Colorado Lottery GameJam - Josh Chapman, Managing Partner of Konvoy

man who is a managing partner with the managing or a managing partner at the managing partner convoy ventures so there's only about 20 firms internationally that specialize in esports and gaming and one of them happens to be in colorado so josh is a leader in the space and and is always looking for interesting opportunities and wants to support the development of not only the colorado ecosystem but just really the next wave of creativity and gaming and in virtual engagement in esports so with that josh you wanted to go ahead and uh take it away absolutely uh thank you all for having me really this has been a great kind of opening ceremony and uh learning a lot from all of you so first off thank you for having me um as a little background on myself i grew up primarily in africa latin america and asia uh the son of a u.s diplomat and moved every two years i grew up playing a lot of video games it was a key part of like my social experience alongside sports uh then had a career in new york prior to moving to colorado and was working at black rock and morgan stanley and then decided i wanted to do my own thing and in the process of trying to do my own thing i wanted to merge my passion for video gaming with my professional training and finance and investing and so that kind of married really well with launching a venture capital firm focused on investing exclusively into the video gaming and esports industry that was about four years ago and now we're here based in colorado when i was starting my own thing with all the risk of being an entrepreneur i decided i wanted to do it in a place that i wanted to live long term and that was colorado um i love this state i am definitely new to this state i'm not from this state whatsoever uh but i plan to make it my home for the long run and so you know a big reason why like we kind of look at why i picked you know colorado is colorado is not only one of the most accelerating economies and places for technology and investing but it's also kind of a center for lots of innovation which video gaming is oftentimes a leader in so lots of video gaming technology is leveraged not only in video gaming for entertainment but also outside of that for lots of other industries and so that applies to enterprise and humanitarian efforts social and of course certainly uh things like the lottery and fostering community globally so as a firm convoy ventures is a venture capital firm headquartered here in denver and we also have a partner in new york city um and we invest across seed and series a companies primarily across platforms infrastructure technologies and so a lot of the topics on this that brought up today are actually very interesting because it's about building infrastructure that leverages the talent in video gaming for fostering community and pushing the economy forward here in colorado and that is something i feel personally incredibly passionate about and i'm excited to play one small part in um a couple comments around what's happening in the industry you know kovid has been quite interesting for this industry it's kind of worked as like a almost an adrenaline shot to the video gaming industry uh video gaming on pc is up 25 twitch viewership is up 61 in-app purchases on mobile are up over 30 this industry is really moving forward and not only uh doing well financially but it's also helping helping foster um social connections in a socially distant world and that is something we are loved seen in our portfolio with the founders we back but also the founders we're meeting and so things that kind of bring you guys building games uh building things that foster community and acceleration and even economic prosperity like that's incredible fantastic and something that you know we're here at convoy very excited to continue to invest in and help build um we're here for the long term would be my final comment kind of here but you know planning to build this firm out of denver um you know i love the strategic position it is in north america the international access it has globally uh it's really incredible place to to build a firm and we're excited to be here so uh thank you guys for having me we're thrilled to be here and excited to keep doing these year in year out great