From Advertising to eSports Owner: How Ferdi Gutierrez Is Building Gaming's Future in Southeast Asia

[00:00:00] Ronen Mense: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome once again to an exciting episode of [00:00:15] Epicenter, um, where we feature business leaders and influencers who are help shape today’s digital economy today. This guest man. Oh man, is the one and only Mr. Ferdinand better known as [00:00:30] Ferdie Gutierrez. What’s up Ferdie? What’s up Ronan?

[00:00:33] Thanks for having me. How? I’m good going. I’m super excited because like, obviously you’re doing something really cutting edge here in Asia. Um, and, uh, I want to, like, many people don’t know who you are, but they should, and those people [00:00:45] who know who you are like need to know more about you. Sure. Like what, what’s the story like you, you like, who are you, first of all?

[00:00:53] What’s the background?

[00:00:54] Ferdinand Guttierez: That is a good question, Rory. Yeah. Who the hell am I? Do you know? Um, sure I can, I can do a quick run. [00:01:00] Um, I grew up, I mean, I was born in the Philippines, so I’m, I’m Asian by birth. Um, but I moved to New York when I was five. Mm-hmm. Spent probably, uh, 25 years of my life in, in the States.

[00:01:11] So I’m an American citizen as well now. [00:01:15] Um, but I went back to Asia, um, for a couple reasons. One, because I felt like there was a lot of opportunity in Asia. And I felt like there was a lot more out there for me to be here. Mm-hmm. So I decided to move back, uh, in year 2000. [00:01:30] And I was in advertising at that time, so I wanted to work with bigger clients.

[00:01:35] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:01:35] Ferdinand Guttierez: So in New York I was working with Sports Illustrated. I was working with Guinness Beer and Dunking Donuts, but I always wanted to work for a top. It’s great combo. The blue chip, like a [00:01:45] super blue chip, like a Coke. I had that opportunity to do it here in Thailand to run the Coca-Cola business for McCann.

[00:01:52] So I did that for three years. Mm-hmm. Um, and after that, you know, uh, we decided, and I decided there was another opportunity to look at, [00:02:00] um, another big, big blue chip client, and it was Unilever, right? So with Mindshare I got to pitch Unilever here in Thailand as well. So that was fun. We won that. Um, and then, you know, from there it was interesting because I felt like.

[00:02:14] And this is what we’ll [00:02:15] talk about this later probably, is I felt like there’s always something new out there. I I’m always looking for a challenge. I always like, I always looking for something that really takes me to the cutting edge of whatever, you know, the media is at the point mm-hmm. At, at that point.

[00:02:28] Right. So for me, [00:02:30] the next big thing was, was digital in 2005. So can you imagine what digital was like in 2005 here in Thailand? Banner ads. Banner ads. Banner ads. Like, yeah, what was it, the ook website or So capo with [00:02:45] major websites here in Thailand and I got to work with a couple of pretty cutting edge guys.

[00:02:50] The guys from aCommerce, you know, Paul and John and Tom and those guys. Rock stars and Tiwa.

[00:02:54] Ronen Mense: Yeah.

[00:02:55] Ferdinand Guttierez: So that was, and, and, uh, Russ, Conrad, all those guys. They were my peeps, right? Yeah. [00:03:00] Matt Ward, all those guys. Right. Oh, some real rock stars in the industry. Right? Hancock Tech

[00:03:04] Ronen Mense: Mafia,

[00:03:05] Ferdinand Guttierez: right? Yeah. That was the mafia.

[00:03:07] So we got into, I got into digital because I was telling them, I felt like the next big thing in media is I believe [00:03:15] marketplaces should be on online. Right? Whether you buy a newspaper or tv, radio. And I guess it was a kind of the beginnings of what I felt would be programmatic at one point. Mm-hmm. Where you don’t have to go and talk to, you know, poster scope and all these outdoor companies to [00:03:30] say, Hey, which outdoor advertising makes sense to me?

[00:03:32] Why can’t we do it all online? Why can’t we have it in one marketplace? That was my thought. Mm-hmm. And they liked that thought and they thought, Hmm, maybe this guy could be good for, as a media director. So I was their first media director [00:03:45] because I had, you know, I had experience in on, you know, on yeah.

[00:03:48] Traditional media from back in the day

[00:03:50] Ronen Mense: and no one had digital experience anyways.

[00:03:53] Ferdinand Guttierez: Yeah. So I was like, okay, I’ll do it. So I was a media director here in Thailand, and then we started expanding into [00:04:00] Southeast Asia. So I got to expand the business in Philippines and really saw what it was like from the ground up.

[00:04:07] So I went there with my backpack and I, you know, I talked to, you know, just try to train agencies on how to do it because what we had back [00:04:15] then that nobody else had was technology because there’s the media side of it. But what about the technology side of it? So those guys had rich media. So when I showed a rich media, everyone’s like, holy crap, you could do that.

[00:04:28] I was like, yeah, you can do that [00:04:30] because there’s video advertising. Remember, a static banners versus a really great expanding banners, videos, blah, blah, blah, and then, then we pop ups pop. No, no. Then you add on top of that the, the, the data. Yes. [00:04:45] Which that blows people away, right? So then from there, I mean, we took Philippines into a million dollar business in my first year, right?

[00:04:52] So, wow. And that was, to me, that was my first baby. So I gotta thank Paul and those guys for trusting me to do that, right? That was my first little [00:05:00] company that I ever built. Wow. And then from there, uh, you know, had one more chance, two more chances at advertising because I, you know, it was like the godfather kept pulling me back mm-hmm.

[00:05:11] Because I didn’t wanna do it anymore. And everybody kept saying, [00:05:15] could you do this? Do that for me. So I, so I did it, uh, work with, um. Work with, uh, Ogilvy in Singapore. Mm-hmm. So I, I headed up Neo at Ogilvy in Singapore, and then my lastin in advertising was with Hava. I was the [00:05:30] CEO of Havas here. Mm-hmm.

[00:05:31] Thailand. I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it was just down the road. Uh, and then, um, in between then I bought, I built my own company doing, um, social games. So there was a time, if you remember where Zynga was super [00:05:45] hot. Right. And I wanted to build games. That had insight, right? Mm-hmm. And the insight was that most of the, um, players playing these kind of games were women.

[00:05:56] But if you looked at the competitive set for those games, [00:06:00] right? There was only like four big games for women. And I was like, we can build another one.

[00:06:04] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:06:04] Ferdinand Guttierez: Here in Asia. And the idea was the big, you know, the big, you know, innovation piece that we had versus the others is that you could get real world rewards for playing our game.[00:06:15]

[00:06:15] So the idea was to build a closet and to build the badass. You know, some people, uh, let’s say Farmville, you’re building a farm. My game, you build a closet

[00:06:23] Ronen Mense: mm-hmm.

