EVCA Newsletter: University Edition | September 2021
*we're back from summer break!*
what’s hot🔥: gaming
👾 What is the Metaverse and why is everyone suddenly talking about it?
The term “Metaverse” was first coined by the author Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, the story of a pizza delivery rider who spends his free time escaping his daily life by plugging into a fully-realized digital world that allows its denizens to live as whoever they designed their avatars to be.
Now, Stephenson’s cult classic has become canon in Silicon Valley, where practically every other major tech company is now making big bets to commercialize the Metaverse. The idea is to create a successor to the Internet, but unlike the modern internet, Metaverse users experience changes made in real-time by all users. Identity in the Metaverse will be continuous; users won’t need to have separate social media profiles or game avatars; they’ll simply be themselves across all channels.
Zuckerberg has been extolling his vision for turning Facebook into a “metaverse company.” In August, Facebook Reality Labs launched the open beta of Horizon Workrooms, the company’s first Metaverse launch.
Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, recently announced Epic’s ambition to build “something like a metaverse from science fiction.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Microsoft is working on building the “enterprise metaverse.”
Video game platform Roblox went public with a bet on the metaverse in March and CEO David Baszucki, said of Roblox, “we’re shepherds of the metaverse.”
Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, also voiced interest in the metaverse: “We’ll be able to almost feel like we’re there with each other.”
Advancements in blockchain and cryptocurrency technology will play an important role in shaping the future of the Metaverse. Behind the scenes of a Metaverse where users can buy and sell virtual goods from different games and universes will be demand for financial and identity data to be stored and served to billions of people. Exchanges will be realized in cryptocurrencies and digital assets will be expressed as NFTs.
In fact, crypto and the Metaverse are already deeply intertwined. One of the fastest-growing games in blockchain and one of the biggest dapps overall, Alien Worlds, created their own NFT Metaverse, where users can mine the fungible token, trilium, on digital planets.
👾 What’s next? We asked Archie Stonehill, an investor at Makers Fund and gaming co-lead at EVCA, for his perspective on the Metaverse and on the future of gaming👇🏼
Virtual worlds and games are the next generation’s social networks: “Especially among younger gamers, games play a dual function of entertainment product and social platform/network. Fortnite and Roblox are archetypes of how this manifests for two generations of gamers – Fortnite began as a Battle Royale but now acts as a virtual hangout space while Roblox has established itself as the most used social platform for pre- and early teen users. Roblox in particular is more central to their social life than any traditional social network and it’s reach is extraordinary: 75% of American children aged 9-12 (over half of all American kids under 16) play Roblox once per week! This trend will only continue to expand, both as younger generations age up, taking with them learned behaviors such as the importance of avatar representation to digital identity, and as older generations continue to adopt games and spatial virtual worlds as their primary online social platforms.”
Gaming technology pushes advancements in other fields: “Gaming technology has always been an incredible space that often provides the first commercial use cases for technologies that go on to have massive implications in every aspect of society; think of the GPU and audio chip businesses that now operate in healthcare, AI, etc.”
“Two areas I am really excited about are interactive live streaming and distributed computing simulation technology. Both of these are similar in that they both are attacking the problem of achieving “massive concurrency”– a term that describes a virtual environment in which you can have an almost limitless quantity of users interacting with each other in real time.”
“Interactive live streaming is in its infancy but has the potential to create a totally new format of gameplay in which millions of users can play with each other at the same time. Massive distributed computing technologies also have the potential to transform online virtual environments by exponentially increasing our computing power; this could enable us to create photorealistic graphics, extraordinarily complex simulations of ecologies, societies, and environments, and host of other incremental and revolutionary changes.”
Watch out for these new players in game technology:
“Genvid is a leader in the interactive live streaming space, providing a technical engine for interactive content and leading the way in discovering the potential design innovations offered by this format. They’ve already achieved amazing things, such as their role in building the groundbreaking experience Rival Peaks.”
“There are a host of companies working on massive simulation technologies that are worth following, from the relatively mature Improbable to earlier stage companies like Hadean and Coherence.”
“Finally, I have seen a bunch of game development tools and middleware doing really awesome stuff with AI and machine learning. These include NLP-driven environmental art tools like Promethean AI or Anything World and innovative character rendering and simulation technologies like Ziva Dynamics.”
