Eisspeedway

Mitch Lasky

Mitch Lasky
Lasky in 2013
Born
Mitchell Harold Lasky[1]

(1962-01-18) January 18, 1962 (age 62)
Los Angeles, California
Alma materHarvard College, University of Virginia School of Law
OccupationVenture Capitalist
EmployerGeneral Partner at Benchmark
Spouse
Cecilia Barajas
​
(m. 1987)​
[2]
Children2, including Quadeca

Mitchell Harold "Mitch" Lasky (born January 18, 1962) is a general partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Benchmark[3] and a former entrepreneur and video game executive.

Education and early career

Lasky received a B.A. degree in History and Literature from Harvard College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.[4]

Early in his career, Lasky practiced law at the Los Angeles firm Irell & Manella, where he worked on various technology-related intellectual property cases.[5] In 1993, he joined The Walt Disney Company.[6] He left Disney in 1994 to launch a multiplayer online game company, Serum Entertainment Software.[4]

Lasky subsequently spent five years at video game publisher Activision, including a stint as executive vice president of Worldwide Studios,[7] helping to launch Quake 3, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and Spider-Man.

In 2000,[8] he joined mobile games company JAMDAT as CEO,[9] and took the company public in 2004.[10] Electronic Arts acquired JAMDAT for $680 million in 2006.[6] Lasky served as executive vice president of mobile and online games at Electronic Arts from 2006 to 2007, after the JAMDAT acquisition.[11]

Benchmark

Lasky joined Benchmark in 2007 as a general partner.[12] He focuses on identifying investment opportunities in mobile, games, digital privacy and identity, and online education.[12] He has led the firm’s investments in and serves on the boards of Snapchat, Ubiquity6,[13] CyanogenMod, Engine Yard, Gaia, Riot Games, PlayFab,[14] Vivox, Grockit, Gaikai, RedRobot, Meteor Entertainment, thatgamecompany, and NaturalMotion.[6][15][16][17][18][19][20]

Personal life

Mitch Lasky is the father of musician and YouTuber Benjamin "Quadeca" Lasky.[21]

References

  1. ^ "Mitchell H Lasky in 'California Birth Index, 1905-1995'". familysearch.org. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
  2. ^ "Mitchell Harold Lasky and Cecilia Maria Barajas in 'Virginia, Marriage Certificates, 1936-1988'". familysearch.org. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
  3. ^ "Is VR The Future Of Gaming?". Forbes. Retrieved January 7, 2025.
  4. ^ a b "Board of Directors". Company. Gaikai. Archived from the original on September 2, 2012. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  5. ^ "Mitchell Lasky J.D." Executive Profile. Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on July 28, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2012.
  6. ^ a b c Takahashi, Dean (July 17, 2012). "Benchmark's Mitch Lasky: Game publishers will evolve or die (interview)". Venture Beat. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  7. ^ "Printable Biography of Mitch Lasky". Biographies. All American Speakers. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  8. ^ "Mitch Lasky". Speaker Bio. Dice Summit. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  9. ^ Elliott, Phil (July 10, 2008). "Mitch Lasky speaks out against "state regulation" of videogames". Games Industry International. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  10. ^ "Good Reception for Cellphone Game Maker IPO". Los Angeles Times. Reuters. September 29, 2004. p. 28. Retrieved June 12, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Remo, Chris (January 13, 2010). "Former EA Exec Lasky: 'EA Is In The Wrong Business'". Gamasutra. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  12. ^ a b "Lasky steps down at EA, joins VC firm". RCR Wireless. March 20, 2007. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  13. ^ "AR startup Ubiquity6 lands $27M Series B to build a more user-friendly augmented reality". TechCrunch. August 14, 2018.
  14. ^ Eric, Johnson (February 27, 2015). "Benchmark Leads $7.4 Million Round in Live Games Platform PlayFab". www.recode.com. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  15. ^ Schonfeld, Erick (January 11, 2008). "Benchmark Bets on Ruby on Rails With $3.5 Million Investment in Engine Yard". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  16. ^ Williams, Mike (July 18, 2012). "Benchmark's Mitch Lasky: The value of publishers "isn't clear"". Games Industry International. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  17. ^ "Mitch Lasky". VentureBeat Profiles. VentureBeat. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  18. ^ Takahashi, Dean (September 14, 2011). "Red Robot Labs raises $8.5M for location-based mobile gaming". VentureBeat. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  19. ^ Gallagher, Billy (February 8, 2013). "Snapchat Raises $13.5M Series A Led By Benchmark, Now Sees 60M Snaps Sent Per Day". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 23, 2013.
  20. ^ Cutler, Kim-Mai (September 18, 2013). "Cyanogen Mod Raises $7M To Find A Direct-To-Consumer Route For Android Firmware". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
  21. ^ McClain, James (December 1, 2020). "Venture Capitalist Mitch Lasky Drops $40 Million on Malibu's Broad Beach". Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on September 13, 2024. Retrieved January 7, 2025.
Quelle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Lasky