Jonathan Lai
Hey, it's Jon, thanks for stopping by.
I'm a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and a founding investor of a16z Games Fund One. I believe games will play a pivotal role in defining how we socialize, play, and work over the next century. I'm excited to invest at the intersection of games and consumer social, web3, infrastructure, & fintech.
Prior to a16z, I was a senior director at Tencent where I led the North America investments team and spearheaded the launch of our WeGame platform for Western games in China. Before that, I was a product manager at Riot Games (acquired by Tencent), where we developed League of Legends, the world's most played PC game. I also served as head of product for Dots, a mobile games start-up that was acquired by Take-Two. HBS MBA and Harvard BA.
A few things I love: sweet tea, good sake, Imagine Dragons, TFT, Dark Souls, my amazing wife Jen, and our brood of voracious Zerglings: Asher, Aiden, & Yellow Kitty.
Essays & Podcasts
The best consumer, enterprise, & fintech apps today embrace game design
The next big innovation in social play will likely come from tabletop games (D&D, Mafia, etc)
When does play-to-earn and real money trading work in games? (tweetstorm)
As we spend more time in virtual worlds, the ways in which we socialize will evolve
In web3, virtual economist will be one of the most in-demand jobs of our time (tweetstorm)
Play-to-earn has introduced a new endgame: the management sim (tweetstorm)
A new generation of instant games is changing how we play, discover, and develop games
What's the next Facebook or Snapchat? Look to games to lead the way
The promise of cloud gaming lies in software - unique, cloud-native experiences
Applying lessons from game design to software onboarding (tweetstorm)
A new class of creators is emerging as the future of live video entertainment
How does Tencent have such a great track record in games? (tweetstorm)
Why a16z has started a dedicated games fund and what we invest in (pod)
Half a billion people played the party game Among Us in Nov, what's going on? (pod)
How games have evolved from entertainment into social networks today (pod)
Leading platform for interoperable avatars
Leading African games publisher & fintech platform
UGC-as-a-service platform
Cloud-native game studio
Next-gen competitive experiences
Natively cross-platform co-op games
Building a genre-defining web3 MMO
Video social network for the virtual world generation
Both livestreaming and gaming are up massively amidst COVID-19 (pod)
Snapchat is doubling down on games and Bitmoji (pod)
Implications of Seam's ban on NFTs and blockchain games (pod)
Steam releases in China officially and Epic has a tool for creating digital humans (pod)