236: From Producing Movies to Starting & Selling a Virtual World Gaming Community (Derrick Morton of FlowPlay)

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Background on Derrick Morton of FlowPlay:

Derrick Morton is CEO of Seattle-based FlowPlay. He's been an entrepreneur, leader and innovator in the digital entertainment industry for more than 20 years. At the helm of FlowPlay for the last decade, he has established the company as the creator of the industry’s most powerful immersive gaming platform, and driven product innovation to build an engaging multiplayer social casino that captures the attention of 75 million users worldwide. He has identified new opportunities and untapped markets including free-to-play sports betting and fantasy sports gaming, and spearheaded the development of more than 200 digital entertainment projects.

FlowPlay develops browser-based virtual world technology and games. They make immersive worlds and massive multiplayer games possible with no software required. Their flagship games consist of: 7 Seas Casino, Casino World, Vegas World, Live Game Night and Our World. FlowPLay is dedicated to growing their suite of virtual worlds and immersive games to reach new audiences.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

  • [1:26] Derrick Morton is the CEO of FlowPlay, which is a virtual worlds company.
  • [3:32] There are several games within FlowPlay that people can check out. Some of these games can be found at VegasWorld.com and their biggest one is CasinoWorld.com.
  • [4:51] FlowPlay is recreating the experience of going to Las Vegas or having a trip on a cruise ship where you get to be with other people and have fun.
  • [5:55] The usual demographic for the FlowPlay virtual world is older women over 55 years old.
  • [8:11] The majority of their revenue comes from selling people good luck charms within the games.
  • [10:55] Austin is curious if there are virtual orgies happening inside the FlowPlay virtual world.
  • [15:12] The average FlowPlay player spends around $10 per month.
  • [18:29] There are 65 FlowPlay employees working in Seattle and some support teams from Japan, Germany, and other parts of the US.
  • [19:16] Derrick sold the company and he is now an employee investor. He sold it for $146 million.
  • [21:00] Being in a tech startup company, it is typical for employees to gain equity and ownership.
  • [23:53] After his mother died, Derrick decided to change his lifestyle from playing and partying to going back to school and getting a degree.
  • [25:05] In the mid-1980s, Derrick went to USC film school and he wanted to become a movie director.
  • [26:39] Derrick made a movie called Sexual Intent, a drama erotic thriller in the 90s.
  • [28:55] In 1993, when Derrick was still trying to produce his next movie, a guy offered him a job to produce video games.
  • [35:05] Working for a company called Graphic Zone is Derrick’s first real job. This company, backed by Warner Bros., had a really cool concept of believing that the future of music will become interactive. During this time, Derrick worked with Willie Nelson, a popular musician.
  • [37:00] One of Derrick’s coolest gigs was to work with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
  • [39:30] Derrick landed a job as an executive producer at iWin. At one time, iWin became the number six website in the world.
  • [43:09] With his stint in iWin, Derrick had the opportunity to work with Blizzard, which produced popular games such as WarCraft and StarCraft.
  • [46:35] He got hooked on WarCraft and was playing the game until 3am.
  • 50.08 Derrick shares the story of how he transitioned from being an employee to starting a tech gaming company.
  • [53:05] When they started FlowPlay, their first virtual game was geared towards teenage girls.
  • [56:25] Derrick offers a piece of advice when creating a game or starting a company similar to FlowPlay.
  • [1:01:15] In order to start FlowPlay, Derrick and his business partner put in $50K each and they also raised money from investors, friends, and family.
  • [1:04:18] TechCrunch voted FlowPlay as one of the best startups in the world. This gave them the boost to raise about a million dollars from small investors.
  • [1:05:44] After the success of their first game, Our World, they created Vegas World, which is a game that could take them to the next level.
  • [1:09:33] With the introduction of Vegas World, their company gained rapid growth within a few years.
  • [1:10:32] FlowPlay was voted as one of the top 100 companies to work for in the state of Washington five years in a row.
  • [1:11:59] The hardest part for Derrick is being responsible for a lot of people working for them.
  • [1:14:54] Derrick shares an important business lesson that he found in the book Good to Great.

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Fabulous 4 Questions:

  1. 📖📚 Favorite Books? The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz, The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
  2. 🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Klos Travel Guitar
  3. 🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? Excel.
  4. 💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Hiring great talent.

Key Point from the Interview:

  • “Who do you want to work with? And who do you think is a good fit for you? If you find a good partner and you find a good fit, in that respect, then being successful in business is going to be that much easier.”

Resources Mentioned:

 

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