How to Hire Gaming Talent to Make Your B2B Product Stickier with Joe Burridge

The gaming industry has shed more than 25,000 jobs in two years. A lot of that talent is now building B2B software.

Your users sign up, click around once, and never come back. Then you raise a round and hire a big-name leader who wants to build a team before shipping anything.

Joe Burridge is Head of Talent at Play Ventures, a gaming-focused VC firm that now invests in B2B tech. He recruited through Hudl's growth from 200 to 1,000 people, worked at EA, and saw Epic Games scale from 2,000 to 6,000 during the Fortnite era.

You'll get a clear read on which gaming hires translate to B2B tech and which don't. Joe also shares the startup recruiting mistakes he sees across a portfolio of around 90 companies. He explains how early-stage founders win GTM talent against much bigger budgets.

This episode is for founders and revenue leaders at pre-seed to Series B working on product retention, onboarding, and their first go-to-market hires. If you already have a mature talent team and a polished hiring process, the startup process advice will feel basic.

Key Takeaways

• Gamification works best a la carte. One or two mechanics that fit your product beat a "Duolingo for X" pile of streaks and leaderboards.
• Product and design people from mobile gaming bring the strongest crossover, especially on onboarding. Joe explains why level one of a game gets its own dedicated designer.
• If you hire fast, you have to fire fast. Get exits and performance management sorted before the hiring mistakes arrive.
• A big-company CMO who wants to build a team on day one is a red flag at seed. Joe screens for startup mindset first and experience second.

Chapter Markers

00:00 Startup fit or just laid off?

00:18 Gaming layoffs and where the talent went

02:09 Joe's path from Hudl to EA, Epic, Play Ventures

03:42 How the pandemic gaming boom became a crash

05:34 Where gaming jobs were really lost

07:00 Gamification moves into B2B software

08:28 Apps overtake games on app store revenue

10:34 A vibe-coded leaderboard for G2 reviews

15:00 What gaming hires bring that others don't

15:33 "Duolingo for X" and shoehorned gamification

16:51 Why product and design talent crosses over

19:37 Why gaming marketers struggle in B2B SaaS

21:07 The first GTM hires after funding

24:21 Founder mistakes: no process, no exit plan

26:23 The big-company CMO trap

27:47 How slow processes lose top candidates

30:16 Moving from corporate back to startups

33:36 How startups win talent without big budgets

37:23 When a streak doesn't belong in your app

Useful Links & Resources

• Joe Burridge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeburridge/
• Play Ventures: https://www.play.vc/
• Duolingo: https://www.duolingo.com/
• Wispr Flow: https://wisprflow.ai/