[00:06:23] Ferdinand Guttierez: And you get to shop and it’s a story where you, you start in soho and you keep on going. Right. Sounds like a dream for girls [00:06:30] because Yeah. We thought inside for guys too.

[00:06:31] Yeah. The, the inside is, what do women like, they like fashion, they like shopping and they like to nurture things like in Farmville. Half of those games is the, the psychology is, I wanna show people that I built the most beautiful [00:06:45] farm and it works perfectly, and stuff like that. So we made it into a closet.

[00:06:49] But the innovative part of it was, if you were really good at playing and everybody liked your closet, you get some real world items like Louis Vuitton bags, Chanel [00:07:00] bags, you know, we, we were giving that away every month for people and women went bananas. Absolute bananas. So we had a million DAUs on this thing and about five to 7 million maus.

[00:07:12] It’s pretty good. Wow. And there was places that [00:07:15] we never marketed to Brazil, the US Turkey. They were going crazy for it. It was nuts. So I, you know, I sold that after three years. It was, you know, I was, it was one of the, my most [00:07:30] amazing experiences of my life to build it from the ground. This first time I did fundraising, you know, raised $3 million for it.

[00:07:36] It was really, really fun. And the guys that I had on it was great. John Lore, the guy, uh, he’s, he’s now, uh, he was at, he’s. He made Wonder [00:07:45] Fruit, and now he’s the md He’s the, he’s, uh, here at the video game industry like I am now. Mm-hmm. So I’m gonna let him tell you where he is, but, um, I thought it was amazing, um, that in that whole experience was amazing.

[00:07:58] And that’s where I got the bug for [00:08:00] video games.

[00:08:00] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:01] Ferdinand Guttierez: And again, it was just a, it was basically, uh, from my career. Perspective. I was like, what is the hottest thing out there? What, like, what is, what can I be a, a part of and how can I use my past experiences in media and advertising and [00:08:15] the psychology of understanding how consumers work and putting it into the next big thing.

[00:08:20] Right. So gaming to me was a, a natural progression to go from, from advertising. So, you know, and then, um, then I worked for Twitch.

[00:08:28] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:29] Ferdinand Guttierez: For about, I [00:08:30] think two years and basically, you know, they took my, you know, my media experience and really try to build, you know, communities around it and build a content thing around it.

[00:08:38] And communities is a big part of what Twitch is all about. It’s a community gamers, and that’s why I saw the [00:08:45] power of community and how we can really channel that energy into building businesses. And then, you know, after that I’m at Amers,

[00:08:54] Ronen Mense: so you go. From media to being a [00:09:00] founder, you go from basically selling digital ads to creating a gaming, a game, a gaming product.

[00:09:11] A game. Yeah.

[00:09:12] Ferdinand Guttierez: Yeah. I actually built a game target towards

[00:09:13] Ronen Mense: women. Yeah. [00:09:15] You spend some time at Twitch. Yep. And now you’ve basically founded your own eSports company. Yeah. Now, are you an athlete? I [00:09:30] mean, like how do you, like what is eSports?

[00:09:32] Ferdinand Guttierez: Oh, yeah, that’s a, that’s a very good question.

[00:09:35] Ronen Mense: What is eSports? I mean, I was asking the question earlier, like, eSports.

[00:09:38] What’s eSports

[00:09:38] Ferdinand Guttierez: like? Let me try to explain, because. Gaming is the big, you know, when they think of, when [00:09:45] everybody says a statement that gaming’s bigger than, than movies, music, the NFL, the EPL, all that combined mm-hmm. Is not a, right now gaming is, don’t quote me, the latest quote is like $250 billion business.

[00:09:59] Billion [00:10:00] dollar business. Right. Probably underestimate, yeah. It’s probably underestimated now. It’s probably bigger than that 500 or seven, because that was back industry. Yeah. So then. So there’s gaming, right? And gaming has entertainment and all these other things, right? And there’s a competitive side [00:10:15] to gaming, right?

[00:10:17] It’s like. It’s just like any other sport, whether it be football or basketball, it’s the competitive side. Mm-hmm. It’s a league, you know, you’re, you’re, they’re playing in leagues, but instead of playing soccer or football [00:10:30] or, or basketball, they’re playing League of Legends, or they’re playing Arena Valor or they’re playing, you know, Counterstrike or mm-hmm.

[00:10:36] Any big game. So, you know, usually they’re five on five games usually. Mm-hmm. But there are. eSports where it’s fighting games like tech end for example. Mm-hmm. [00:10:45] But it’s professional. It’s professional video gaming. Maybe that’s the best way to put it.

[00:10:51] Ronen Mense: Which is could be considered professional

[00:10:54] Ferdinand Guttierez: sports, right?

[00:10:54] It is. Well actually it’s in the sea games. Yeah. And about to be in the Olympics.

[00:10:59] Ronen Mense: So [00:11:00] it’s sports. You could win a gold medal if you’re good at a game.

[00:11:05] Ferdinand Guttierez: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:11:07] Ronen Mense: So you don’t necessarily have to be like, you know, six foot six and be able to dunk and [00:11:15] shoot a three pointer to be able to get an Olympic medal.

[00:11:17] Yeah. I mean, or run, you know, nine point, uh, six, uh, hundred meter.

[00:11:22] Ferdinand Guttierez: Yeah. Well, I’ll give you something. Yeah. Like our arena valor team is the world champion, the reigning world champions in arena valor, [00:11:30] and they’re here in Thailand. What, yeah.

[00:11:33] Ronen Mense: So the reigning world champion? Yes. Arena valor. Yes. A OV Yes. Is here in Thailand.

[00:11:39] That’s right. Big time. Like the whole world. The whole world. I [00:11:45] think. Yeah. Whole world. Okay. We’re, we’re gonna have to get to that because, so let’s just go back to how this company, like how did this start? What is AMP first? What does AmpVerse even mean?

[00:11:55] Ferdinand Guttierez: Um, yeah, it was weird because we were coming up with all these different names for [00:12:00] AmpVerse.

[00:12:02] I like it. If it, when, now it would mean it would be something cool like amplifying the metaverse, right? Yes, yes. But it’s not, it never happened. I never thought of AmpVerse as, as amplifying the metaverse. Um, so if people might’ve [00:12:15] thought, oh, you knew about Web3 though, back in the day, dude, you were smart.

[00:12:18] What? Well, um, yeah, I was think about actually, you probably

[00:12:20] Ronen Mense: would’ve because you were, you’re always on the cutting edge of something and then once it gets popular, you’re onto the next.

[00:12:27] Ferdinand Guttierez: Yeah. Well I would, you know, the way I thought about gaming is. [00:12:30] I thought of it as content, and the word verse is really about, you know, content, right?

