Pivot at Microsoft: designer not program manager

Exploding Kittens began as a jerry-rigged version of Russian Roulette — a deck of cards hastily modified with a Sharpie. But what happened next is one of the most improbable success stories in the creator economy: a $10,000 Kickstarter goal that ballooned into nearly $9 million, a community that rewrote the rules of crowdfunding, and a company that has now sold over 60 million card and board games.

Co-founder Elan Lee shares the story behind Exploding Kittens — from dismantling his brother’s toys as a kid, to helping design Halo, to walking away from Microsoft…twice. He reveals how burnout, curiosity, and an obsession with interactive storytelling set the stage for one of the most successful game launches of all time.

This is a story about the genius behind good marketing, and how creative storytelling can build a cult-like audience — without spending millions.

If you’ve ever wondered how a strange idea becomes a global phenomenon — this is that story.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN: 

• How burnout can be a creative turning point
• How a Sharpie and a deck of cards can unlock breakthrough ideas
• The storytelling strategy that powered one of Kickstarter’s biggest launches
• How to treat your fans like collaborators, not just customers
• Why marketing should feel like play
• Unit economics to die for: make it for $2, sell it for $20
• How to power through the threat of a one-hit-wonder

TIMESTAMPS:

• 00:08:30 — The physics teacher who changed Elan’s life
• 00:10:35 — How Elan touched up the floating door scene in Titanic
• 00:13:03 — “You’re the worst program manager I’ve ever seen” — and the pivot to game design
• 00:15:33 — Meeting Spielberg, riffing on the movie AI, and inventing a new kind of storytelling
• 00:21:42 — Promoting Halo 2 with payphones 
• 00:31:35 — The Hawaii getaway that sparked Exploding Kittens
• 00:42:12 — The Kickstarter launch: most backers on record
• 00:48:42 — Suddenly a real company — 700,000 decks and a manufacturing crisis
• 00:53:45 — Marketing genius: a kitty-cat vending machine that dispensed burritos and more
• 01:00:58 — New games that bombed — the one-hit-wonder dread
• 01:07:04 — Throw Throw Burrito, and the road to stability
• 01:19:05 — Elan’s 4-year-old daughter helps design new games
• 01:30:31 — Small Business Spotlight

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This episode was produced by Sam Paulson with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Noor Gill. Our engineers were Maggie Luthar and Kwesi Lee.

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