Have you ever wanted to see Sam Altman and Palmer Luckey face off in a suitably suspenseful card game? If so, you are lucky.
Silicon Valley leaders are rushing to embrace the power of media for marketing and political capital purposes. Now, in keeping with the times, Founders Fund, the venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, has launched its own game show.
“MAFIA the GAME” is an ongoing event that brings together renowned technology experts to compete in card games (the show is named after one of the most popular party games).
The spectacle is moderated by Pirate Wires editor Mike Solana (who is also Chief Marketing Officer at Founders Fund). The debut episode features who the players are — Sam Altman; Palmer Luckey; Bryan Johnson, the famous biohacker who will (according to him) live forever; and Moxie Marlinspike, founder of encrypted chat app Signal.
“VC content is so boring,” Solana told Newcomer, which originally reported the show’s existence. “There have to be more interesting ways to get to know someone, and I think this is a much more interesting way to get to know someone.”
TechCrunch reached out to Founders Fund for more information about the program.
In many ways, having a platform like reality TV is good business these days. The Internet has transformed the world into a group of chronic media consumers, with the average American spending about 2.5 hours a day on social media. Most of that time is spent scrolling through endless memes and videos that contain advertisements.
In the modern era, the road to power and influence is paved with infotainment.
Businesses and executives have tried to capitalize on this new reality in a variety of ways. OpenAI recently attracted attention when it secured TBPN, a popular podcast led by its founder. Meanwhile, many of the most prominent players in technology have leveraged word of mouth to their advantage. Johnson, for example, has been able to grow his following through a very active and bizarre social media presence. Elon Musk, meanwhile, has successfully leveraged his public persona to spread the word (although it could be argued that his online presence has sometimes done more harm than good to his business).
This trend has spread to the startup space as well, with people like Cluely CEO Cheongin Lee proving the power of a one-man viral hype machine.
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