[00:12:35] Yes. Versus is like, you know. Like poetry or, or art or music? It’s, well, it’s most mostly in the written space, right. Verse. But amplifying [00:12:45] the word, amplifying the word that, that gaming is the future. That’s how I came up with Ampers. Mm-hmm. There was a lot of different ones that we thought of, but I thought that one stuck the best.

[00:12:54] And I liked the logo, the AV logo that we have at Amper, and when that came together I thought that was [00:13:00] right. So basically what we started off was, was an influencer business. Mm-hmm. Because we had access to all the top talents here in Thailand. So it was a natural progression for us to, to, to start building as a, basically an advertising company.

[00:13:14] Mm-hmm. Right. [00:13:15] An agency per se. Right.

[00:13:16] Ronen Mense: So you’re, you start off by building an advertising agency for. eSports for

[00:13:22] Ferdinand Guttierez: influencers? No, for gamers, for influencer. Just for, just for gaming. We started with just straight up influencers because at Twitch we knew all the great, the best streamers, [00:13:30] right? Right. And we had access to them.

[00:13:31] You know, here we had like access to Bay Riffer, we had, you know, uh, heart Rocker, all those guys, right? Mm-hmm. So we, you know, we had the, an opportunity to be able to, for me, as a digital and an advertising guy to say, Hey, why [00:13:45] don’t you use these guys as a marketing tool for your brands? Because in terms of engagement, nobody’s more engaged than the gaming community.

[00:13:53] Mm-hmm. By far. So that was our first start, and, and it was founded by me and two other Twitch [00:14:00] guys. Mm-hmm. You know, Matt Bayer and Surak Winnet. Yeah. And then we added Charlie Bailey, who was coming from Universal Music. So it, it all came together in a beautiful, like, you know, uh. You know, quartet. Quartet, yes.

[00:14:13] Orchestra. Yeah. It was really nice [00:14:15] because Charlie is very commercial. He’s great at narratives, he’s great at building strategies, right? So, so when we, the four of us got together, I thought we have a really solid team. So, you know, obviously we started off as an influencer business, and then we always knew we were gonna get [00:14:30] into eSports because, uh, we thought eSports was where it’s at, right?

[00:14:33] I mean, I wanted, going back to your question, are you an athlete? Yeah. I mean, I, I played sports all my life. Mm-hmm. And I’ve always dreamed of owning my hometown basketball team. Right. The Knicks? The Knicks, [00:14:45] yeah. The New York Knicks who have been the bane of, and in my heart and soul and I, I hope I never die without winning the championship.

[00:14:53] ’cause it’s been a long time since 73. Um, but I’ve always dreamed of that. And owning [00:15:00] eSports teams is the closest thing I’m gonna ever, ever be to owning the Knicks. So this is a dream coru for, for me. Because I’ve got it. It takes advantage of my media background. It takes advantage of my, you know, love of sports and, you know, being in the sports, uh, for [00:15:15] forever, you know, loving it since I was a kid.

[00:15:18] And, and giving myself the, the venue and avenue to actually do something special with it.

[00:15:24] Ronen Mense: You’re kind of like, uh, Gary Vaynerchuk, who talks about buying the Jets one day, right? Yeah. I’m also a [00:15:30] Jets fan and suffering. Well, you don’t start a bidding war. You buy the Knicks, he buys the jets and, uh, that’ll be cool.

[00:15:36] So you put together this team and you know this. You emerge as like, we’re gonna focus on eSports. [00:15:45]

[00:15:45] Ferdinand Guttierez: Well, we, we, we were always gonna build. Multiple revenue streams within gaming. That’s really what we’re trying to build. Okay. So we knew, you know, the basics of of AMP versus we generate audience through our teams and our talent.

[00:15:59] Mm-hmm. Right now [00:16:00] we have about 600 million people in our AMP universe. Our amp first 600 million million people. Yeah. Because we’re now in Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, India. Right. So we’re [00:16:15] in Singapore, if you wanna count little. Yeah. Yeah. It’s an important market. Yeah. So we’re in all those markets and our next move is to go in Indonesia next.

[00:16:23] Mm-hmm. So imagine, you know, the vision was to be the biggest gaming company in Southeast Asia, and then the bigger vision one day is to be [00:16:30] a global player.

[00:16:30] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:31] Ferdinand Guttierez: Right? And it didn’t have to necessarily have to be, just on the eSports side of it, we wanted to be great at eSports. We wanted to put Southeast Asia on the map and of, of course, south Asia with India.

[00:16:42] But we also wanted to build a really great company. Mm-hmm. [00:16:45] Because at the end of the day, we wanna build something that, that has value. Right. And you know, if you, if you think about sports in general, it’s not easy to make a buck. Even the guys at Manu lose a, a good amount of money.

[00:16:56] Ronen Mense: Yes.

[00:16:57] Ferdinand Guttierez: Right. All right.[00:17:00]

[00:17:00] But Liverpool is

[00:17:01] Ronen Mense: speaking more. I’m just kidding. Liverpool is, uh, sitting at the 11th. Yeah. 10th.

[00:17:06] Ferdinand Guttierez: Um, let’s not look at that. Let’s look at the years before that. Yeah. Okay. Um, so yeah. Mean everyone always

[00:17:12] Ronen Mense: wants to look at their history. Let’s look at the, [00:17:15] the future.

[00:17:16] Ferdinand Guttierez: No, but the idea was for us to build a business.

[00:17:18] Mm-hmm. Right. I am. I think that’s the, that’s the point that. You know, we’re, we’re, we don’t have the legacy of Liverpool or Menu or the New York Knicks. We don’t have that. This is new. Yeah, this is new. And that’s what I’m saying is like, this [00:17:30]

[00:17:30] Ronen Mense: is like you take, you’ve taken basically gaming and if we look at physical gaming being sports as we know it into digital,

[00:17:40] Ferdinand Guttierez: yeah.

[00:17:41] Ronen Mense: Digital gaming.

[00:17:42] Ferdinand Guttierez: I’ll give you an example of a really [00:17:45] good, we’ll take football as an analogy, right? Yeah. The guys who are really good, there’s, because there’s. The sport and winning. Mm-hmm. And there’s the business and the guys who know how to build businesses for I’ll give you football.

[00:17:58] Ronen Mense: Yeah.

[00:17:58] Ferdinand Guttierez: Buy me Nick.

[00:17:59] Yep. [00:18:00] What a, they’re they’re just amazing at making money. Yeah. They’re, I think they’re public, right? Is they public? I’m not sure. But they are, they know when to sell players. They know when to buy assets. They know. They know the business mm-hmm. Of football. Mm-hmm. [00:18:15] And I wanna know the business of gaming.

