FOUNDER FRIENDLY, START-UP Catalyst
Loot Spawn exists to offer a level up to talented teams in the games industry, supporting them in realizing their vision. We're a one-man operation and I always strive to be more than just another subjective advisor or distant business angel, rather a company catalyst and provider of hands-on capacity to the founders. From inception and beyond.
A collaboration like this is always sealed by an investment from me via Loot Spawn. Private capital is injected into a start-up (by issue of new shares, on occasions via convertibles) in return for some equity. Founders' party gains a chaotic good co-owner and we head off to do great things together.
EARLY STAGE, PRIVATE CAPITAL
My approach is to lead or partake in the absolute first financing rounds of a start-up's life cycle. There's literally no "too early" when reaching out to me to start the discussions. At this stage it's only the team's skill, soul and drive which matter. It's definitely not about having the perfect pitch deck.
Loot Spawn's investments are laser focused on the games sector. Development, publishing, tech, middleware or platforms - pitch it! But in some way it has to support the creation of immersive experiences with the player in focus. Being based in Sweden makes the Nordics my primary search area for potential partners, only on rare occasion do I make exceptions from this geographical focus. In my experience it's much easier to have productive collaborations when not more than a couple of hours apart.
INVESTMENTS & FRIENDS
Being a pre-seed investor makes me rely on instinct rather than being data driven. Instead there's an internal checklist of positive and negative investment triggers, helping me decide when to invest and when not to. Several of these have to do with how the founders and I match as human beings, on basic levels like values and ethics.
In my experience this core needs to gel in order to enable successful collaboration and future efforts to build a magnificent company together. And the same goes for any other investors which I co-invest with, this early there's got to be shared trust and respect among all parties. In the same way as I'm careful when picking investments, similarly I always advise the founders to be equally selective with who they let invest in their company. Do the reversed due diligence, ask us the hard questions!
PAYING IT FORWARD
Another reason Loot Spawn came to be was to try and give something back to the gaming ecosystem in the Nordics. Naturally I see capitalizing and supporting start-ups as one way of doing this. Another is to support projects through pure financial sponsoring, mentoring or just general but energetic cheering. Are you an entrepreneur looking for backing of your non-profit, game related project in the Nordics? Ping me!
FORMER DEVELOPER, NOW INVESTOR
I started Loot Spawn with the personal ambition to get back closer to my roots in the games industry, working with the creative teams which wields the actual magic. In several ways I used to do what the start-ups Loot Spawn invest in are doing now. I've spent more than two decades at companies like DICE, EA and Raw Fury where I (together with all the amazing teams) developed and published games, lead teams and studios.
Not all past learnings equals truths today but any accumulated know-how, experience and grit is readily available when called upon by the portfolio companies. And sometimes it's simply about having an extra pair of mittens available to dig in.
FOUNDER & OWNER,
KARL MAGNUS TROEDSSON
Founding Partner Behold Ventures
Previously at:
Raw Fury, Nordisk Games,
Electronic Arts, DICE, UDS