How to Hustle Your Way Into a Deal: Pokemon Go Edition 💰
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Episode Description
Full episode: https://youtu.be/p1MAA8y4CgU
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Brief Summary
Niantic's acquisition by Scopely and the guest's early investment journey in Pokémon Go are discussed.
Key points
- Niantic's Acquisition by Scopely. Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go, has been acquired by Scopely.
- The Ingress Revelation. The speaker connects the dots between Ingress and a larger mapping plan by Google.
- A Chance Encounter. A serendipitous meeting leads to a key opportunity with Niantic.
Transcript
Niantic was just bought by scopely you were an angel investor in that right that was the Pokémon go folks I remember you showing me Pokémon go over a decade ago how many years were you in that deal oh my gosh as soon as they spun out an alphabet uh formed and spun them out as their own entity I realized it was my only opportunity to get in as early as possible and so I stalked the founder and sat at his door before Pokemon go they had this game called Ingress and I started playing it with my friends and I started noticing that my friends were doing some really unusual things they were like charting helicopters and like
traveling all over the world to cast these invisible triangles over the Earth basically it's a game of who can cast the biggest triangle I was like why are these people spending so much time and not only that but why are they going around taking pictures of points of interest for Google like what is Google actually doing with this asset was my number one question so I realized that Ingress was part of a bigger mapping plan so this wasn't just a game Pokémon go was a joke and because they were part of Google I thought there was no chance and then I got a call one day and they said hey a friend of mine was like did you hear Niantic spun out I was like oh
my gosh I don't know anyone at Google how do I reach John hanky and I realized I'd invested in this company called hint waterer and they were giving out game codes on the bottle cap and uh I was setting up her ticketing system one day and helping her out in her office and I saw all these tickets coming in with the subject line that said ingrish game code and I was like what is this all about and I just connected the dots and she introduced me to John hanky and then I went there with two Engineers because iig figured I got to show up with some value here we sat on the front stairs and basically sat there and and said please take our money he's like I don't
need you I've got Nintendo I've got Google I've got and we're like no you really need us and he gave one of those Engineers a job offer pretty much that day he gave me a key card to the office so I can come and go from Niantic as I please which is pretty awesome
