

Zynga’s Mark Pincus: I got kicked out of some of the best companies in America - dawie
http://entrepreneur.venturebeat.com/2009/10/24/zyngas-mark-pincus-i-got-kicked-out-of-some-of-the-best-companies-in-america/

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teej
I have a huge amount of respect for Mark Pincus. He's really been through the
trenches and has done a great job growing Zynga. Mark followed two points of
pg's advice in "What Startups Are Really Like" that set him up for success.
Here's what I've seen that have made Mark great.

In 2007, it was myself and Shervin Pishevar who set out to directly compete
against Mark in the gaming space on Facebook. We set our sights directly on
Zynga - we used the absolutely best PR company and our huge stacks of VC cash
to make sure that we were always one step ahead. From the media's standpoint,
it was a two-horse race with SGN taking a commanding lead over Zynga. Mark,
however, decided to ignore his competitors. While we were too busy reading the
headlines, he kept iterating on his core strategy. He was spending every day
polishing his secret sauce to make his games the largest and most profitable
on Facebook. Then Mafia Wars launched, ultimately validating his strategy. The
rest is history.

Mark certainly had plenty of opportunities to give up. The app acquisition
race was costly to all companies involved. While bleeding that cash, Mark was
constantly fighting to maintain the profitability of Poker in the midst of
massive fraud. Mark's dog, Zynga's namesake, also passed away in this time.
Despite all of this, he stayed persistent and stuck through to the end.

I've butted heads with Mark in the past on panels and in the news, but I can
tell you without a doubt that Mark Pincus demands some serious respect for the
company he's built and the work he's done to get there.

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blader
Couldn't agree more.

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icey
I wish he had another 20 or 30 minutes to talk. When the "5 minute warning"
was flashed, I think everyone was genuinely surprised that that much time had
already gone. He had some fascination stories & information to share.

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theli0nheart
Same. He was definitely one of the most insightful speakers and was a great
choice to close the day. Nice guy, too.

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qbert
I thought he said he had $80,000 in savings not just $8,000.

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pchristensen
He did say $80K.

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davidppp
Although the sound quality is not ideal, here's an archive of his talk on
justin.tv: <http://www.justin.tv/clip/4df4ad14c58b6ed6>

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ajju
I think I need to see the video. The transcript seems to be quite a bit
rambling and hard to consume.

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wavesplash
He was a bit rambling. But he did it with style ;)

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ajju
Now that I have seen the video and then reread the transcript: Yes, putting up
with the slightly rambling nature of the talk was entirely worth it.

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kul
He was definitely the most engaging speaker I saw. Like Tony Robbins, Mark
spoke with emotion, which is what made what he had to say so interesting.

