Hard-Won Secrets for Scaling Innovations in Finance, Gaming, and AI with Siqi Chen (Runway, Zynga)
The Eric Ries Show
Intro
This chapter explores a founder's experiences from the early days of Facebook gaming to leading a company through the pandemic. It emphasizes the critical roles of self-awareness, trust, and vulnerability in building a successful startup and discusses how initial strengths can become obstacles if not properly managed.
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I’m joined by Siqi Chen, a four-time founder and the CEO and CFO of his latest venture, Runway. Runway offers a modern, user-friendly platform for financial modeling, headcount planning, and departmental budgeting—proudly branding itself as “the finance platform your team doesn’t hate.” With its distinctive marketing and brand-building approach, Runway has garnered significant attention. (Full disclosure: I’m an investor in the company.)
Siqi and I discuss his journey from building some of the most viral social games in Silicon Valley to founding Runway. We also delve into the challenges faced by technical founders, the art of viewing a business as a product, and how Siqi has sharpened his strategic thinking. Other key topics include:
• Lessons from founding Serious Business
• Critiques of Zynga’s strategy and the story of selling to them
• Practical advice for building trust
• Insights into Leaders in Tech and Stanford’s GSB program
• The importance of crafting clear, universally understood company values
• An overview of Runway’s platform, mission, and values
• A fresh take on the fallacy of work-life balance
• And so much more!
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Where to find Siqi Chen:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siqic/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blader/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/founder/
Where to find Eric:
• Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/
• Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow
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In This Episode We Cover:
(00:00) Meet Siqi Chen
(02:30) How Siqi came up with the idea for Mafia and the early years of gaming on Facebook
(05:10) The early investors in Mafia
(05:36) Siqi’s meeting with Keith Rabois and Max Levchin
(08:15) How Siqi was influenced by the Lean Startup approach
(11:04) How quickly Siqi’s career took off after moving to San Francisco
(11:48) Founding Serious Business and creating Friends for Sale
(14:20) How Serious Business raised $5 million
(16:20) Why Serious Business sold to Zynga
(17:20) The importance of prioritizing the business as much as the product
(19:11) Siqi’s learnings and advice for new founders
(23:25) What Siqi learned working at Zynga
(27:18) Siqi’s time running product
(29:20) Criticisms of Zynga and how they lost Eric’s trust
(33:42) The importance of trust and maintaining vision and mission
(39:15) An overview of Runway
(44:38) What inspired Siqi to create Runway
(50:43) What Siqi learned from user interviews
(52:07) An example of time wasting inside a company
(53:24) The values at Runway and why they changed
(58:35) Why you should write reflective values after having a high-performance team
(1:00:40) How Leaders in Tech shaped Siqi’s thoughts on values and building trust
(1:03:13) How open feedback builds trust
(1:08:20) The purpose of Runway
(1:11:34) Siqi’s struggles with strategy planning
(1:13:31) A top down approach to entrepreneurship and why it’s not common
(1:16:38) The importance of employees understanding their contributions and impact
(1:18:55) How Runway leverages AI
(1:22:12) Runway’s dramatic launch with a timed lock
(1:23:04) How Runway communicates value to customers
(1:24:54) Runway’s process for brand building and high-quality design
(1:28:40) Lightning round
You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/.
Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed.
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