[00:18:18] Mm-hmm. That’s really what I cha I challenge where the industry is now. And it’s, you know, it’s given where, you know, the industry is, it’s, it’s not easy to make money now. Right. And I say, how do we [00:18:30] make gaming pop, um, profitable.

[00:18:33] Ronen Mense: But you’re not building the game. No, we don’t build the game. You are building the teams that play Correct.

[00:18:39] In the game. Correct.

[00:18:41] Ferdinand Guttierez: So, yeah, for I don’t build, I don’t, I didn’t build arena valor. [00:18:45] I didn’t build free fire. I didn’t build yes arena.

[00:18:48] Ronen Mense: Thank you for creating great content for this world. Yes, exactly. We don’t build it, we play them. So you play them. Yeah. And, and this is a concept that maybe still a lot of people don’t understand.

[00:18:58] I mean, there’s people who are in this [00:19:00] world and Yeah, I’m sure. What, what is, what is, what is the eSports, global eSports audience? It must be like, um, is it a million, 600 million about. Yeah, it must be, it’s big, but it’s still relatively [00:19:15] small compared to,

[00:19:16] Ferdinand Guttierez: I think, uh, question. I think the audience is big

[00:19:19] Ronen Mense: uhhuh.

[00:19:20] Ferdinand Guttierez: I think the relative. Uh, commercial side of the business is not as big. Mm-hmm. Right. The what the difference is, like, let’s say the NBA mm-hmm. [00:19:30] Or EPL, they have huge broadcast rights deals. Yeah. You know, you know how much it is. It’s crazy. Right. I mean, you know, the ABCs or ESPNs have to pay the rights to broadcast.

[00:19:40] Right, right. Right now the broadcast is happening for eSports mostly [00:19:45] in YouTube. Mm-hmm. Or Facebook or, or any other platform, or even in Twitch. Mm-hmm. There’s no money in it. So eSports teams have to find, yeah, yeah, yeah. But going back to my point mm-hmm. Is we have to [00:20:00] find different ways to make money.

[00:20:02] Right. And that’s, that’s one of the challenges I have as a, as, as an, you know, eSports, um, person. And every eSports person has the same challenge, right? Mm-hmm. But that’s why we diversified. That’s why we have [00:20:15] influencers. Influencers do make money. It’s a good business model. Yes, we

[00:20:17] Ronen Mense: do.

[00:20:17] Ferdinand Guttierez: Right? So we also, now we’re looking at things like content plays, where we were gonna be owning and operating, you know, TV shows or programs.

[00:20:26] That could be distributed. Um, we’re also looking at building [00:20:30] our own maybe mini games at one point. Um, so we’re looking at different ways to take driving the 600 million Ampverse audience and putting it in places where we can engage them. Right. Whether it be content, whether it be tournaments, whether it be, [00:20:45] uh, you know, show, TV shows, whatever.

[00:20:47] Mm-hmm. And making sure that we, we start gathering the data. Right. And then what we wanna do is drive them into our future. Well, we have e-commerce stores. Mm-hmm. Um, into our e-commerce stores and buying digital and non-digital [00:21:00] good because the whole thing is. This audience is already used to buying digital stuff.

[00:21:06] They’re buying skins. They’re buying guns, they’re buying all that stuff digitally. Right? And this is where I believe the, the market’s going to is, is buying [00:21:15] digital as well as is, as we’re, as well as physical goods, right? So that’s why I think we’re in a good space. We’ve got the audience. We engage them, we get data, and now we can be pretty powerful, is if the data that we could own [00:21:30] would be, you know, telling the next generation of advertisers what they wanna buy and what their behaviors are.

[00:21:37] Ronen Mense: As we know data is, is, is really the raw material for creating value. Right.

[00:21:43] Ferdinand Guttierez: Yeah.

[00:21:44] Ronen Mense: And [00:21:45] it sounds like you’re building something very interesting and you talk about having multiple revenue streams. Yep. Um. I wanna zoom out just a little bit and, and talk about the industry, right? Sure. Let’s talk about Southeast Asia Sure.

[00:21:58] Or Asia as a whole. Sure. Like [00:22:00] what, what does the e-commerce, uh, sorry, the, the eSports landscape look like? I mean, are there many teams out there are, I mean, are there, are there many different games that are people playing? What, what is the, what is the attraction [00:22:15] to actually build a team to play in these leagues?

[00:22:18] Ferdinand Guttierez: I think it’s, it’s, it’s very similar to when basketball and football, they’re super early days in the 1940s and fifties, right? Mm-hmm. There’s this new, new game or a new sport that’s come out, and like you said, [00:22:30] Asians don’t have to be, you know, seven foot tall and mm-hmm. Be able to dunk a basketball, right?

[00:22:34] Mm-hmm. I believe there’s a lot of opportunity to, because this region leads the world in two places. But you can make a case for maybe South America a little bit, [00:22:45] but mobile gaming mm-hmm. Where mobile gaming is, is, is, is really prevalent here versus let’s say the US and Europe. Yeah. The US and Europe are, are mostly, um, either, uh, PC or console

[00:22:56] Ronen Mense: Yeah.

[00:22:56] Ferdinand Guttierez: Ish kind of games. Um, and then here in Asia, it’s, it’s really [00:23:00] about mobile games. Yeah. Which is huge. Right. And the way we look at it is we’re probably the biggest of the multinational um, eSports owner.

[00:23:12] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:14] Ferdinand Guttierez: Um, if you wanna [00:23:15] call it that. And what we do is. You know, we own and operate all the top teams.

[00:23:20] Uh, or no, sorry, not all the top teams. We own and operate, uh, in every market, each of the teams mm-hmm. That we own. And we believe in a hyperlocal strategy. So [00:23:30] we’re not like the Liverpool and or Manchester City, uh, where they only have one brand.

[00:23:35] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:36] Ferdinand Guttierez: So in Thailand we have two teams. It’s Bacon time and MITH.

[00:23:39] And these two teams play different games. So they won’t compete against each other? No, they never do. Okay. They play different [00:23:45] games, so, um. MITH plays mostly pub GPC. Mm-hmm. Uh, I think Valoran as well. And Bacon Time plays Arena Valor.

[00:23:54] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:56] Ferdinand Guttierez: Um, Vietnam. Vietnam. We play League of Legends. Mm-hmm. Which is not a [00:24:00] pc and we play free fire.

[00:24:01] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:24:02] Ferdinand Guttierez: In Philippines. We play mobile legends in India when they lift the band. We were playing BGMI Battlegrounds in India. Uh, we are now going into Counterstrike in India. So we have [00:24:15] a mix of PC and mobile, but you know, our, our portfolio is, is I would say more, um, geared towards mobile.

