# Jake Brooks

> Jake Brooks is the co-founder and co-CEO of Triumph, a San Francisco company that gives mobile game developers a drop-in SDK to add real-money, skill-based tournaments to their games. He dropped out of Stanford during the pandemic to build it, and in 2023 the company launched with $14.1M in seed and Series A funding led by General Catalyst. Triumph handles the hard parts - payments, KYC, anti-fraud, matchmaking and state-by-state compliance - so developers can monetize beyond ads. Brooks pitches real-money competition as a third pillar of game revenue alongside advertising and in-app purchases.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Triumph
- **Organizations:** Triumph (Triumph Labs / Triumph Arcade), Stanford University
- **From:** Los Angeles, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Computer Science (did not complete - dropped out junior year), Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded and serves as co-CEO of Triumph, a venture-backed gaming infrastructure company., Raised $14.1M (seed + Series A) at launch in 2023, with a Series A led by General Catalyst; total funding later reported around $26.2M across three rounds., Built a drop-in SDK that lets developers add real-money skill tournaments with roughly one line of code, handling payments, KYC, anti-fraud, matchmaking and multi-state compliance.

## Career timeline

- **2020** — Left Stanford during his junior year as COVID-19 moved classes online; rented an Airbnb in Malibu with friends to test startup ideas.
- **2020** — Co-founded Triumph with Jared Geller after discovering how hard it was to add real-money wagering to a game they were building.
- **2021** — Triumph formally founded and based in San Francisco.
- **2023** — Triumph launched publicly with $14.1M in funding - a $3.9M seed (led by Ari Stiegler at Flux Capital) and a $10.2M Series A led by Niko Bonatsos at General Catalyst.
- **2023** — Company expanded its compliant real-money tournament infrastructure across 37 states plus Washington, D.C.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and serves as co-CEO of Triumph, a venture-backed gaming infrastructure company.
- Raised $14.1M (seed + Series A) at launch in 2023, with a Series A led by General Catalyst; total funding later reported around $26.2M across three rounds.
- Built a drop-in SDK that lets developers add real-money skill tournaments with roughly one line of code, handling payments, KYC, anti-fraud, matchmaking and multi-state compliance.
- Triumph's real-money engine reported increasing average monthly playtime 3.6x and generating about $54 in average monthly revenue per player per game.

## Latest updates

- **2023-05** — Triumph launched publicly with $14.1M in funding, a Series A led by General Catalyst, and live compliant tournaments across 37 states plus D.C.

## Links

- Website: https://triumpharcade.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-brooks-2ba581172
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/jakefromtriumph
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jake.brooks/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/jake-brooks
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-12