Podcast 🎧 - He Built Mafia Wars to $10M a Day and Now Makes Bets on 130+ Startups

Hey There,

The newest episode of The Startup Growth Podcast is live!

Listen to the episode here.

In this episode, I chat with Roger Dickey, a serial founder and angel investor in over 130 startups. Roger shares his journey from building games as a kid to founding multiple successful companies, including Dope Wars and Mafia Wars, which he sold to Zynga. He discusses the early days of Facebook apps, the viral mechanics that led to massive user growth, and how he scaled Mafia Wars to generate between $1-10 million per day in revenue. Roger also explains his approach to ideating and testing new startup ideas through what he calls a "search lab" process.

Throughout our conversation, Roger offers valuable insights on product-led growth, the importance of focusing on one distribution channel, and how to evaluate the potential of new ideas. He shares his experiences with his construction tech company and the lessons learned about customer acquisition costs and margins. Finally, Roger discusses his current interests in consumer SaaS, AI-driven businesses, and potentially building a new social network or language learning app.

Key takeaways:

• First ventures into Facebook apps

• Selling Dope Wars to Zynga

• Creating Mafia Wars at Zynga

• Transitioning to startup investing

• Reinventing growth strategies

I hope you find this educational content valuable and can apply it in your business.

David Phillips

Founder & CEO at Fondo

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