[00:24:22] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:24:23] Ferdinand Guttierez: Because I, you know, the big games out in the world, right.

[00:24:25] Uh, league of Legends, uh, Counterstrike and, uh, Dota two. [00:24:30] Mm-hmm.

[00:24:30] Ronen Mense: Those

[00:24:31] Ferdinand Guttierez: are the big boys. Right. That’s when you’re talking about huge numbers. Mm-hmm. But in, in Southeast Asia, you know, we play, we’re playing very, um, you know, uh, games that are centric to the region. And in every single market that we’re in, we play [00:24:45] the top game.

[00:24:46] Ronen Mense: And what happens when you win one of these tournaments? Oh, we get, we get a prize money and stuff, so there’s a nice prize money there.

[00:24:54] Ferdinand Guttierez: There’s good pri Well, there’s fair prize money and I, I wish it’d get bigger.

[00:24:58] Ronen Mense: And it does over time, [00:25:00] right?

[00:25:00] Ferdinand Guttierez: Over time it will, that’s, that’s what I believe. And

[00:25:02] Ronen Mense: the audience

[00:25:02] Ferdinand Guttierez: is growing.

[00:25:03] Yeah. I mean, we were in the championship in Thailand and I would say there was give or take three to 4,000 people in, in the stands in, in biotech. It [00:25:15] was pretty awesome. Live in the arena? Yeah, it was live and it was awesome. Like

[00:25:19] Ronen Mense: literally it was buzzing. So three, 4,000 people in the arena and I’m, I’m sure people watching online as well.

[00:25:27] Yeah, definitely. So you got [00:25:30] probably upwards, maybe let’s say 10,000 people, eyeballs, all on. Yeah. This concurrent, concurrent, all watching. And they’re engaged, super

[00:25:40] Ferdinand Guttierez: engaged, man. And the cool thing is like if you’re watching it on YouTube, for example mm-hmm. [00:25:45] You know, fans get to type in and really react to everything.

[00:25:48] Right? You could, if you wanted to see like, you know, a two-way communication. Yes, they’re watching it, but they’re also engaging in it as well. They’re talking, they’re, you know, talking trash about the other team or, or they’re rooting for the dean, but. [00:26:00] Stuff is happening

[00:26:00] Ronen Mense: and the people who are sitting in the crowd are also can engaging.

[00:26:04] Ferdinand Guttierez: As long as you have your mobile, you can, well, everyone has their mobile. Yeah. So they totally can. It’s

[00:26:09] Ronen Mense: pretty cool. It is. So. You win, you [00:26:15] win these tournaments, um, you bring in prize money, but surely there’s, there’s more to this, right?

[00:26:20] Ferdinand Guttierez: Yeah. I mean, the other ways we make money is sponsorships. Mm-hmm. One of my favorite sponsorships that we ever had and, you know, um.

[00:26:28] Was KFC. Mm-hmm. Where [00:26:30] KFC did you know? They, they sponsored our team. You know, we did a lot of content for them because one thing about us, we also give content as part of the sponsorship. Some people just give logos. Right. You know, the logo on the shirt. Yeah. But we also do content and we give them that value.[00:26:45]

[00:26:45] But KFC saw us as not. You know, video game influencers. Mm-hmm. They thought we were mainstream kind of people, and they put us in TV commercials. Wow. So we did two nationally televised TV commercials here in Thailand.

[00:26:58] Ronen Mense: Wow. And you’re [00:27:00] doing this in the other markets too? Starting to, yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:03] Ferdinand Guttierez: I mean, we did a, a Gillette tournament in, in India.

[00:27:06] You know, we’re working with brands. We’re not in TV commercials yet, in every other brand in other markets. But we’re, we’re working with brands.

[00:27:13] Ronen Mense: You’re talking to a. [00:27:15] Nine, 10, 11-year-old kid. Mm-hmm. They’re like, I wanna, I’m playing games, you know? For fun. Yeah. What does it take to become a professional eSport [00:27:30] gamer?

[00:27:30] Ferdinand Guttierez: Honestly, just like any other sport. I mean, growing up, playing tennis, basketball, uh, football, as a kid in New York, you gotta put time in, you gotta be good at what you do, right? So. Now there’s a big stigma. [00:27:45] A if my kids playing video game, are they, um, wasting their time? Mm-hmm. You’re only wasting your time if you don’t have a goal.

[00:27:51] Mm-hmm. If you wanna be a professional, just like any other goal, if, if, let’s say if, if my, my son or my daughter wanted to play, uh, [00:28:00] professional golf, you gotta practice, you gotta be on the range. You gotta, you. Get a coach and a teacher and all that. Same thing in, in eSports, right? You gotta do that. Mm-hmm.

[00:28:09] You gotta put in the time, you gotta play at, you know, you gotta practice every day with your team [00:28:15] if you have to. If you gotta know your characters, you gotta know what you do well and, and really be good at it. And then you have to learn how to integrate with others if it’s a team game.

[00:28:23] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:28:24] Ferdinand Guttierez: So, you know, give you an idea.

[00:28:26] I mean our, our guys train constantly. Mm-hmm. We’re just like any other [00:28:30] sport. Right. We have sports psychologists. Right. We have the same, uh, the gold winning. Uh, did, did she win in judo there? You know, in Thailand we had a gold winning judo, I think it was a, one of the martial arts. Mm-hmm. She won the gold in the Olympics.

[00:28:43] Mm-hmm. She had a [00:28:45] psychologist. We use the same psychologist for bacon time. Wow. So our mental game, you know, is super sharp. Wow. Right. And that’s what it takes. You know, think about it, you’re on your phone. And you gotta hit certain buttons at the right time and coordinate all that. That ain’t [00:29:00] easy, dude.

[00:29:00] And speed. Speed. The, the twitch, the, you know, the reaction to things. You gotta be quick, quick, quick. So reaction times gotta be quick. Your mind has to be quick. Mm-hmm. You gotta know what all your other teammates are doing as well. You’re, you’re your, your competing as one unit. Mm-hmm. [00:29:15] So just like any other team store, it’s pretty exciting to watch all these guys in unison building a plan in order to win a game.

[00:29:22] It’s pretty cool, but to answer your question, it takes a hell of a lot of time and energy and you gotta be dedicated to it. Right?

[00:29:29] Ronen Mense: [00:29:30] And I, I, I heard like in, in some places outside of Asia, for example, in, in Europe, let’s say, I don’t know, Finland, or like if you wanna become a professional gamer Yeah. The [00:29:45] country or they support that.

[00:29:46] Right. That’s, that’s called career development. Yeah. What needs to happen here in Asia to to, to create, like get rid of that. Kind of stigmatism of, of, Hey, you’re, you’re a gamer. That’s just [00:30:00] wasting your time. Go get a real job.

