Phillip Hyun is the CEO of Gamevice, the Simi Valley hardware company (formerly Wikipad) that builds clip-on game controllers for phones and tablets, and the co-founder and vice chairman of the esports organization Gen.G. He has spent a decade running an eight-person hardware shop that has repeatedly taken Nintendo to court over the Switch's detachable controllers, a David-and-Goliath patent fight that reached the Federal Circuit in 2026. A UC Berkeley cognitive science graduate, Hyun has built and sold companies (Enterprise Technology Group to Nexstar Broadcasting), helped launch a top-tier global esports brand, and more recently turned investor in the Italian football club Venezia FC.
Twitch is the world's largest live-streaming platform, where creators broadcast video games, IRL content, music, and talk shows to a real-time audience that talks back in chat. Founded as a gaming-focused spin-off of Justin.tv in 2011 and acquired by Amazon in 2014, Twitch turned watching someone play a game into a social, participatory medium, building a creator economy powered by subscriptions, Bits, ads, and a culture of emotes and live community.
David Tokheim is a senior executive at Adobe where he has served since 2013, most recently elevated to SVP, CXO Americas Industry and Canadian Sales (April 2026). Previously VP of Experience Cloud leading the Media & Entertainment, Communications, and Travel/Hospitality verticals, he has spent his career at the intersection of digital media, advertising technology, and enterprise software. Before Adobe, he was EVP & GM at Six Apart Media (growing its blog audience to 220 million monthly uniques), SVP at Fox Interactive Media overseeing monetization across MySpace and IGN, and VP of Marketing at IGN Entertainment where he built strategic programs for brands like Pepsi, EA, and Walmart. A UCLA English grad turned ad-tech veteran, he champions AI-driven personalization and content velocity as the defining imperatives of modern customer experience.
Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins is the world's most recognized gaming streamer, having transformed competitive gaming into mainstream entertainment. Starting as a Halo pro in 2009, he became the face of Fortnite's cultural takeover - playing live with Drake to a record 628,000 concurrent viewers in 2018 - and parlayed that moment into a media empire spanning Twitch, YouTube, brand deals with Red Bull and Adidas, a Chief Innovation Officer role at GameSquare Holdings, and a co-founded cashew milk brand. With 19+ million Twitch followers and 23+ million YouTube subscribers, he continues to define what a professional streamer can become.
Rachell Marie Hofstetter, known as Valkyrae, is a Filipino-American streamer, co-owner of 100 Thieves, and founder of Hihi Studios. After a record-breaking YouTube exclusivity run powered by late-2020 Among Us, she returned to Twitch in January 2025 on her tenth streaming anniversary and is now building anime-inspired IP through her own studio.
Teppei Tsutsui is General Partner and co-founder of GFR Fund, a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm focused on gaming, generative AI, creator economy, and consumer tech. Tokyo-raised and University of Chicago-educated, he co-founded GFR Fund in 2016 after a decade spanning Mitsubishi Corporation, Morgan Stanley M&A, and GREE - where he moved to San Francisco in 2014 to launch their seed investment program. GFR Fund III closed at $53.5M in 2023, and the firm's portfolio of over 100 companies includes three unicorns - VRChat, Animoca Brands, and Sky Mavis - with GFR's earliest and most famous bet being VRChat, invested when the platform had just 1,000 active users.
Kun Gao is a serial entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and original CEO of Crunchyroll, the platform that turned anime from a niche US curiosity into a billion-dollar streaming giant (acquired by Sony/AT&T WarnerMedia for $1.2 billion). Now he's doing it again as Co-Founder and CEO of Forge (forge.gg), a San Francisco-based game marketing and loyalty platform that hit 1 million users within its first year. Alongside co-founders Dennis 'Thresh' Fong (the world's first professional esports player) and George Ng, Gao is building the infrastructure layer that indie game developers desperately need: no-code loyalty programs, player analytics, and direct community channels - without the walled gardens.
Jonathan Lai is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) where he leads the Speedrun investment program and the Games vertical. A Harvard-trained economist turned product manager turned VC, he built his career arc through Morgan Stanley's investment banking floors, Riot Games' League of Legends product team, Dots (acquired by Take-Two for $192M), and Tencent's North America investments desk before landing at a16z. His investment thesis sits at the intersection of AI and creative technology - believing that the same retention-loop design principles that made League of Legends the world's most-played PC game are now reshaping enterprise software, fintech, and the next generation of AI-native consumer apps.
Samira Behrouzan is a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) focused on Marketing and Games, and the force behind a16z speedrun - a pre-seed accelerator that has deployed over $180 million to 150+ startups at the intersection of games and technology. Before joining a16z, she led marketing at 100 Thieves and drove 20+ brand partnerships for Riot Games' Emmy-nominated Arcane series, including boundary-pushing collaborations like bringing ZEDD into VALORANT. A lifelong gamer who grew up on Sega Saturn and N64, she holds an Executive MBA from the IE Brown program and is a vocal advocate for women and underrepresented communities in gaming.
Tips Out (known online as TipsOutBaby) is a gaming entrepreneur and Creator Scout at Andreessen Horowitz's a16z Games division, operating at the intersection of creator culture and venture capital. Best known as co-founder and COO/CEO of One True King (OTK) - the Austin-based creator collective he helped launch in October 2020 alongside Asmongold, Mizkif, Esfand, and Rich Campbell - he has quietly built one of gaming's most ambitious creator-led business empires. Beyond OTK, he co-founded Starforge Systems (a PC hardware company), Mythic Talent (a talent management agency), and Mad Mushroom (a creator-led game publishing label). In October 2023, a16z tapped him as a Games Creator Scout, formalizing his role as a bridge between gaming culture and the startup investment world.
Kevin Lin is a Taiwanese-American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and co-founder of Twitch.tv — the live-streaming platform acquired by Amazon for ~$970 million in 2014. Serving as COO for 12.5 years, he helped grow Twitch to 90%+ market share, $1.5B annual revenue, and 2,000+ employees. After departing in 2020, he co-founded Metatheory (a Web3 gaming company backed by a16z), launched Lifelike Capital (an early-stage VC fund), and co-created the Ikigai Launchpad accelerator in Taipei — all while staying deeply rooted in his Taiwanese heritage and AAPI community through Gold House.
Shaan Puri is an Indian-American entrepreneur, angel investor, and podcast host best known for co-hosting My First Million with Sam Parr - one of the top business podcasts with 25M+ downloads annually. He sold Bebo to Twitch (Amazon) for up to $25M in 2019, launched and sold the Milk Road crypto newsletter in an eight-figure deal in 2023, and built Bums and Roses into a $25M/year baby products brand with his wife. A self-described contrarian on hard work ('hard work is massively overrated'), he now focuses on content creation, early-stage investing, and writing through his Good Friday newsletter and One Hour Books project.