The Here's Waldo Podcast

Michael Fridley is the CEO and studio director of Squanch Games. He has contributed to many titles since he started in the industry 26 years ago, including The Elder Scrolls, Morrowind and Oblivion, Fallout 3, Reckoning, Call of Cthulhu, PGA Tour, NBA Live, Dragonvale, and most recently Squanch Games' hit game, High on Life- the largest third-party launch on Xbox Game Pass. Tune in to learn about...

Sid Dhulipalla is the CEO and co-founder of Hathora, the server orchestration platform powering Frost Giant Studios' new game, Stormgate. In this episode, listeners get a glimpse of Sid's journey transitioning from engineering management roles at Databricks and Palantir Technologies to founding Hathora. He also shares insights into the interplay between cloud and bare metal servers, the challenges...

Tim Morten is the CEO and Production Director of Frost Giant Studios. From his early days at Activision in 1994 to leading major teams at EA and Blizzard, Tim has seen it all. Now, he's steering Frost Giant Studios as they launch their highly anticipated RTS game, Stormgate, which is now available for Early Access! Stormgate builds on the legacy of StarCraft 2 with a brand-new universe, crafted wi...

David Elton brings nearly three decades of expertise in the game industry, having worked with top studios like Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Zynga, and Capcom. He has held diverse roles from Vice President - Product to Creative Director, contributing to a wide array of titles from Microsoft's Solitaire to iconic franchises like Need For Speed and SSX. Today, David serves as the Fractional COO at Dav...

Yonatan Raz-Fridman is the CEO and founder of Supersocial, Inc., a pioneering studio that builds boundary-pushing virtual worlds on immersive social platforms like Roblox. Roblox is the most engaging platform on the Internet, with its 72 million daily active users spending an average of 2.4 hours per day—three times more than TikTok and five times more than Instagram. Brands are racing to tap into...

Justin Sacks has worn many hats in his 15+ years in the game industry—from competitive gamer to content creator to leading business development for a global multimedia game company. Today, he serves as the CEO of Nexus, a platform specializing in building and managing creator programs for the world's top live service games.  Nexus provides a comprehensive platform that not only supports creators b...

Ethan Evans is a career development expert dedicated to helping professionals overcome career blockages and advance to the next level. After retiring as VP from Amazon, where he built Prime Gaming, managed Amazon's first game studio, and contributed to Twitch, he shifted his focus to paying forward his good fortune by assisting clients from top US companies. With 70+ patents, over 10,000 resumes r...

Shawn Foust is the Co-founder and COO of Fortis Games, a global game studio with a mission to create worlds that matter – that challenge minds, build connections, and inspire communities. Before founding Fortis, Shawn was VP of Central Operations at WB Games after its acquisition of PlexChat, which he co-founded and led as CEO. Prior to that, he served as SVP of Business Operations at Machine Zone...

Chelsea Blasko, co-CEO and Partner of Iron Galaxy Studios, started as the company's 13th employee and quickly became the catalyst behind the studio's incredible expansion across multiple locations. She has been instrumental in guiding the studio's leaders through product development and collaboration. She also established Iron Galaxy's career coaching program, ensuring every employee has a senior...

🎮 Ever wondered how video games made it to the Smithsonian? What does it mean to be a Game Evangelist? How do you figure out what gamers really want? In this episode of the Here's Waldo Podcast, Chris Melissinos, the Principal Evangelist for Video Games at AWS, shares his profound passion, rooted in the belief that video games are among the most significant art forms of our time, offering immersi...

Join us as we dive into the secrets of driving business growth with Mike Wallen, Chief Commercial Officer at Keywords Studios. With over 29 years of experience, Mike's career has been a fascinating journey from recruiter and agent to VP at Lakshya Digital, and now Global Business Development Director at Keywords. His key insight? Understanding the fundamental importance of client-centric leadershi...

Jordan Weisman is a 40-year industry legend with four entrepreneurial company exits to Disney, Microsoft, Topps, and Paradox Interactive. His achievements include winning over 100 awards, becoming a New York Times bestselling author, and co-creating iconic tabletop games such as BattleTech, Shadowrun, MechWarrior, and Earthdawn. Today, he is the CEO of Endless Adventures Inc., a no-code game creat...

Alyssa Walles is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience in entertainment, gaming, tech, and publishing. Known for catalyzing innovation and driving revenue growth, she has played a key role in launching the Walt Disney gift catalog, Sony PlayStation, and negotiating National Sports League agreements for the video game franchise Backyard Sports with the NFL, MLB, and NBA.  In additio...

