Samson Mow, CEO Of Pixelmatic- Sparking Imaginations Of People Everywhere Through Games!

Samson Mow is Blockstream’s CSO and Pixelmatic’s CEO. Blockstream is the leading provider of blockchain technologies, on the forefront of work in cryptography and distributed systems. Samson founded Pixelmatic in 2011 to creating engaging games that are truly social and encourage new connections to be made.

Samson holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Simon Fraser University in Canada. As a veteran of the game industry, Samson regularly features as a speaker and panelist in conferences such as GDC and CGDC.

Pixelmatic creates amazing games. Their mission is to spark the imaginations of people everywhere through games.

In an exclusive interview with AsiaTechDaily, Samson says:

I think I’m generally very motivated, so I don’t need to try and motivate myself. There’s a lot to do, and there are many things I want to accomplish – that drives me every day.

• Remember where you came from and keep yourself grounded. Regardless of how successful we are, we all came from humble beginnings
• Results matter – if you don’t succeed, it doesn’t matter how hard you tried. Make sure you do everything possible to produce results
• Believe in yourself. If you encounter a problem, analyze it from different angles. There’s always a solution; you have to find it. If you run into an obstacle, look at what others have done before you learn from that

Read on to know more about Samson Mow and his journey.

Please tell me about your personal background, and what motivated you to get started with your company?

Samson Mow: Before I founded Pixelmatic, I was an executive producer at Ubisoft, mainly focusing on expanding Ubisoft’s presence in Asian markets. After producing multiple top-grossing games, I decided to take the experience I had gathered and establish my game studio. At Pixelmatic, we focus on creating online games with immersive worlds and truly social experiences. I take pride in keeping the organization extremely streamlined, and our production processes optimized for efficiency. We’re able to accomplish far more than studios 3-4 times our size.

What is your current main product, and can you share any previous product pivot story to the current product?

Samson Mow: When we started, Pixelmatic primarily developed mobile games. We then began licensing and publishing games in Asia. We also handled technical operations for Super Evil Megacorp’s Vainglory MOBA in Asia. Today, our main product is Infinite Fleet, a sci-fi MMO strategy game currently in development. With Infinite Fleet, we are pivoting to developing a significant MMO game and have assembled a top tier team with veterans hailing from Ubisoft, EA, Sega, and Nintendo.

How much money have you raised in total so far? When was the recent funding round?

Samson Mow: For Infinite Fleet’s publishing company Exordium, so far we’ve raised $3.1 million in a private funding round. The final portion of the private round was closed out on the BnkToTheFuture platform in about 24 hours, and many were unable to invest as we hit our cap.

What were the internal decision processes in determining when to begin fundraising, and what were the logistics for this? And how many investors have you met so far, and how did you meet these investors and which channels worked best for you?

Samson Mow: When we began working on Infinite Fleet, we started with a small prototype and produced a trailer, which was met with a lot of interest and eventually led us to pursue a capital raise. To raise funds, we are using a security token called EXO. The decision to issue a security token comes back to right timing: around the same time as we started planning our fundraise, Blockstream, a leading Bitcoin infrastructure company I am the CSO, had begun working on their security token platform Blockstream AMP. Security tokens represent, as the name suggests, underlying security, but provide easier mobility and accessibility. Security tokens are democratizing fundraising, making it possible for small investors to access deals that would typically only be available to accredited investors or well connected VC firms.

What are the biggest challenges and obstacles that you have faced in the process of fundraising? If you had to start over, what would you do differently?

Samson Mow: Raising capital is never easy. Convincing potential investors that you have the right team and the right vision is always a challenge. Fortunately, we have a strong team of industry veterans who have produced over a billion dollars in sales over our careers, which gives investors confidence in our ability to deliver. Also, most of the investors in our private round are “crypto OG’s”—early investors, founders, and other professionals in the cryptocurrency industry, so they can see the potential of the technology we are leveraging and how it will change the games industry.

What are your milestones for the next round? And what are your goals for the future?

Samson Mow: Our next fundraising round for $8 million will take place on investment platform STOKR, and we are working on a Regulation A filing in the U.S. to raise another $4 million there.

