Conquering Geek Culture

Marisa Reich is the Chair of She Sports Switzerland and ex Head of Events & Culture at Infront. Marisa joins Chris Hana to talk about her career, from being an athlete agent to working for the Berlin Marathon and working for Red Bull to her most recent positions. Both discuss the need for diversity and inclusion and talk about why women are needed in the sports and esports industry, current challenges, and how to build an inclusive culture.

Nicole Pike spent 13 years at Nielsen building and moving its games and esports divisions forward. Nicole recently joined YouGov as their sector head for esports and gaming. In this weeks episode, Nicole talks about her career, the importance of data and research in a young industry like esports, and about her future plans. Both also talk about how brands can authentically work with the industry and what people should know before engaging with the space.

Johnathan Wendel, better known by his nickname Fatal1ty, started his professional gaming career in the 90s. Johnathan walks Chris through his time as a player, the impact it has on his life, and how he was able to become an entrepreneur by turning his name into a successful brand. Today, Johnathan is also co-founder of Ready Up, a California-based startup that wants to make esports and gaming accessible for everyone.

Ralf Reichert is Co-Founder of the Electronic Sports League (ES), the world’s largest independent esports company with offices around the globe. ESL creates esports leagues, tournaments, and runs production studios. In this episode, Ralf shares the ups and downs of his almost 20 years with ESL, why open ecosystem are important for the esports industry, and why ESL focuses on building a place where “everybody can be somebody.”

Jason Masherah is President at Upper Deck and has been with the company for over 14 years. In this episode of Conquering Geek Culture, Jason walks Chris through the Upper Deck verticals Sports Cards, Entertainment and Upper Deck Authenticated Memorabilia & Collectibles and discusses “Upper Deck e-Pack," which moves the traditional trading card experiences into the digital world.

Gary Vaynerchuk is Chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia, and 5x New York Times Best-Selling Author. He began working at his family wine store, where he grew the business from $3M to $65M in just five years. In an interview with Chris Hana, Gary explains how he uses his skills to identify trends and why he is bullish on esports. Among other things, both dive into Gary’s investment in the Minnesota Røkkr Call of Duty League team and Gary’s experience with Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, who is currently represented by the newly created VaynerGaming agency arm.

Chris Overholt is the CEO of OverActive Media (OAM), an esports and entertainment organization that heavily invests in franchised esports teams. With his deep roots in traditional sports, Chris explains why he joined the esports industry, why he believes in the franchise league model and why esports leagues will eventually outperform traditional sports. Furthermore, Chris provides insights on how OAM helps its talent grow professionally and how he thinks about video games in the Olympics.

Tim Hayden is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Stadia Ventures, the global Sports Innovation Hub for entrepreneurs, industry partners and investors. Chris Hana and Tim discuss Stadia’s investment philosophy, why Stadia also invests in esports, technological trends, why traditional sports is ahead of esports when it comes to monetization, and what both industries can learn from each other. They also chat about how Stadia built a big network of supporters across both industries and how they bring both worlds together.

Thomas Fellger, founder and group CEO of iconmobile, joins Chris Hana to talk about digital entertainment. Thomas explains why he built an esports venue in the heart of Berlin, how he wants to innovate the racing genre with Das Race and why creating an experience should be at the core of entertainment. Also, what can traditional sports learn from gaming and how can sports leverage technology and interactive platforms like Twitch to stay ahead of the curve?

Chris Chaney and Chris Hana discuss entrepreneurship in esports, the initial vision behind Infinite Esports & Entertainment along with the sustainability and challenges of the esports team business. Both explore why esports is entertainment, hyper-localization, mainstream visibility, and what Chris Chaney would do differently in retrospect.

Jens Hilgers is a founding partner of BITKRAFT Esports Ventures and the co-owner of esports team G2 Esports. He joins Chris Hana to talk about his journey through the esports industry, which started before 2000. They discuss what made the esports industry grow, how Hilgers worked his way through a fast-growing and ever-changing environment, and how he looks at esports today, providing insights from his angle as an active investor.

Chris Hana speaks to Marc Merrill, Co-Founder of Riot Games, to understand why Riot Games was built and how the founders Marc and Brandon convinced investors to fund their idea. The two are joined by John Needham, global head of esports at Riot Games, to explore how Riot Games was able to built the groundbreaking esports ecosystem for League of Legends we can see today. Pop-culture integrations, league structures, live events and more come up as well.