# Michael Dawson

> Michael Dawson is the Chief Business Officer and Head of Storytelling Studio at Pocket Gems, the San Francisco mobile gaming studio behind Episode and War Dragons. With a background spanning management consulting, clean-tech startups, and entrepreneurship, Dawson joined Pocket Gems in 2011 and helped scale it into one of the most successful mobile entertainment companies in the world — overseeing products that have been downloaded over 325 million times and platforms where billions of story episodes have been read. He holds degrees from Yale (Ethics, Politics & Economics) and Stanford (MBA, MS in Environment & Resources), and has become one of the sharper strategic voices in mobile interactive storytelling.

- **Role:** Chief Business Officer at Pocket Gems
- **Organizations:** Pocket Gems, OPOWER, MyQuire, Katzenbach Partners LLC
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BA, Ethics, Politics, and Economics, Yale University, MS, Environment and Resources, Stanford University, MBA, Stanford University Graduate School of Business
- **Known for:** Helped scale Pocket Gems to 325+ million total game downloads across its product portfolio, Led business strategy for Episode, which grew to 9 billion episode views and 12 million story creators, Oversaw Series B fundraising bringing Pocket Gems total funding to $155 million (backed by Sequoia Capital and Tencent)

## Career timeline

- **2003** — Graduated Yale University with a degree in Ethics, Politics, and Economics
- **2003-2006** — Consultant at Katzenbach Partners LLC (later acquired by Booz & Company)
- **2005-2007** — MBA and MS at Stanford University
- **2007-2009** — Co-founded and served as CEO of MyQuire
- **2010-2011** — Director of Business Development at OPOWER (energy analytics startup)
- **2011** — Joined Pocket Gems as Chief Business Officer
- **2014** — Oversaw launch of Episode, Pocket Gems' interactive storytelling platform
- **2017** — Pocket Gems raised $90M Series B (total funding reached $155M); Dawson also took on Head of Storytelling Studio role
- **2018** — Episode surpassed 125 million downloads
- **2021** — Episode platform reached 150,000+ stories, 9 billion episode views, 12 million story creators

## Achievements

- Helped scale Pocket Gems to 325+ million total game downloads across its product portfolio
- Led business strategy for Episode, which grew to 9 billion episode views and 12 million story creators
- Oversaw Series B fundraising bringing Pocket Gems total funding to $155 million (backed by Sequoia Capital and Tencent)
- Played key role in establishing Episode as the world's largest mobile interactive storytelling platform
- Contributed to Pocket Gems' proprietary Mantis Engine - a mobile-first game technology platform
- Championed diversity and inclusion initiatives within Pocket Gems' culture and product design
- Wrote for VentureBeat on mobile gaming strategy and interactive storytelling

## Latest updates

- **2021-01** — Episode platform reached 9 billion total episode views and 12 million story creators globally
- **2017-05** — Pocket Gems raised $90M Series B round, with Dawson continuing as CBO
- **2018-01** — Episode surpassed 125 million downloads, with Dawson quoted on competitive positioning at GDC

## Links

- Website: https://pocketgems.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelldawson

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/michael-dawson
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-12