İsmet Gökşen began his profession in cellular adtech earlier than making the transfer into enterprise investing. As we speak, as Managing Companion of Ludus Ventures, probably the most lively gaming-focused VCs within the area, he brings a uncommon mixture of operator intuition and funding self-discipline to each deal. With 25+ investments and three exits since 2021, he’s backed a few of the most recognizable names in cellular gaming, together with TaleMonster, Good Job Video games, and Playable Manufacturing unit. We sat down with him to get his unfiltered tackle what it takes to construct and fund a profitable studio in right now’s market.
AppSamurai: You’ve made 25+ investments and three exits since 2021. For a founder studying this, what does Ludus really must see in that very first assembly to maneuver ahead? Is it the group, an early retention quantity, a particular style match, or one thing else totally that almost all founders underestimate?
İsmet Gökşen: The founding group is crucial factor in pre-seed investing. The alignment between their previous skilled expertise and their marketing strategy for his or her new enterprise is essential to us.
Alongside that, resilience is among the most necessary issues in pre-seed investments, as a result of early-stage gaming assessments you continually, and the groups that make it preserve iterating when the primary plan doesn’t maintain.
Metrics matter at each stage; they’re how we learn progress potential, even when the numbers are nonetheless early. What I’m actually asking is whether or not the enterprise has the marketability and scalability to develop. So lead along with your group and why you, particularly, are the suitable individuals to construct this, and let your metrics show the momentum is actual.
AppSamurai: TaleMonster, Good Job Video games, and Grand Video games all turned early traction into massive later-stage rounds. Out of your seat, what’s the one greatest factor studios get fallacious between their seed spherical and making an attempt to lift that subsequent, a lot larger spherical? Is it a metrics downside, a positioning downside, or a timing downside?
İsmet Gökşen: An important factor is to know what the enterprise really wants. There’s no rule that each firm has to go for a big Collection A.
Some companies transfer very quick, and relying on the scenario, you will get a great distance on debt.
One of the vital necessary questions is: Is there an actual want for this capital? The place does the enterprise go after it raises capital to satisfy that want, and does it supply a significant return for the investor when it scales? In the event you can’t reply these three cleanly, more cash gained’t repair the issue; it often simply raises the bar you now need to clear.
In the event you increase at a 100 million valuation, you’re committing to construct a unicorn; that’s the one final result the maths really works for. So the true query often isn’t metrics, positioning, or timing on their very own. It’s whether or not the dimensions of your increase matches how huge the enterprise can realistically grow to be.
AppSamurai: Most of Ludus’s portfolio is sport studios, however you additionally backed Playable Manufacturing unit, a playable and interactive ad-tech firm. Given your personal background in cellular adtech, how do you concentrate on gametech and ad-tech investments in another way from studio investments? Is Türkiye constructing an edge within the infrastructure layer of cellular gaming the identical manner it has within the studios themselves?
İsmet Gökşen: We dedicated 10% of our fund to areas which can be extra experiential for us, resembling gametech and adtech. Like Playable Manufacturing unit, we take into consideration them very in another way from our studio investments.
With content material, a studio funding is nearly totally a guess on the founders’ {qualifications}. Their background of their area, their execution high quality, their resilience, and so forth. Tech investments are very completely different from content material investments. What you are attempting to evaluate is the product market match. Does the market really want this product? Is it any higher than the opposite merchandise on this area?
The opposite distinction is the way you develop into that market. Even a robust product can find yourself area of interest in video games, and you’ll’t remedy that with enterprise improvement alone — BD solely takes a tech firm to date. On the content material aspect, the lever is completely different: when you could have a superb sport, you scale it by person acquisition.
AppSamurai: Past the capital itself, what ought to a studio realistically anticipate from Ludus when you’re on board? Is it hands-on assist with UA and monetization, entry to your community for hiring or follow-on rounds, product suggestions, one thing else, and the way hands-on versus hands-off ought to a founder anticipate Ludus to be daily?
İsmet Gökşen: Previous a sure level, the founder is aware of the enterprise higher than any investor does and actually, that’s the way it ought to be. A studio ought to all the time be capable to stand by itself; the second it is dependent upon us to perform, one thing has already gone fallacious.
The place we do add actual worth is in just a few particular locations. The primary is just that we perceive your language. We’re gaming-native, so that you’re not spending the assembly explaining the fundamentals of the trade to us. The second is advertising: it’s a real power of ours, so UA and progress are areas the place we are able to really roll up our sleeves.
After which there’s the community. We have now a robust capacity to herald new buyers to your follow-on rounds, and as one of many oldest VCs within the sector, that community additionally helps with hiring and the connections you want as you scale. That mixture, understanding the area, advertising muscle, and a community for each capital and expertise, is the real looking image of what we convey as soon as we’re on board.
AppSamurai: Different rising gaming markets, Vietnam, India, components of Latin America and MENA, are watching Türkiye’s rise intently, and a few see it as a blueprint. From an investor’s perspective, what about Türkiye’s enlargement do you suppose is genuinely transferable to a different market with the suitable expertise and ambition, and what a part of it’s nearer to a one-off, tied to elements particular to Türkiye, like its authorities incentive packages or its explicit expertise pipeline, that one other nation couldn’t simply replicate?
İsmet Gökşen: What really transfers is the mindset, not the small print: know what you’re really good at, and construct your ecosystem round that power. Any market with actual expertise and ambition can try this.
What’s particular to Türkiye is the shape it took. Our power was critical improvement functionality, so a high-production, hypercasual-focused ecosystem grew up round it. One other nation can comply with the very same method — but it surely ought to construct round its personal strengths, not copy ours. The playbook travels; the ecosystem it produces will look completely different in every single place, as a result of each market is nice at one thing completely different.
