Zack DeFord joined me to discuss his experiences as a lifelong gamer, and how his younger brother was bullied while playing online games. Zack's desire to make gaming safer and more fun for his brother led him to start Smerf, and that authenticity has served him well as he's built the company. Zack and his co-founder, Ben, have developed Smerf to be a critical identity and social layer across gaming platforms, and they're being noticed by some of the largest gaming companies in the world. We talked about his experience engaging with the CEO of one of them early in Smerf's life.
I've also seen Zack mature so rapidly as a founder becoming the CEO of a company with incredible potential to impact millions of gamers in a positive way. It's such a pleasure to get to work with him through Operate. Enjoy this conversation!
Sloane Keane - CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County and Inland Empire
Jeff Martin - CEO & Founder of Collective Genius
Minnie Ingersoll - Partner at TenOneTen
Curtis Boyd - Founder & CEO of Objection Co
Zach Silverman - Founder of Educated Investors
Marvin Liao - Partner at GameGroove Capital & Former Partner at 500 Startups
Rajeev Kapur - President & CEO of 1105 Media
Tommy Tallarico - President & CEO of Intellivision Entertainment
William Fikhman - Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of Amazzia
Joshua Lee - Founder & CEO of Ardius
Annette Walker - President of City of Hope OC
Libby Duane Adams - Co-founder & Chief Advocacy Officer of Alteryx
Bob Nunn - CEO of Everactive
Deepa Krishnan - Co-founder & CEO of Spoonful
Kelly Perdew - Co-founder & Managing Partner of Moonshots Capital
Jennifer Friend - CEO of Project Hope Alliance
Ben Kuo - Founder & Publisher of socalTECH
(Part 2) John Dearie - President of Center for American Entrepreneurship
Giorgi Chigogidze & Chris Steege - Co-founders & CEO, CMO, respectively at Purlin
Nick Bucheleres - Founder & CEO of Grin Gaming
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