[00:30:02] Ferdinand Guttierez: Well, think about it like, let’s say for the Olympics, right? Right. You know, you, you know, the government would help, you know, the, the athletes or help them with facility or help them with coaching if they wanna be, you know, an a gold medalist one day.

[00:30:14] And it’s the [00:30:15] pride of the country, right.

[00:30:16] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:30:16] Ferdinand Guttierez: Um, you know, you get support from, from that perspective. Right. Uh, I think that that could be interesting. I think gaming look to me, needs grassroots. Mm-hmm. The only thing when it’s popular, it’s about building that community to watch the game. Right? [00:30:30] Why is, let’s say Arena Valor more popular mobile legends here, right?

[00:30:35] Because they’re both similar games. It’s because the community adopted this game and, and there’s, you know. What happens is over time there’s, there’s [00:30:45] grassroots programs to be able to, like, like development leagues for example. It’s like the, you know, the, the G league in um mm-hmm. In, in the NBA, right?

[00:30:53] Mm-hmm. You need people who, you know, we populate that with talent and, you know, hopefully, you know, they, we, they [00:31:00] look at the professional route, right? They, you know, you get discovered in these leagues and then you move your way up to be a pro. Um. I think that’s, that’s what you need is, is more support in that way.

[00:31:11] I think more brands have to, to see the value of it because, [00:31:15] you know, their publishers have their, their, their, their budgets. Mm-hmm. You know, to make a, a game big, but then they can’t do it alone and they need the help of the communities and brands and, and, you know, uh, the market to be able to make it something.

[00:31:29] Right. [00:31:30] So at the end of the day, they need to generate audience so that you get value for, for the brands. Right. So I think to me, um, it’s a lot of education. To answer your question, we need more education to the people who can support and to support [00:31:45] these initiatives in gaming. Um, and I think that it’s so new.

[00:31:49] Like most advertisers don’t get, Hey, what is this gaming thing and how do I get involved?

[00:31:55] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:31:56] Ferdinand Guttierez: Because, you know, most people [00:32:00] don’t understand gaming. They, they know eSports. But they don’t know the difference between eSports and gaming.

[00:32:06] Ronen Mense: It’s kind of like they didn’t understand social media until it Yeah.

[00:32:10] Became the driver of, of e-commerce business, or they didn’t [00:32:15] understand influencers. Yeah. Until they saw the power of how much. An influencer can influence, but how much an influencer can sell.

[00:32:24] Ferdinand Guttierez: Yeah. I can tell you, to be honest with you, Ronan, I think the value of eSport, well, let’s, [00:32:30] let’s not just call it eSports, let’s call it gaming, right?

[00:32:31] Mm-hmm. The value is Gen Z, and Alpha. Now, as an advertiser, I know it’s the hardest, you know, demograph to reach. They don’t watch tv. Mm-hmm. They don’t read newspapers. [00:32:45] They don’t really like advertising. Right. To be honest with you. Right. They’re, they’re almost allergic to it. Yeah. And they don’t want anything fake.

[00:32:54] They’re looking for authenticity. They’re looking for a connection, and they’re looking at from their own, you know, from their [00:33:00] lens. They, they, they’re gonna get what they want. Right. That’s the difference. I think it’s, it’s not about broadcast anymore. It’s about being inside of environments where, you know, the audiences are right.

[00:33:10] And I think the biggest, the biggest shift is to, to show people [00:33:15] like, hey, if you wanna, if you want to cut through and you wanna get, you know, you know, share of mind, you gotta be in places like gaming. ’cause it’s all about authentic connections with gamers. ’cause that community, as soon as somebody says, Hey, that guy’s saying something [00:33:30] fake, I don’t like it.

[00:33:30] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:33:31] Ferdinand Guttierez: You’re done. But if they continue to give them authentic connection saying who they are, that it’s about being who you are. If you’re a streamer, right, or, or, uh, let’s say, uh, somebody in socials, [00:33:45] everything that you do has to be authentically you. ’cause if you do something different, these guys get it so fast, they’re like, ugh.

[00:33:52] Trying to sell to me, right? Mm-hmm. That’s that. Cool. I actually love it when somebody says, thank you [00:34:00] Coca-Cola for sponsoring me. I mean, without you guys, I can’t make this video. I’d probably driving, probably you driving a cab or something. Mm-hmm. And just thanks so much. I really appreciate it. And you know, please guys, support them if you can, that kind of stuff.

[00:34:14] Mm-hmm. [00:34:15] Versus, you know, the traditional, I’m gonna throw a bunch of ads at you until you think that Coca-Cola’s the greatest drink on earth. Right.

[00:34:23] Ronen Mense: Y that’s happened before. Probably not anymore now. Right? It’s different now. Yeah. [00:34:30] Advertising is, uh,

[00:34:31] Ferdinand Guttierez: I’ll tell you what, look. Advertising has to seize that. To reach this audience, gaming has to be one of your pillars.

[00:34:39] And then they’re gonna talk, well, we’ll talk about Metaverse later, but gaming is definitely one of the things that [00:34:45] I believe each adver, every, almost every advertiser should be doing it. And you know, if you look at. Think about Louis Vuitton. Mm-hmm. They, they, they’re doing a lot of stuff in eSports. They designed the cup in League of Legends.

[00:34:57] They’re, you know, they’re, they’re a big piece of [00:35:00] eSports is

[00:35:00] Ronen Mense: we have epicenter cups.

[00:35:01] Ferdinand Guttierez: Yeah. Epicenter. There you go. Um, you look at BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Gucci, and you’re like, dude, why are they even in gaming? Their audience. Don’t buy them now, do they? But they, what they’re doing is pretty [00:35:15] smart. They’re, they’re basically, they’re future proofing the brand.

[00:35:18] Mm-hmm. Because if they’re not buying Louis, if, because these guys aren’t loyal to anybody, right? Mm-hmm. So if they’re saying, oh, you know what, I’m not, you know, Louis Vuitton, yeah. That’s my mom’s brand. I’m not gonna buy that. [00:35:30] Then they’ve lost their future. Mm. Right. Think about it. And the, the key for them is like, if I stay relevant, then my brand stays relevant and I keep going.

[00:35:41] Right. Why do you think, you know, um, why do you think that’s important? [00:35:45] Well, you know, at the end of the day, they can buy other brands now if much easier from Louis Vuitton, you can buy off-White, you wanna buy Supreme, you wanna buy other brands. It, the competitive sets are a lot bigger than it was way back in the day.

[00:35:58] Right. So I think that’s [00:36:00] really smart of, of brands to stay with this audience because you gotta keep winning them. Right? Do you have to win them because they’re loyal to nobody?

