Bård Anders explained that PortalOne “is very much advertisement free and will always be, to not interrupt the player experience” however, elements within the game may be given attributes and can be easily adapted to include logo designed skins (outfits for the characters) or theme driven game pieces. The live shows act as a magnet and supercharge the engagement levels meaning that they also can have sponsored prizes.
As a 3rd generation of entrepreneurs and investors the brothers, Stig Olav and Bård Anders have built their industry knowledge through the TV and gaming industry. Bård Anders functions as the CEO of PortalOne, and has previous experience working as a Technical Director at Warner Bros. There, he worked on movie productions like the Matrix Trilogy. He also co-founded The Future Group, which provides mixed reality solutions for media production.
As for Stig Olav, he functions as the CXO and has previously worked as a developer and executive producer of interactive entertainment and mobile games. His background includes 10 years in the television industry, includes leading roles for shows like The Voice and Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He describes himself as a “mixed media artist” or MMA; an homage to his passion for sports and the industry.
The unofficial motto at PortalOne is “be brumble” a mix between “brave” and “humble”. Stig Olav recounted how someone who previously had worked for him got him his connections in Hollywood, reminding the participants that you never know who will open the next door for you.
As advice to the Rising Leaders, Bård Anders and Stig Olav expressed the importance of finding correct investors that have knowledge within the industry you are in. PortalOne’s impressive list of investors include Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund; TQ Ventures, the investment fund led by Scooter Braun; Schuster Tanger; and Andrew Marks. Coatue Management’s investment was led by Arielle Zuckerberg and the Rogue Capital Partners investment was led by Alice Lloyd George. Sunny Dhillon led the investment from Signia Venture Partners whose LPs include Warner Bros., Disney and Tencent. In addition, a number of angel investors also invested in PortalOne. These include Kevin Lin, co-founder of Twitch; Mike Morhaime, co-founder of Blizzard and Dreamhaven; Amy Morhaime, co-founder of Dreamhaven; Marc Merrill, co-founder of Riot Games; Xen Lategan, former CTO and executive advisor at various companies such as Hulu, and Eugene Wei, former Head of Video at Oculus and Head of Product at Hulu.
They also advised to be mindful that once you are backed by investors there is still a lot of work to be done and to be prepared for obstacles. The company still operates as if they have less to plan for the long term.
The future looks brighter than the neon sign in their lobby with the future goal of IPO. The same way that Spotify is for music and Netflix is for shows, they want to be the number one portal for hybrid games. AmCham thanks the PortalOne team for their hospitality, and willingness to share their experience and time with us.