How have you attracted users and with what strategy have you grown your company from the start to now?

Samson Mow: So far, we have focused mainly on social media marketing and community building via channels such as Discord. As we approach our new game trailer’s launch, we will further focus on industry media.

What do most startups get wrong about marketing in general?

Samson Mow: Most companies don’t understand that everything you do is marketing. From how you interact with users on social media over how you treat job applicants to your customer support quality – everything is marketing. It’s how you present your company, and how people view your company. That’s why at Pixelmatic, we have three core values: responsibility, excellence, and passion in everything we do.

How do you plan to expand globally?

Samson Mow: We’re looking to recruit and grow our team globally after our next funding round. Since we have strong roots in the gaming industry, we have a network of experienced professionals we can draw from. One of our objectives is to appoint country managers to head expansion in various territories.

What are the most common mistakes companies make with global expansion?

Samson Mow: Often, companies give regional managers in different territories too little autonomy over their work, resulting in constraints that hinder the managers from successfully operating and marketing in their region. Another mistake companies easily make to pursue expansion to new territories without properly preparing and allocating the required resources first. Different regions come with different requirements and challenges that require extensive research and preparation – if that is not done beforehand, it will reflect poorly on the company.

How do you handle this COVID-19 outbreak situation for your company’s survival in the future?

Samson Mow: As most of our team is located in China, we found out about the virus early on and shifted to remote work. The rest of our team already works remotely, so it was relatively straightforward to shift our operations to remote work. Aside from some server infrastructure reorganization that had to be done, it was a quick and easy adjustment that didn’t cost us productivity. We have also shifted to a more flexible work structure that allows employees to work remotely in the city where our office is located after a year of employment and work remotely from anywhere in the world three years after joining the company.

What are the most common mistakes founders make when they start a company?

Samson Mow: Many founders aren’t fully prepared for the challenge and not ready to do everything necessary to succeed. It’s easy to underestimate the challenge of starting a company from zero and getting it to generate revenue.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? And What advice do you have for someone who is interested in doing similar things like yours or in a similar direction?

Samson Mow: The best advice I’ve received is: don’t fight every battle and lose the war. Basically, as a founder, you need to stay focused on what’s important. You can’t win every battle because, in every company, there are differing opinions and ideas. It would be best if you chose your battles strategically based on which will have the most significant impact.

What are the top-three books or movies (TV series) that changed your life and why?

Samson Mow: A book I enjoyed was The Hard Thing About Hard Things. It’s an excellent synopsis of what it means to be a good CEO and tackle different types of challenging situations. I like Star Trek and Enders’ Game, which are both sci-fi-theme in terms of TV series and movies. They had a two-fold impact on Infinite Fleet’s work: both inspired me to spend time and energy planning and building the Infinite Fleet universe. Additionally, they put great focus on keeping their science fiction grounded in logical science. At the same time, certain areas, such as geopolitical structures and economics, are neglected. Another example of neglected economics can be found in Star Trek, which builds on rather utopian science fiction: there is a form of money, but the characters don’t seem too concerned with the concept of it. There seems to be some form of economy, but it’s never addressed. With Infinite Fleet, we want further to detail these areas and intricacies of the universe and build a game that delivers an incredibly immersive gaming experience and makes sense on all levels.

How do you keep yourself motivated every day?

Samson Mow: I think I’m generally very motivated, so I don’t need to try and motivate myself. There’s a lot to do, and there are many things I want to accomplish – that drives me every day.

What are the top three life lessons that you want your (future) sons and daughters to know?

Samson Mow:

• Remember where you came from and keep yourself grounded. Regardless of how successful we are, we all came from humble beginnings
• Results matter – if you don’t succeed, it doesn’t matter how hard you tried. Make sure you do everything possible to produce results
• Believe in yourself. If you encounter a problem, analyze it from different angles. There’s always a solution; you have to find it. If you run into an obstacle, look at what others have done before you learn from that

What would you like to be remembered for?

Samson Mow: I want to be remembered as someone who helped Bitcoin along its journey to becoming the world’s reserve currency, and as the developer and producer of great games!

You can follow Samson Mow here.

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