[00:36:09] Ronen Mense: Fast forward to the Metaverse. Oh, you wanna get to the Metaverse? We just go there. We just like, why, why, [00:36:15] why? Play around in, in?

[00:36:16] Sure. You know, let’s get to it. The old world. Okay. What is the metaverse for you?

[00:36:22] Ferdinand Guttierez: You know what’s funny? I always thought gaming has always been a metaverse. Mm-hmm. If you really, I mean, we we’re just not wearing the goggles and you know, you’re not [00:36:30] in Ready Player one and you, you know, sitting in a 3D environment.

[00:36:33] But when you’re playing GTA, are you playing Roblox or you even wave, if you remember this game, you know, um, was it second Life or half Life or whatever you call it. Mm-hmm. That’s a metaverse [00:36:45] because you’re a character, right? You go there and buy stuff, you do stuff you gotta live in. You know, you gotta sustain yourself.

[00:36:52] You are living in a world, right. And you, and, and you’re living in its own little metaverse. Right. That’s what I think. I think all this stuff, and don’t get [00:37:00] me wrong, I, I do like sandbox. I do like the central end and all that other stuff. Mm-hmm. But there’s no audience in it. But in games there are. Mm-hmm.

[00:37:07] And they’re actually buying stuff and doing stuff in games. So to me, a metaverse is GTA.

[00:37:12] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:37:13] Ferdinand Guttierez: To me a metaverse is, let’s [00:37:15] say Roblox. Yeah. That’s what I think a metaverse is. Yeah. Minecraft maybe.

[00:37:18] Ronen Mense: Yeah. I think it, it’s just the. The, I, I would say that like we, we refer to web two, 2.5, Web3, right? Yeah.[00:37:30]

[00:37:30] Metaverse is kind of somewhere between where Roblox is

[00:37:36] mm-hmm.

[00:37:37] And where they want to go. Yeah. But you can’t, you can’t get to where they wanna go without. Where you need to be [00:37:45] right now and, and Correct. You know, Roblox, Minecraft, these are, these are worlds that have been created what, how long ago? Like Minecraft, what, 10 years already?

[00:37:52] Yeah.

[00:37:53] Ferdinand Guttierez: Yeah.

[00:37:53] Ronen Mense: And it’s still got super heavy gameplay in there. And, and you know, it’s, it’s [00:38:00] people like kids, adults spend thousands of hours playing in that metaverse. Absolutely. So you guys is a gaming company.

[00:38:10] Ferdinand Guttierez: We actually, yeah, we’re in it. You’re in it. We actually have a server, um, [00:38:15] A GTA server. Okay. So, you know, what’d be interesting is obviously these are gated and, and closed communities.

[00:38:22] Um, one of the interesting plays you can make and you know, if you can question morality here and there, et cetera, but cigarette brands [00:38:30] can get in there. Mm-hmm. Um, alcohol brands can get in there in controlled environments. Right. Um, and there’s no real, there’s no real hassles to it, right? Mm-hmm. You know, markets like Philippines, India, for example, we can do it.

[00:38:42] Mm-hmm. Right? So there’s interesting [00:38:45] plays there. So we’re about to do another, a server in Philippines. We’re looking at a server in India as well, and I’ll give you, okay, why think it’s super important, our super interesting, this whole metaverse thing. Going back to my advertising days, right? Yes. You talk [00:39:00] about data, right?

[00:39:00] You’re talking about Yes. You know, AC Nielsen or all those guys can, you know, they, they collect all this great data, right? But it’s still asking a question and you’re, you’re, you know, you gotta fill it out and you know, to me to get to the heart of a person. Look at [00:39:15] their behavior online, look at their behavior in games.

[00:39:18] Mm-hmm. Because to me, that’s the truth. So for example, if I wanted to be a girl in the Metaverse, I could be a girl in the Metaverse if I wanted to, you know, dress like, you know, Drake in the Metaverse versus the way I [00:39:30] dress today, I can do that.

[00:39:31] Ronen Mense: Mm-hmm.

[00:39:32] Ferdinand Guttierez: You know, in your real self. And the data that you get from that is the truth.

[00:39:38] You know, that’s what I think the, your inner self, what pe what brands want to, you know, sell to you [00:39:45] and you say, Hey, what is this demograph thing? Um, Coca-Cola only sells to 15 to 35. That’s actually not true. There’s, you know, what about the people who are young at heart, et cetera, right? And if you wanna look at how to advertise in the future, I think Metaverse, man, you get [00:40:00] the, the truest data you can get.

[00:40:02] And it’s in an uninhibited, right? They get to be who they are, whatever they wanna do. You know it. Yeah.

[00:40:10] Ronen Mense: That’s really profound. And I think that’s, uh, that, that soundbite there about [00:40:15] being who you wanna be is, is just look at how, how they are in that gaming world is that’s, that’s pretty, uh, pretty insightful.

[00:40:23] Ferdinand Guttierez: I think that’s, that’s why it’s so exciting, to be honest with you, Ronan, I mean. You wanna know the real, [00:40:30] the real story out there. Yeah. That’s where you’re getting it.

[00:40:32] Ronen Mense: Yeah. Because your actions are what represent you. Yeah. Not your beliefs.

[00:40:38] Ferdinand Guttierez: Correct. Right. And not what you’re asked to, uh, you know, asked of.

[00:40:42] Right, right. You know, somebody gives you a survey, [00:40:45] you ah, right. I’ll, I’ll say this because, ’cause you’re thinking maybe, you know, in the back of your mind, you’re like, what should I say? Yeah. Instead of just do it. Because why you have to think. Do you know what I mean?

[00:40:58] Ronen Mense: Just

[00:40:58] Ferdinand Guttierez: do it. Oh, that [00:41:00] sounds familiar.

[00:41:01] Ronen Mense: Heard of that brand before.

[00:41:02] Ferdinand Guttierez: Uh, right. Huh? Yeah, I’ve heard of it somewhere. Amp first. Just do it. Um, yeah. No, no. Our, you know what our [00:41:15] tagline is? Do you know what our tagline is? What is the tagline? We’re playing a different game. We’re

[00:41:18] Ronen Mense: playing

[00:41:19] Ferdinand Guttierez: a different game. Right. Everybody’s in playing, you know, the traditional eSports mm-hmm.

[00:41:26] Game or traditional gaming game. And we look at it [00:41:30] from different angles, like this Metaverse thing. I don’t know many other gaming companies who think about it this way.

[00:41:37] Ronen Mense: Last, uh, point I want to touch on is, is where do you go from here? Right? You’ve talked about the metaverse, you’ve talked about, um.

[00:41:44] [00:41:45] Gaming and, and mm-hmm. How it’s the real way to de discover your true audience, right, as a brand Yeah. Is through gaming. Where do you, where do you take your company from here?

