Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Antoine Le Nel the guy who spent 7 years scaling Candy Crush into one of the most addictive products ever created... then walked away to go kill traditional banking.
At King, he helped turn a mobile game into a machine that prints billions. When Activision bought them for $5.9 billion, he could've stayed forever.
Instead, he joined Revolut in 2021 — right as most fintech were collapsing. Three years later? $75 billion valuation. $4 billion in revenue. 65 million customers.
His secret? Ignoring everything Silicon Valley preaches about growth.
Antoine, thanks for being here!
TIMELINE :
00:00:00 - 00:01:07 : Scaling Candy Crush to a $5.9 billion exit
00:01:07 - 00:03:38 : How to avoid the "one-hit wonder" trap in gaming
00:03:38 - 00:06:54 : The Facebook hack that reached 70% of global users for free
00:06:54 - 00:10:35 : Activision's acquisition and the reality of pre-ipo stock options
00:10:35 - 00:16:59 : Why Revolut prioritizes unit economics over venture capital hype
00:16:59 - 00:21:00 : Decoding the exponential LTV curve that defies banking logic
00:21:00 - 00:30:13 : Charging for the card: A masterclass in buying user engagement
00:30:13 - 00:46:01 : Killing the middleman: Revolut's secret to autonomous, lean teams
00:46:01 - 00:54:08 : From ROI to F1: Building a generational brand with Audi
00:54:08 - 01:00:53 : The uncomfortable truth about brand value and engineering mindsets
REFERENCES:
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Nik Storonsky
- Patrick Collison
- King Digital Entertainment
- Activision Blizzard
- Stripe
- Booking.com
- Primavera Sound
- Como football team
- Audi F1
- Drive to Survive
- Revolut Business
