TDC #07: Investing in Games with Daniel Mironov

Daniel Mironov left Google to help start vgames in March 2020 — a games-only VC fund in a country with two dozen cybersecurity funds and none for games — roughly a month before the world locked down and mobile went vertical. Six years and nearly 50 investments later (SuperPlay and InnPlay Labs both went to Playtika, Candivore is still printing money with Match Masters), he's a partner at the fund and has just launched a $10M Indie Fund that hands PC and console developers project financing without taking a single frame of their IP. 🔹 Links: vgames: https://www.vgames.vc Indie Fund announcement: https://gamesbeat.com/vgames-raises-10m-fund-for-project-financing-for-indie-games-exclusive-interview/ 🔹 Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:46 What We've Been Playing 09:57 vgames, or How to Start a Games Fund in March 2020 20:36 One in Fifty, and Why the Job Is Saying No 33:38 Show Me a Prototype, Not a Deck 47:28 What Turkish Founders Are Better At 53:05 What $3–4 Million Actually Buys 01:12:34 China, IP Deals, and the Platform That Never Came 01:20:17 The Palworld Question 01:29:36 The Indie Fund: Capital Without a Publisher 01:51:32 AI on Steam and the Jonathan Blow Exception