor and co-founder of The Angel Investing School, which has a vision to empower a new generation of angel investors. He has personally invested in over 12 startups such as Farmlend, Ava Estell and Whering. He is also an Ato…

1
20Angel: Matt Robinson 31:45

1y ago31:45

31:45

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 5 features Matt Robinson, Co-Founder of Fintech Unicorn, GoCardless, and Co-Founder of Nested. He is also one of Europe's most prolific angel investors with over 200 investments. Some of the companies he’s backed include Permutive, Cleo, Codat, Hopin, Incident…

1
David Kaye - Games entrepreneur and investor 57:44

1y ago57:44

57:44

In this podcast episode from June 2023, I talk with David Kaye, who did his first games company in the 1990s. Recently, he sold his company to Embracer and is now embarking on a journey to invest in gaming founders.

1
20Angel: Joe Cross 31:08

1y ago31:08

31:08

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 4 features Joe Cross, Angel Investor and ex Head of Marketing & Comms at Wise (Transferwise). Joe is also part of the Atomico Angel Programme and his angel portfolio includes Bonnet, Lightyear, Gaia, Alloy, Julienne Bruno and many more. The format for 20Angel …

1
20Angel: Carmen Alfonso Rico 29:06

1y ago29:06

29:06

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 3 features Carmen Alfonso Rico, Angel Investor and Co-Founder of Cocoa Ventures, a European micro VC that invests $250k-$500k checks at pre-Seed & Seed. Cocoa positions itself as an entrepreneur’s in house VC, helping their founders hack the system from the in…

1
Pitch Feedback from Joakim — Pavel Afanasiev, Northern Lights Entertainment 47:42

1y ago47:42

47:42

This time, Pavel Afanasiev from Northern Lights Entertainment pitches his games company to me, and I share feedback. Pavel decided not to do slides, so it's a different format with pros and cons.

1
20Angel: Andreas Klinger 29:30

1y ago29:30

29:30

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 2 features Andreas Klinger, Founder of Remote Capital, a small fund by remote founders, operators and early investors, investing in the next generation of global work opportunities. Investments include Mainstreet, Remote.com, Hopin, Microacquire and many more.…

1
20Angel: Henry de Zoete 29:36

1y ago29:36

29:36

20Angel is a series profiling European angel investors with the best Founder NPS. Episode 1 features Henry de Zoete, Founder of YC backed Look After My Bills, which became the largest auto-switching service in the UK, saving families money on their gas and electricity. It was acquired by GoCo Group PLC (owners of GoCompare) in July 2019. Look After…

1
Kristian Segerstrale 1:24:49

1y ago1:24:49

1:24:49

This is a repost from a few years back and it's definitely one of my favorite episodes of all time. Kristian Segerstrale is the CEO Super Evil Megacorp, a games company based out of San Francisco. Kristian is a legend in gaming. He started his first games company Macrospace twenty years ago, which IPOed as Glu Mobile a few year later. Later he sold…

1
Pitch Feedback from Joakim — Melissa McBride, Sophia Technologies 42:39

1y ago42:39

42:39

This is a new episode series where a founder pitches their company to Joakim, and then Joakim shares feedback on the pitch. The first one is with Melissa McBride from Sophia Technologies. They are using gaming and play to revolutionize education and build a digital campus where every child has access to game-based learning technology powered by VR …

1
Teams and Team Building In Gaming 46:29

1+ y ago46:29

46:29

This is a repost of an older episode I recorded some time ago on building a team in gaming. I started my first company alone as a solo founder, which was the biggest mistake I had ever made. In this episode, I talk about why you should always focus on team building when considering a startup. Here is the original description of this episode: In Apr…

1
Arseny Lebedev — Life of a gaming studio CEO 58:22

1+ y ago58:22

58:22

With 15 years in the games industry, Arseny Lebedev is the co-founder and CEO at Original Games (makers of Merge Inn) where he focuses on product and strategy. In this episode, we discuss building games, managing stress, and why some people are geared toward entrepreneurship.

