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Kevin Chou

Managing Partner, SuperLayer · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveinvestor@KevinChou ↗LinkedIn ↗superlayer.io ↗

Kevin Chou is a serial entrepreneur best known for co-founding mobile gaming company Kabam and esports franchise Gen.G. He later co-founded blockchain gaming platform Forte, creator cryptocurrency protocol Rally, venture studio SuperLayer, and plug-in solar non-profit Bright Saver.

14statements → 9claims → 5claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 3.79/5average certainty → 2.14/5average debate potential → ≈4.0/5argument clarity, estimated →

5 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 3 not checkable as stated how the 9 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

4 predictions · 5 assertions · 5 insights · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 9 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 5 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Kevin argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Prediction Held up
Kevin Chou predicts a mobile game will generate over $10 billion
“And so this idea that there'll be a Godzilla game at some point in the future that, let's say, gets half a billion people or a billion people, you know, four or five years down the road to play it, and monetizes the way that a Clash of Clans or a Game of War, …”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 9:40 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
100% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: speaking style how? →

255 words/min while actually speaking · 7 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Kevin Chou: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 15 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.0/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 4,689 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Kevin Chou is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 3/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 3/10
setup questions received 31%

Everything Kevin Chou said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Prediction Held up
Kevin Chou predicts a mobile game will generate over $10 billion
“And so this idea that there'll be a Godzilla game at some point in the future that, let's say, gets half a billion people or a billion people, you know, four or five years down the road to play it, and monetizes the way that a Clash of Clans or a Game of War, …”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 9:40 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Insight
Chou: Standard consumer metrics like DAU and MAU fail in gaming
“Looking at day one, day seven, day 30, day 90, day one 80, day 365, none of these metrics. Really tell the right, you know, story, nor does looking at DAU, and certainly not MAU. So some of these kind of common metrics that other kind of consumer services use …”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 12:58 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Insight
Kevin Chou: Esports needs 5-to-10-year player careers to build fan loyalty
“What'll make this industry really take off is that you need the longevity of the players to be in the five, ideally 10 year long sort of time frame, because people love, you know, having a favorite athlete, right? Like if you're a huge LeBron fan, or if you're…”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 20:19 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Insight
Chou: Venture capital is as hit-driven as the gaming industry
“I would say that that is the exact description of a VC's business. You may have a big hit, but you may not ever have another one.”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 4:41 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Insight
Successful games can grow revenue for 3-5 years and endure a decade
“Games can continue to grow for three, four, five years in terms of its user base, in terms of its revenue, and potentially have a nice shelf life for another five to 10 years beyond that.”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 5:25 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Assertion Open · timeframe Mar 2027
Chou: $30B gaming giants derive value from a few decade-old games
“And if you look at Activision, you look at EA, these thirty billion dollar public companies, they're really trading at that value based on a very small number of games that have been around for many, many years, oftentimes a decade, and will likely be around f…”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 6:02 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Assertion Supported
Top mobile games sustain top chart positions for two to four years
“Today, when you take a look at the top grossing charts, the top download charts, they tend to be games that have been there for a very long time. So today, you know, the Candy Crushes, the Clash of Clans, the Game of Wars, Marvel Contents of Champions, Star Wa…”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 6:56 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Insight
Chou: Long-term player retention matters far more than early monetization
“By Far and away, the most important thing is to get the long-term retention, right? And you can screw that up in the early days through monetization, at least in the Western markets.”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 15:35 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Asian and Western gaming markets will converge within 5 to 10 years
“I think in another five to 10 years, you're going to see, you know, games cross kind of east to west a lot more.”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 17:49 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Assertion Supported
Top esports players have careers lasting only a couple of years
“The biggest challenge right now is that the longevity of an esports player is not very long. So meaning that the careers of these players are just a couple of years because a lot of the, at the Very highest. And, you know, you have people who could do, you kno…”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 19:13 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Prediction Held up
Kevin Chou: Strategy-focused, non-fast-twitch esports games will proliferate
“There's a new game that's a relatively new game that's come on the scene called Hearthstone, which is by Blizzard. And that's become a really interesting eSport because it's a card-based game. It's not a fast Twitch game, meaning you don't need 250 actions per…”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 19:36 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Chou: VR content companies will struggle until installed base hits 10M-20M
“Until there's 10 to twenty million of installed base, you know, I think the content companies are going to struggle.”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 22:44 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Assertion Supported
Console game companies trade at 12-14x EBITDA; mobile trades at 5-6x
“When I look at the EBITDA, you know, the trading multiples of the traditional console gaming industries, they're trading at, you know, 12 to 14 X EBITDA. And then you have the mobile gaming companies like, you know, King, for example, got sold for five X EBITD…”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 24:51 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kabam's ad revenue dropped from $3M to $300K after 2008 crash
“Our advertising revenue went from three million down to about 300,000 dollars in run rates in about 12 months.”
Kevin Chou Mar 17, 2017 ▶ 3:22 20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Mar 17, 2017 20m
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