[00:41:57] Ferdinand Guttierez: Interesting. I, I think there’s a couple different cool [00:42:00] directions, but from a. Let’s take it from a bigger perspective. Mm-hmm. We wanna move from being a B2B company to a D two C company.

[00:42:07] Mm-hmm. That’s what this is all about. Because if we can get all the data like we talked about, right. And understand the, the [00:42:15] consumer behaviors, you know, again, looking at metaverse data or looking at traditional data, merge them and figure out what people like Gen Z, gen Alpha really want. I think that’s valuable.

[00:42:25] To brands. I really do. And I also think it’s valuable to [00:42:30] us too. Sure. ’cause why can’t we build those brands? Why can’t we have our own products that we can sell, whether it be, you know, um, products with our influencers, like a My Mate Nate doing a, an energy drink or something, or Eric Eruption [00:42:45] doing his own like brand of, of, um.

[00:42:47] Sportswear. Mm-hmm. Why can’t we build those businesses together? I’ll give you an example. Like look at Mr. Beast with, uh, Mr. Beast’s Burger Company. Yeah, it is huge, huge. I can’t tell you [00:43:00] how big it is. I think it’s a billion dollar business almost. And it was just like, I, I think that it popped up, uh, during COVID, right?

[00:43:06] It it, yeah. I mean, he, he did, I think he did like a cloud kitchen Yeah. Model and was able to sell a bunch of burgers, right? [00:43:15] Yeah. But can you imagine, like we do, I want to build new businesses, new companies, you know, off the back of gaming and their talents.

[00:43:23] Ronen Mense: And today that is more possible than any other time in history.[00:43:30]

[00:43:30] Right. You just look at open AI and, and yeah, like the growth curve. You can’t draw a line more straight up than that. Right? Yeah. And, and that’s kind of the new bar, right? Yep. That’s super interesting.

[00:43:43] Ferdinand Guttierez: So we wanna, yeah, I just to kind of [00:43:45] answer that, it really, it’s about getting to a point where we have valuable data that we can use to understand what kind of products to give.

[00:43:53] Mm-hmm. Whether it be digital, non-digital, that’s really what we wanna do.

[00:43:56] Ronen Mense: Brands, you know who to contact when you wanna [00:44:00] reach the real, real consumer out there, right? Yeah, sure. So. I’d love to end these, uh, things with some rapid fire rounds. Okay. And, um, yeah, let’s ask some interesting questions. Okay. You [00:44:15] down, down jolly B or K?

[00:44:16] F. C. Ooh. KFC. KFC. Wow. Is that ’cause they’re your, they’re your sponsor. Uh, no, I,

[00:44:25] Ferdinand Guttierez: I love KFCI love me some chicken.

[00:44:27] Ronen Mense: Um, what is the best, [00:44:30] uh, thing about the kind of America that you grew up in?

[00:44:34] Ferdinand Guttierez: I loved being able to, to be more with my friends, physically doing sports like outdoors. That’s what I grew up to when I grew up.

[00:44:44] We were [00:44:45] in backyards, we were pretending it was more like, I guess because I’m older mm-hmm. That we, you know, there was something magical about growing up in the eighties. Not that much shoulder

[00:44:55] Ronen Mense: than me,

[00:44:56] Ferdinand Guttierez: but I’m old enough, man. But, you know, there was something magical about like, you [00:45:00] know, the imagination of, of those times, you know, video games was just, just coming out my first ever, you know.

[00:45:09] Console was an Atari 2,600. What was your favorite game? Oh, easy. Easy [00:45:15] Space Invaders. Yeah, because Space Invaders was what gave me it. It literally started to eat into my sports time. Mm-hmm. Because I would love to play tennis, love to play American football, where love to play all those sports. Mm-hmm. [00:45:30] But when I played, I mean like when, when my parents gave me the 2,600.

[00:45:33] Mm-hmm. Holy crap. I, I think I didn’t leave my room for three days. Wow. And my thumbs were like, but I don’t know. There was something magic about it and I loved it. I mean, remember, you know how the [00:45:45] evolution of one player to land gaming to no land to to where we are, metaverse. Yeah. That’s the evolution, right?

[00:45:54] Ronen Mense: Yeah. Did you ever have a game in watch?

[00:45:56] Ferdinand Guttierez: Yes. Yes. Yeah,

[00:45:59] Ronen Mense: those were pretty

[00:45:59] Ferdinand Guttierez: cool. I’m [00:46:00] Asian, man. It was pretty popular.

[00:46:01] Ronen Mense: Yeah. So who is the most inspirational person to you in your life so far?

[00:46:09] Ferdinand Guttierez: Oh, so many people that I’m pretty inspired by. Um, [00:46:15] I would say my dad, I mean obviously he was, he was a guy who, uh, I look up to all the time and hopefully I’m half the parent he is and half the person he is.

[00:46:23] So if when it comes to that, I would say him, my dad.

[00:46:28] Ronen Mense: You hear that Mr. Gutierrez? [00:46:30] Yeah. That’s your son. Be proud of him. Three principles. That you? Um, I live by. Live by. Yeah.

[00:46:39] Ferdinand Guttierez: Actually, I only have one.

[00:46:40] Ronen Mense: What’s that? Game hard. No, be kind. Be kind. [00:46:45]

[00:46:45] Ferdinand Guttierez: I very, I’m, I’ve always been a person who believes in kindness in general.

[00:46:49] Mm-hmm. I think that’s what makes the world better and I wanna make the world better. I think, um, you know, if you’re, if you’re kind to people. You know, good things happen in the world, you know, when it [00:47:00] comes to business and all that other stuff, obviously there’s always tough times. There’s always tough things.

[00:47:04] But do it with heart. Do it with compassion. Do it as a human being and the decisions you make will, it’ll be there. And if you, if you understand that principle, easy to guide [00:47:15] your life. Love that.

[00:47:17] Ronen Mense: Um, my last question, really important one, how many pairs of shoes do you have? Over a hundred.

[00:47:25] Ferdinand Guttierez: Oh my God, about 30 plus are Jordan’s.[00:47:30]

[00:47:30] Favorite Jordans? Uh,

[00:47:32] Ronen Mense: Jordan. Four Unions. Nice. And for me, dun, dun, dun. Jordan threes. Let’s go baby. The reimagines. The reimagines. Here we are. They look good. They look good. Hey, thank you Ferdie. It’s been [00:47:45] awesome today. Thank you so much for your time and, um, thank you audience for showing up. Remember to, uh, find us on Spotify.

[00:47:53] Uh, apple Podcasts and of course this episode with the video on YouTube. Awesome. [00:48:00] Cool.