1
First chapter of my audiobook "Long Term Game: How to Build a Video Games Company" 33:10

1+ y ago33:10

33:10

My book, "Long Term Game: How to Build a Video Games Company," came out in March 2020. It was also released as an audiobook version, which you can find on Audible and other major online audiobook stores. I want to share with you the first chapter of the book. I hope you enjoy this read from Keith O’Brien. Get the book from here. Note that this epis…

1
EGD Podcast Highlights From 2022 48:30

1+ y ago48:30

48:30

Here are the Elite Game Developers podcast highlights from 2022. This year, 36 podcast episodes went live, and I spoke to founders and investors from all over the globe, who all are working to build great gaming companies. Now, I want to end this year with my favorite highlights. The transcript is available here.…

1
Cyril Barrow — Interoperability of assets between games 41:18

1+ y ago41:18

41:18

Cyril Barrow is the co-founder and COO of Village Studio, a new kind of games company that is building cross-game avatars that act as portable avatars dressed in NFT wearables with unique attributes that can be utilized across multiple games. Cyril has been in the games industry for a long time. He has had leadership roles at companies like Digital…

1
Kelly Wallick — 1Up Venture's Community of Founders 50:12

1+ y ago50:12

50:12

Kelly Wallick has worked in the tech and video game industry for over ten years. She’s the founder of the Indie MEGABOOTH and is now a Partner at 1Up Ventures. She has also been the longest-sitting Chair of the Independent Games Festival and the first woman to hold the title. In addition, Kelly is proud to serve on the GLAAD Media Award Advisory Bo…

1
Maor Sadra — Measuring your marketing and entrepreneurship lessons 40:18

1+ y ago40:18

40:18

Today I'm talking with Maor Sadra, the co-founder and CEO of INCRMNTAL, which is a company that evolves digital marketing from measuring traffic to measuring value. In this episode, we talk about how Maor's company changes the daily life of online marketers, including UA professionals in gaming. Then we cover Maor's background, how he approaches en…

1
Tom Hammond — On entrepreneurship and doing a startup 53:08

1+ y ago53:08

53:08

Tom Hammond is the co-founder and CEO of Userwise, a company that is shaping up live-ops in gaming, and they call themselves the world’s first player experience management platform trusted by teams to power their Liveops all-in-one place. Tom is an entrepreneur who shares a lot about his founder's journey on social media and also on his podcast, Ma…

1
Jenny Xu — Fitness games and entrepreneurship 50:37

1+ y ago50:37

50:37

This week on the podcast, I'm talking with Jenny Xu, the co-founder and CEO of Talofa Games, a fitness games company based out of California. Jenny is a first-time founder with an impressive background from working on games as a teenager, getting millions of downloads, then spending time at Google, EA, and N3TWORK, and then starting her own venture…

1
Touko Tahkokallio — On game creation and founding a new studio 49:59

1+ y ago49:59

49:59

In today's episode, I'm interviewing a friend of mine, my ex-colleague Touko Tahkokallio, who was the designer on games like Hay Day, and Boom Beach and led the Brawl Stars team at Supercell. And he's now doing his own studio in Helsinki with a group of experienced game developers. In this discussion with Touko, we talk about his learnings from cre…

1
David Amor — Two decades of gaming entrepreneurship 50:30

2y ago50:30

50:30

David Amor is the co-founder and CEO of Playmint, a new kind of games company building games for web3. David has had a long career in gaming, from EA in the early nineties to having started several gaming startups, including Delinquent, which got sold to MAG Interactive some years ago. In this discussion with David, we talk about the lessons he’s l…

1
Benjamin Carcich and Aaron Smith — Building Better Leaders 1:02:33

2y ago1:02:33

1:02:33

After visiting the Building Better Games podcast, I invited the podcast hosts, Aaron Smith, and Ben Carcich, to my podcast. The guys run a leadership consultancy called Valarin, and both Aaron and Ben have an extensive experience from management positions at companies like Riot Games. Besides leadership, we talk about a lot of topics that relate to…

1
Jon Radoff — On entrepreneurship and the metaverse 55:40

2y ago55:40

55:40

In this podcast episode, I'm speaking with Jon Radoff, the founder and CEO of Beamable, a company that enables game developers to launch live service games. Jon has been in gaming for ages and has founded several startups in the gaming space. In this discussion, we talk about what Jon learned about company building from his previous company Disrupt…

1
Sophie Vo — How to share feedback 47:38

2y ago47:38

47:38

I invited Sophie Vo to my podcast. Sophie has an extensive background in gaming, and she's most recently been managing the Voodoo Berlin studio. You might have also been listening to her podcast Rise & Play, where she talks with guests about leadership in gaming. With Sophie, we talk about the topics of giving feedback and receiving feedback. I’ve …

1
Ask Me Anything #9 — Investing questions 28:12

2y ago28:12

28:12

This is the ninth Ask Me Anything episode, where I answer questions on how I look at investing. I had a session with a team from one VC firm and they were asking me questions. And then I also picked up another interesting question about angel investing. If you have questions you'd like me to ask, you can go here to submit them. As I mention in the …

