Steve Hoffman
Serial Entrepreneur
Steve Hoffman (a.k.a. Captain Hoff) is a high tech serial entrepreneur and cofounder of Founders Space.
Hoffman is a founding member of the Academy of Television’s Interactive Media Group, was Chairman for the Producers Guild SF, and served on the Board of Governors for the New Media Council.
Hoffman is an experienced fund raiser. He has raised funding for 3 different startups — two as CEO and one as COO. Each time it was $5 million or more from VCs. He has also raised angel funding, as well as millions in debt financing.
Hoffman spent nearly a year working inside one of the top VC firms on Sandhill Road, as his company was being incubated by the firm. He understands how the decisions are made on the inside and why certain startups are continually rejected, while others are funded right away.
Hoffman now runs LavaMind, which owns and operates Founders Space. Hoffman has developed and launched numerous apps, including Jackpot Words, Beetle Bounce and Yumby.
In 2007, Hoffman cofounded RocketOn, a social media and virtual world startup. Prior to this, Hoffman was the COO of Zannel (Tap11), a venture-funded startup providing businesses with advanced analytics and CRM for Twitter. Tap11 was sold to AVOS.
Before that, Hoffman was the North American Studio Head for Infospace, where he ran the US mobile games publishing & development group. While in Los Angeles, Hoffman was the Chairman & CEO of Spiderdance, Hollywood’s leading interactive television studio, whose customers included NBC, Viacom, Time Warner, TBS, GSN and A&E. He also consulted for R/GA Interactive, designing projects for Kodak, Disney, Intel, AdAge, and Children’s Television Workshop.
In Japan, Hoffman worked as a game designer for Sega, generating new concepts and designs for games and amusement rides. Prior to Sega, he was a Hollywood development executive at Fries Entertainment, where he managed TV development. He graduated from the University of California with a BS in Electrical Computer Engineering and went on to earn a Masters in Film & Television from USC. He is also the co-author of the first-edition of “Game Design Workshop” published by CMP.
Connect with Steve Hoffman on LinkedIn and Facebook.
