#25: Rizwan Virk - Best Selling Author and Founder of Play Labs @ MIT on Startup Myths and Models
Riz Virk is a successful entrepreneur, investor, bestselling author, video game industry pioneer, and indie film producer. Riz received a B.S. in Computer Science from MIT and an M.S. in Management from Stanford's GSB. Riz is the founder of Play Labs @ MIT, a startup accelerator held on campus at the MIT Game Lab. His entrepreneurial journey began at the age of 23, with his first startup, Brainstorm. Since then, individually and as managing partner at Bayview, he has been a co-founder, investor, and advisor of many startups, including Tapjoy (one of the top mobile advertising companies), Gameview (acquired by DeNA), CambridgeDocs (acquired by EMC), Service Metrics (acquired by Exodus), Funzio (makers of the hit game Crime City, sold to GREE), Telltale Games, Pocket Gems, Discord, Disruptor Beam, and SLIVER.TV. Riz's video games have included the mobile free-to-play pioneer Tap Fish, which was downloaded more than 30 million times and acquired by DeNA, and mobile games based on the hit TV shows Penny Dreadful and Grimm. Besides that, Riz has also produced many indie films starring Peter Dinklage and Summer Glau. In his free time, Riz is also writing bestselling books such as Startup Myths & Models (2020), The Simulation Hypothesis (2019), Zen Entrepreneurship (2013), and Treasure Hunt: Follow Your Inner Clues to Find True Success (2017). Today, Riz continues to share his knowledge by writing books and giving presentations on entrepreneurship and what it takes to build startups.Book Rec: Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. TolkienRiz's Books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rizwan-Virk/e/B00J1MY54K/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1Riz's website: www.zenentrepreneur.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rizvirk/Twitter: @Rizstanford