119: Holly Liu | Co-Founder, Kabam

Apr 10 2024 • 47 mins

Holly is the Co-Founder of Kabam – a mobile gaming company that sold for approximately $1B to NetMarble in 2017. They grew Kabam to over 1500 employees with 6 offices worldwide.

Prior to Kabam, Holly graduated from UCLA with a degree in Communications and East Asian studies and received her Masters from Berkeley in Information Management and Systems. She started her professional career in consulting and working as a User Interface Designer at AOL.

Throughout her 10-year tenure as the Co-Founder of Kabam, Holly led efforts in a variety of roles: including User Experience, HR, Development and People. Her work has contributed to record revenue growth for Kabam year over year from $0 to $400MM annually, that led Kabam into the unicorn club in 2014. She led the design for Kabam’s award-winning "Kingdoms of Camelot" franchise, which has grossed over $250 million in less than four years and the extension game, which was the top grossing app on iOS in 2012.

After Kabam, Holly transitioned to the other side of the table as an investor. She spent 2 years as a Visiting Partner at Y Combinator - the leading startup accelerator for entrepreneurs.

She is a consummate entrepreneur, executive, and startup mentor. Naturally, Holly has been a leading woman in gaming and entrepreneurship, named by Fortune as the “10 Most Powerful Women in Gaming”.

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Past guests include Margaret Wishingrad, Kara Goldin, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Ann Miura Ko, Linda Avey, Sarah Leary, Becky Sauerbrunn, Miriam Haart and many more.

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Show Notes:

1. Welcome to She Leads
2. Holly's Early Life and Influences
3. Navigating and Finding Peace with her Asian Identity
4. Meeting Co-Founders and Initial Brainstorming Ideas
5. Founding a Company Idea 1: Social Corporate Network
6. Challenges in Building a B2B Business
7. Pivoting to Community Apps on Facebook
8. Entering the Gaming Industry
9. Navigating the 2008 Recession
10. Scaling Culture
11. Balancing Diversity & Scaling in Hiring
12. Experience as a Woman in Gaming
13. Selling Kabam for Over $1 Billion Dollars
14. Book Recs & Lifetime Craft

Holly's book recommendation? The bible
Holly's life-time craft she is honing? Being Open

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