35 YEARS OF STARTUPS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN 20 MINUTES, or LESS

ELECTRONIC ARTS TO ABC VENTURE GATES

How did EA begin? An example for today from 35 years ago

There was no garage

HP Garage Palo Alto

Trip’s House Portola Valley

July, 1982 The six co-founders

who attended dinner at Trip’s home:

• Trip Hawkins Harvard, Stanford MB Strategy Gaming • Rich Melmon Berkeley, Stanford MBA

Physics • Bing Gordon Yale, Stanford MBA

English • Jeff Burton Stanford, Stanford MBA

Anthropology • Dave Evans Stanford, Stanford MS

Mechanical Engineering • Pat Marriott Marketing Manager, Apple

November, 1982

Raised $5 million from: • Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield, & Byers • Sequoia Capital – Don Valentine • Sevin/Rosen Capital

January, 1983 BEST MARKETING

May, 1983 Product Launch

What were we thinking ?

Structure

Culture

Philosophy

HOW DID WE BUILD A COMPANY CULTURE?

All Employees Interviewed Every Job Applicant

Plenty of Nerf Battles

Friday Beer & Wine Meetings

Private Screenings of New Movies

EA’s Annual Revenues today are ~$5 Billion Market Cap ~$20 Billion

Headquarters Campus – Redwood City

My path since EA:

• Publishing & Printing Books • Four Internet Startups before 2001 • Electronic Ticketing Company • Hospitality Club in Italy • Co-producer of movies in Hollywood • 1st Executive Director at UC Berkeley Accelerator • President, Advisory Board, ABC Venture Gates

For startups, what makes sense AFTER an ACCELERATOR ?

You have to start moving FASTER!

Expanding means leaving your comfort zone and your home market.

Germany is the business center of Europe, with over 3 billion Euro invested in emerging companies in 2015.

Munich - Where Business is done !

With unique opportunities

• Difficulties getting the first clients, industry partners, etc. on board

• Renting flexible, short-term office space

• Finding housing is almost impossible and crazy expensive

• Incorporation, legal and tax issues

• The market response is completely different from your home market

• German business environment and culture can be tough

• Risks and costs

Challenges for your startup

on the German market

To face those hurdles it is wise to get help from a partner,

who overcame them many times before and will help you do so as well.

Meanwhile, you can entirely focus on what you can do best:

Grow your startup!