This week’s episode covers a new set of topics. The conversation, with Niel Robertson, covers media, e-sports, content distribution, marketing, and a lot more. Niel started a software company out of his bedroom when he was 14, and sold his first company in 1999 for $280 million, when he was 24 years old. He has started and sold other companies to Twitter and Cisco. He started another large business that ultimately failed. He’s been an investor, venture partner, and serial entrepreneur. You can find more in the shownotes.
As I often do, I cut the long background section from the interview so we can get right to the meat of things, but Niel concluded that section saying: “I think it could all summed up by saying I just liked building things and I can’t stop doing it.”
In addition to the overall media landscape, we discuss the role that the biggest media platforms will play, and where other opportunities may exist. We cover digital collectibles stored on blockchain, and what type of digital assets may be leased to others. We close with a discussion of leadership, company structure, content creation, and something you should do each year.
As a recent New York transplant, Niel is always interested in connecting with founders, investors, angels and crypto experts in the New York community. You can reach him at [email protected]
Books Referenced
The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career
Show Notes
0:00 - (First Question) – Overview of the media landscape as it relates to influencer marketing
4:12 – How does he think about this space as an investor
9:51 – What is the future of distribution of products
14:31 - An overview of the e-sports ecosystem
15:50 – The shift of people watching others play video games
17:36 – Will we see power shift from the platform to the influencer
24:33 – Why Amazon is the sleeper in this game
27:08 – Reviewing some of the other platforms, starting with Snapchat
28:24 – Twitter
29:36 – Other platforms that should be focused on…Pinterest
31:08 – His interest in blockchain and digital collectibles
34:04 – Who will be disrupted by digital collectibles
35:25 – Why does the decentralization of these assets matter
37:19 – The tokenization of assets
39:41 – What companies have the largest hurdles to innovate in these spaces
42:27 – His thoughts on leadership
44:14 – The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career
45:22 – Advice for content creators and content aggregators
47:40 – His thoughts on companies that aggregate top content creators
50:47 – His experience owning restaurants
53:16 – His experience in motocross
55:01 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Neil
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Hello from Israel 🇮🇱
Thank you both for this fascinating conversation. I think it is a wonderful thing that content is becoming decentralized this way - perhaps audiences will now find highly relatable content that they couldn’t relate to as much from traditional media..
Speaking of distribution - I’ve shared this episode to a few friends. Good luck !