Wondering what it takes to build successful game franchises or start your own game studio? 🎮 🎮 Join host Lizzie Mintus on the latest episode as she chats with Bill Roper, a gaming industry veteran behind iconic franchises like Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo.  Starting as employee #17 at Blizzard Entertainment, Bill's journey took him from voice actor and writer to Vice President in just nine ye...

In this episode of the Here's Waldo Podcast, host Lizzie Mintus sits down with Sarah Anderson, Head of Global Marketing and Partnerships at Amazon Games. With over 30 years of experience in the gaming industry, Sarah has held strategic roles at Sega, Canopy, 2K Games, and now Amazon Games, where she leads growth initiatives and fosters community for major titles like New World and Lost Arc, along...

Join host Lizzie Mintus in this episode of the Here's Waldo Podcast as she sits down with Perrin Kaplan, a global strategic marketing and communications C-level executive known for her award-winning work in tech, entertainment, consumer products, gaming, mixed reality, AI, and more. Noted in several books, documentaries, and publications, Perrin co-founded female-owned Zebra Partners, a global com...

Join host Lizzie Mintus as she interviews inventor and entrepreneur Jeri Ellsworth, co-founder of Tilt Five, the world's first augmented reality tabletop gaming system. 🏁 From building race cars and owning a computer store chain to creating toys for millions, her early achievements set the stage for a groundbreaking career. She then moved on to creating an entire Commodore 64 into one of its icon...

Join host Lizzie Mintus as she sits down with Charles 'Chuck' Tolman, a seasoned CTO/CIO with a rich history in the video game industry. Chuck's career began at Atari in 1993, and he has since made significant contributions to over 30 games, including major franchises such as titles like Spider-Man, Call of Duty, and The Walking Dead. In this episode, Chuck shares his journey beginning with his un...

Jen Donahoe is a publishing, marketing, and growth leader with over 20 years of experience in the game, toy, and entertainment industries. She started her career in the toy industry at Hasbro, Disney, and Mattel before moving to the game industry, where she led marketing and growth teams at EA, Zynga, Scopely, and Riot. Today, she is a strategic marketing consultant at Beta Hat and Jade Inferno Co...

Join host Lizzie Mintus, and guest Scott Hartsman, as they dive deep into the secrets to creating successful live games, streamlining hiring processes, and making tough decisions as a leader. Scott's extensive track record speaks for itself, with a portfolio of successes dating back to the early days of online gaming. From EverQuest 1 and 2 to Rift, Trove, ArcheAge, Gemstone, Scepter, and even onl...

🎮💡 Unpopular Opinion: #DEI isn't just one person's job! Hiring a DEI specialist or expecting marginalized employees to carry the burden of change isn't going to magically transform your culture. So how can we truly promote positive DEI change? Join us as we sit down with Trinidad Hermida-Black, the Executive Director of Black in Gaming Foundation and CEO of The Hermida Company, focusing on "Buil...

Join us as we sit down with Russell Ovans, Board Member at East Side Games (ESG). Russell is a free-to-play games executive with a Ph. D. in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence). His diverse career includes founding Backstage Technologies, teaching college, holding executive roles in a tech incubator, and owning a brewery. In 2018, he returned to ESG, where he played a pivotal role in quadru...

Join us as we sit down with Don McGowan, former General Counsel at Bungie. If you're in the game industry, you've likely heard about Bungie's groundbreaking lawsuit protecting employees from online threats, aka the "Pizza Attack." Don orchestrated the whole process and is here to share the behind-the-scenes details in full. Don's career in the entertainment industry also included stops at The Poké...

Join us as we sit down with Mitch Gitelman, a 30-year veteran of the game industry and former CEO of Harebrained Schemes, known for hits like the Shadowrun Returns and Battletech. He also played key roles as a founding member and studio head for Microsoft Games, leading the Xbox Live Arcade business during its heyday. In this episode, Mitch shares wisdom on navigating layoffs with compassion, fost...

Jon Radoff is the co-founder and CEO of Beamable , an extensible server platform that enables developers to create online games and virtual worlds in minutes. His journey began at NovaLink, where he developed Legends of Future Past, one of the first MMORPGs. Jon went on to found Eprise Corporation, GamerDNA, and Disruptor Beam, reaching over 20 million players with games like Game of Thrones Ascen...