If you’re interested in getting more insights on gaming trends, check out this deep-dive on the metaverse from Matthew Ball, this newsletter post from Rex Woodbury, or this blog post from Gigi Levy-Weiss.
founder spotlight ✨👀
💡 featuring James Kuk, former head of business development at Twitch and CEO and co-founder of Metaview, a gaming creator platform showcasing the best gaming clips from creators and communities, curated daily.
🎮 The inspiration behind Metaview is threefold: “1️. To provide a central discovery/curation mechanism for gaming content creators, 2️. To deliver consistent, quality gaming short form clip entertainment, and 3️. to help content creators make money on their short form content; Instagram and TikTok and others in this family don't do such a great job at monetary recipricopation. Unlike the mega social platforms, we're putting where our mouth is for content creators.”
🎮 As with any company, challenges are endless: “One that comes to mind was finding the right lead investment partner for our recent round. Even with the backdrop of unprecedented levels of early stage investment, it's not easy for founders to be matched up with an ideal investment partner that is truly bought into your vision, understands your domain as well as you do, and that is a culturally good fit. In some ways, fundraising is more difficult than dating, in some ways, it's easier than dating -- at least with dating you can now swipe left or right for an intro...where's the fundraising app for this?!”
🎮 Above all make sure you have good co-founder(s) who you can trust without question: “Make sure you balance each other out with the knowledge, skills, and experience you bring to the table for the journey. Metaview wouldn't be here without the collective contributions of me and my two co-founders.”
🎮 The gaming space is headed towards blockchain: “Our vision is to build a gaming community that is bonded by shared moments and the blockchain. As to where the gaming space is headed? I'll say one thing: blockchain -- the incredible action feels like mobile gaming in late 2000s, early 2010.”
If you're interested in learning more, you can find job openings here or simply reach out to James directly at james@metaview.gg.
community 👩🏻🧑🏼🧑🏾
🏫 find out what’s going down in the entrepreneurial ecosystems at other campuses!
LuLu Holland is the founder of GenZ Impact, a community dedicated to making impact accessible for all by providing a toolkit and community to change the world.
About LuLu: “I’m a Colorado native and UC Berkeley student passionate about sustainability and social impact. My mission is to create a sustainable future and craft innovative solutions in the venture and startup ecosystem. Throughout my college career, I worked in both advisory and product roles while cultivating a network of founders, operators, and investors.”
The GenZ Impact Goal: “I’ve seen one recurring theme for young founders - connection. It’s hard for young founders to connect with VCs and those best positioned for social impact. My goal is to support young founders by providing them with the community and toolkit to change the world...My community provides Gen Z founders with the resources, opportunities, and network to succeed in the impact space. Gen Z Impact makes impact accessible, and connects the brightest young founders to the funds most capable of supporting their vision for a sustainable future.”
Remember This: “My advice for community-builders, founders, and investors is to always focus on quality over quantity. Once you have a strong foundation it is much easier to build, scale, and expand.”
opportunities ⚡
👌 get the latest scoop of curated entrepreneurship opportunities
✨ HearstLab Venture Analyst Fellowship: HearstLab is an early-stage venture capital fund dedicated to finding and growing women-led businesses. They’ve made over 30 investments in tech companies across healthcare, enterprise, legal, and more.
📌 Open Scout Program: A scouting program open to anyone, Open Scout is an AWS-affiliate program that allows students to search for and connect with companies across the country, even without prior venture capital experience.
👀HBCUvc Venture Fellowship: HBCUvc (previously featured in our May edition!) supports startups from the HBCU ecosystem, provides a culturally-affirming investor curriculum, and connects members to a network of prominent entrepreneurs and investors.
🧡 Envision Accelerator Team: Envision is a virtual, student-led, student-built accelerator focused on supporting teams led by young women, non-binary individuals, and/or people of color. To join the team making this happen, reach out directly with an introduction!
🌍 Alter Ventures Fellowship: Alter Ventures is a VC fund focusing on emerging markets startups by providing support in scaling and making international connections. This opportunity is focused on Indonesia.
plug yourself! 🤩
👀 are you a student founder or leader in your campus entrepreneurial scene? got a cool startup or entrepreneurship event you recently hosted?
Connect with us: EVCA, Courtney, Caitlyn, and Prianka
We’re looking to spotlight student entrepreneurship on college campuses in upcoming newsletters. Feel free to plug your startup or student organization for a potential feature in the next EVCA university newsletter, as well as any suggestions for how the newsletter can be most helpful to you here.