Captain Hoff

Steven Hoffman (Captain Hoff) is an expert on AI business strategy and author of three award-winning books: “The Five Forces” (AI) published by BenBella and distributed by Penguin Random House; “Make Elephants Fly” (innovation) published by Hachette; “Surviving a Startup” (entrepreneurship) published by HarperCollins.

Hoffman is also a venture investor and Chairman & CEO of Founders Space, a global startup accelerator and innovation hub, with over 50 partners in 22 countries. Founders Space was ranked #1 accelerator for international startups by Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazines.

Hoffman has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs launch their companies in Silicon Valley and around the globe. He has also advised corporations on innovation strategy, including Qualcomm, Huawei, Bosch, Intel, Disney, Warner Brothers, Ad Age, MetLife, NBC, A&E, Siemens, Viacom, Turner, Gulf Oil, etc.

Prior to this, Hoffman worked as a TV development executive at Fries Entertainment, which produced over a hundred TV shows, movies, and mini-series that were acquired by MGM. He went on to pioneer interactive television with his venture-funded startup, Spiderdance, which produced interactive TV shows with NBC, MTV, Turner, Warner Brothers, History Channel, Game Show Network, and others.

While in Hollywood, Hoffman served on the Board of Governors of the Producers Guild of America’s New Media Council. He was also founder and Chairman of the Producers Guild Silicon Valley Chapter and a founding member of the Academy of Television’s Interactive Media Group.

As a serial entrepreneur, Hoffman combined new technologies with entertainment, producing groundbreaking games and interactive shows, like WebRIOT, No Boundaries, Weakest Link, Yumby, and RocketOn. He was also Head of Infospace’s Mobile Games Studio, whose play-for-prizes games included Tetris, Wheel of Fortune, Tomb Raider, Thief, Hitman, Skee-Ball, X-Files, and more.

Hoffman earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of California and a master’s degree in film and television from the University of Southern California. He currently resides in California but spends most of his time helping entrepreneurs and innovators around the world bring their dreams to life.

Speaking Topics
• AI Innovation & Business Strategy
• Digital Transformation in the AI Era
• The Future of AI in Industry
• Golden Rules of Venture Capital
• Building Billion-Dollar Businesses
• Creating Startup Ecosystems
• Silicon Valley Investment Trends
• More…

Podcast Interviews
• Success Story
• Financially Free
• Unmistakably Creative
• The Silicon Valley Podcast
• More…

Video: AI & Entrepreneurship

Video: Brain Hacking TED Talk

Hoffman’s Books

Founders Space Podcast

Fun Fact

Captain Hoff has had more careers than cats have lives, from Hollywood TV exec and screenwriter to game designer, manga rewriter, voice actor, animator, electrical engineer, podcast host, author of four books, computer programmer, mobile studio head, serial entrepreneur, and venture investor.