Mark Pincus
Zynga
Zynga
Weighing in at 150 lbs, is Mark Pincus, frenetic visionary of Zynga. His DNA is one strand entrepreneur and one strand competitive gamer. Mark founded Tribe.net (www.tribe.net), one of the first social networks in 2003. Prior to Tribe, he was the founder and CEO of SupportSoft (Nasdaq: SPRT), the world's leading provider of support automation software. Prior to SupportSoft, Mark co-founded Freeloader, the first consumer push information service.
Related Links: http://www.zynga.com
Last Updated: Wed, Oct 28, 2009
Page: 1
| Category | Title | Author/Speaker | Organization | Length | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Podcast | A Serious Take on Internet Game Play | Mark Pincus · Bing Gordon | Zynga | 01:04:48 | 10/2009 |
| Video | A Serious Take on Internet Game Play (Entire Talk) | Mark Pincus · Bing Gordon | Zynga | 01:04:14 | 10/2009 |
| Video | Building Hi-Tech Skyscrapers | Mark Pincus · Bing Gordon | Zynga | 04:03 | 10/2009 |
| Video | Product Management as CEO Training | Mark Pincus · Bing Gordon | Zynga | 02:56 | 10/2009 |
| Video | Quick and Frequent Product Testing and Assessment | Mark Pincus · Bing Gordon | Zynga | 04:26 | 10/2009 |
| Video | Testing and Metrics are Imperative | Mark Pincus · Bing Gordon | Zynga | 01:57 | 10/2009 |
| Video | The Fight for Corporate Control | Mark Pincus · Bing Gordon | Zynga | 04:39 | 10/2009 |
Serial entrepreneur and Zynga founder Mark Pincus and Bing Gordon, longtime Electronic Arts creative mind and investor on behalf of KPCB, provide a very laid-back and desultory conversation. Topics touched upon include successful CEOs, building sustainable companies, mentorship, and the consumer pay-driven Web 3.0. 
Serial entrepreneur and Zynga founder Mark Pincus and Bing Gordon, longtime Electronic Arts creative mind and investor on behalf of KPCB, provide a very laid-back and desultory conversation. Topics touched upon include successful CEOs, building sustainable companies, mentorship, and the consumer pay-driven Web 3.0.
Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, equates building a sustainable online empire with building the skyscrapers that shaped the look of modern cities at the turn of the last century. Pincus reflects upon his 15-20 year career in hi-tech - riddled with many companies who asked him to leave - where he was set ineffective entrepreneurial goals. He discusses the change in his perspective; from garnering ROI, to offering sustainability, to building immortal "Internet treasures" - that is, the type of online utility that forever changes the world. He discusses the importance of thinking from the mountain top, and that the rest of the "distractions" - i.e. IPO's, acquisition, becoming a market leader, etc. - are just fool's gold.
If you can be a product manager, you can acquire the experience of acting as a CEO. The skills gained in product roadmapping, prioritizing tasks, interoffice communications, customer understanding, and product marketing are absolute necessities for being an effective enterprise lead. So says Mark Pincus, CEO and Founder of Zynga, who suggests this necessary on-the-job training for aspiring entrepreneurs. Be strategic. Take your times. Build yourself at world class companies before stretching your own ideas to task.
Mark Pincus, CEO and Founder of gaming company Zynga, encourages fast and frequent new ideas for video game development. But rather than putting forth tremendous resources to build out each idea, they company first tests its viability with a round of "ghetto testing" - five words that will be used to market the game, posted to the website live for five minutes. If sufficient audience interest is measured, then a one-week rollout of the first version of the game is revealed to just one percent of the Zynga audience for play and feedback, almost always with some modicum of "golden mechanics" - or viral, retentive quality - built in. If these early efforts prove successful, the game grows more robust with each successive build. Pincus reports that the company is always testing several hundred products simultaneously, and that measuring this success has never been easier or more affordable.
Pilots that fly by vision alone have a very short life expectancy when passing through clouds. But pilots that fly utilizing their instruments are able to soar. Mark Pincus, CEO of game company Zynga, and Bing Gordon, partner at VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, touch upon the importance of metrics and analysis in social networking. In fact, Pincus states that one of his biggest career regrets from Tribe.net was not testing and measuring enough new tools and strategy. Gordan sums up the lesson for entrepreneurs by stating that we should, "believe in Darwinism, not Intelligent Design."
"We learn from the index and not the table of contents," says Bing Gordon, partner at KPCB. In this clip, Gordon and Zynga CEO Mark Pincus talk about how an effective CEO can make strategy and mission happen when they are not physicially present in the room. Pincus also discusses the importance of putting processes in place to communicate a larger vision, and why it's beneficial to write the story of your own goals and accomplishments. Keep control of your company and learn to negotiate only for the right things. Otherwise, you're just another employee.