1
Halli Bjornsson — Industry life cycles in gaming 55:07

2y ago55:07

55:07

In this week's podcast episode, I'm talking with Halli Thor Bjornsson, who is the CEO of Lockwood Publishing, a games company based out of England. In this discussion with Halli, we talk about the industry life cycles in gaming, how console and PC transitioning to mobile is very similar to now as many folks are moving to web3, and we spend some tim…

1
Ads in mobile games 49:55

2y ago49:55

49:55

This recording is from a panel I did last week with Jan Pollack from Wooga, Ross Brockman from Google, and Christian Facey from Audiomob, where we talked about ads in mobile games and how things have been changing in the recent years. Topics that we cover include the privacy changes on mobile, what kind of future trends the panelists are seeing get…

1
Asbjoern Malte Soendergaard — Games company builder story 34:34

2y ago34:34

34:34

In this week's podcast episode, I'm talking with Asbjoern Malte Soendergaard, the founder and CEO of Tactile Games, who are based out of Copenhagen, Denmark, and are the makers of the hit game Lily's Garden. In this discussion, we talk about how company culture has developed at Tactile over the years, how new projects get started, and what kind of …

1
Andres Constantinidis — Building a remote-first game studio 40:16

2y ago40:16

40:16

In this podcast episode, I talk with Andres Constantinidis, the co-founder and CEO of TinyBytes, a remote-first mobile games studio. Andres has built his game studio as a remote company all the way from the founding days, which happened almost ten years ago. In this discussion, we talk about creating quality games with a remote team, but still keep…

1
Derek Lau — Building Guild of Guardians 32:11

2y ago32:11

32:11

In the latest podcast episode, I have Derek Lau (LinkedIn, Twitter) from Immutable, talking about his journey into web3 gaming and how they are building the blockchain game Guild of Guardians at his company Immutable. Guild of Guardians is a mobile RPG where players can turn their gaming passion into assets. Once launched, the game is a multiplayer…

1
Alexander Bergendahl — A repeat founder story 42:01

2y ago42:01

42:01

In this podcast episode, I'm talking with Alexander Bergendahl, who is the co-founder and CEO of LootLocker, a games backend solutions company from Stockholm, Sweden. Alexander is a repeat founder, who's been doing games companies for a while now. With Alexander, we talk about his founder journey, learnings from doing his companies, and how Alexand…

1
Neil McFarland and Matthew Ryan — Pivoting from F2P to Web3 50:54

2y ago50:54

50:54

In today's episode, I'm talking with Neil McFarland and Matthew Ryan from First Light Games, a game studio based in London, UK. The founders started the company a few years ago, to work on free-to-play games for mobile, but last year, decided to pivot to web3 gaming. In this episode, we talk about the funding models that the founders have used in w…

1
Adam Jaffe — What it takes to succeed in gaming 42:46

2y ago42:46

42:46

In this podcast episode, I have Adam Jaffe on the show. Adam is the founder and CEO of Mega Studio, a gaming outfit based out of Barcelona, Spain. Adam has a broad scope of knowledge from the gaming space, having worked at companies like Playtika, Moon Active, Jam City, and Social Point, before founding Mega Studio. In this discussion, we talk abou…

1
Nick Kneuper and Nat Eliason — Building Crypto Raiders 54:50

2y ago54:50

54:50

In this podcast episode, I talk with Nick Kneuper and Nat Eliason who are building Crypto Raiders, which I believe is one of the best web3 games out there. Both Nick and Nat haven't been in crypto for that long, but as long-time entrepreneurs, they've channeled their skills in creating products to take on blockchain gaming. In this episode, we talk…

1
Are Mack Growen — Helping founders build 1:01:36

2+ y ago1:01:36

1:01:36

In this podcast episode, I'm talking with Are Mack Growen, a General Partner at London Venture Partners, a VC firm focused on investing in founders in the game sector at the seed stage. In this discussion, we talk about Are's extensive background in gaming, his journey to VC, what kind of learnings he is sharing, and how Are approaches risks, luck,…

1
Mika Tammenkoski — Building Metacore 41:13

2+ y ago41:13

41:13

In this week's episode, I'm talking with Mika Tammenkoski, who is the co-founder and CEO of Metacore Games, the company that is well known for their hit game Merge Mansion. In this discussion with Mika, we talk about his long journey in gaming, what he has picked up on leadership and startups from all the projects he's been involved with, and what …

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Joakim Achren Podcasts

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