S3 Ep.20 Gigi Levy Weiss – Investing in Platforms today: Learning, Data drivenness, and Web3

Gigi Levy-Weiss, a Founding Partner at NFX, heads up NFX Israel and is widely known as one of the most prolific investors in the region. Gigi has founded several startups, including Playtika, Beach Bum (acquired by Voodoo), InceptionVR, and Ridge. He was also the CEO of 888 Holdings, one of the world’s leading online gaming companies, and served as Division President at Amdocs, a leading billing and CRM provider. In 2014, Gigi was appointed to Facebook’s EMEA Client Advisory Council, and in 2015, he joined the supervisory board at Bertelsmann, one of the world’s largest media companies.

As a pilot in the Israeli Air Force, Gigi learned the value of striving for excellence at all times, building learning organizations, and that working together as a team is the real secret to winning.

Tune in to this episode as we explore what other industries can learn from gaming companies, the four layers of the evolution of Web3 marketplaces, the existential role of technology—and why Web3 hasn’t changed the world yet.

At the end of the episode, we give a short wrap-up of Season 3 of the podcast—this being the last episode for the season—where we reflect on what we learned and discuss key topics related to organizing at scale. We explore the importance of modularity and composability in markets (also check out this piece: https://boundaryless.io/blog/towards-modular-and-composable-markets/ for more insights), as well as thoughts on our relationship with technology, adopting a regenerative mindset, and convivial organizational models.

A transcript of the episode can be found on our website.

Key Highlights from the Conversation
We discussed:
> What we can learn from the gaming industry in the context of platforms, ecosystems, and marketplaces
> What it means to be a learning organization
> Designing products for people to engage in learning
> How Gigi approaches Web3 as an investor
> The role of centralized services in platforms
> Solving real-world challenges through Web3

To Find Out More About Gigi's Work:
> LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gigilevy/
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/gigilevy
> NFX: https://www.nfx.com/

Other References and Mentions:
> Fabrice Grinda and Matias Barbero, “Crypto-Enabled Marketplaces,” 2022: https://fabricegrinda.com/crypto-enabled-marketplaces/
> Showing the Way with Web3 Marketplaces: Braintrust—with Gabriel Luna-Ostaseski: https://boundaryless.io/podcast/braintrust/
> Nathan Schneider, “Web3 Is the Opportunity We Have Had All Along: Innovation Amnesia and Economic Democracy”: https://osf.io/2wg6s?view_only=709f1f87528943a4b27de2b5eb0f9eef

Find Out More About the Show and the Research at Boundaryless:
https://boundaryless.io/resources/podcast/

Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: https://boundaryless.io/podcast-music

Recorded on 20 July 2022.