The Board Game Billionaire: From a $10k Kickstarter to $100M/Yea…
About This Episode
Elan Lee, the co-creator of Exploding Kittens and former Xbox Chief Design Officer, explains how he built a board game empire by focusing on community over funding. He shares his unconventional approach to marketing and product testing, emphasizing that successful games should function as tools to make the players themselves entertaining.
Episode Description
Show Notes
- 0:00Humble Success: Exploding Kittens Insights
- 8:07The origin story - From 10k to $9M on kickstarter
- 16:17Focus on the crowd, not the funding
- 20:41Games should not be entertaining
- 23:52The Kitty Test pilots
- 27:57$0 marketing hacks
- 38:49Pushing past the ‘no’
- 41:07Business as a game
- 45:32Creativity loves constraints
- 54:28Irritation is the source of innovation
- 59:13Designing a game with Tim Ferriss
- 01:04:08Do what never makes you bored
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Key Takeaways
Test product viability with a single 'heat-seeking' question: 'Do you want to play/use this again?' to measure true user engagement.
Adopt 'constraint-based creativity' by defining the specific parameters and limitations of a problem before brainstorming to avoid 'blue sky' paralysis.
Treat every business 'no' as a sign that you are asking the wrong question, and look for lateral workarounds like registering as a grocer to bypass logistics roadblocks.