David Perry – Bet on the Person, Not the Idea

Jul 18, 2023

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BIO: David Perry was in the video game industry for over 30 years, making hits like The Matrix, Aladdin, The Terminator, and Earthworm Jim. He sold his last company to Sony PlayStation and the one before that to Atari. He’s now building a startup in e-Commerce called Carro.

STORY: One of David’s top former employees started a VR company and invited him to invest. Though David believed in this employee, experiencing motion sickness while trying out the VR games made him not invest in what became a multi-billion dollar company.

LEARNING: When you really believe in somebody, go ahead and support them. Bet on the person, not the idea.

“When you get great people, incredible things tend to happen. So when you’re betting on a CEO, bet on someone who you think can attract talent.”

David Perry

Guest profile

David Perry was in the video game industry for over 30 years, making hits like The Matrix, Aladdin, The Terminator, and Earthworm Jim. He sold his last company to Sony PlayStation and the one before that to Atari. He’s now building a startup in e-Commerce called Carro. If you email hello@getcarro.com and mention My Worst Investment Ever podcast, you’ll get VIP personal support.

Worst investment ever

David firmly believed that someday, every game ever made would be available on every device everywhere in the world instantly. And so, if that will eventually exist, why not start building it now?

With that thought in mind, David began to build that technology and had some massive breakthroughs. He demonstrated that you could play a game from the cloud with the same feeling as playing with a console on your table. That caused people’s heads to pop off. Samsung wanted to work with David to power its video game strategy, and Sony bought the company.

David’s employees made significant amounts of money from the company’s success and eventual sale. One of the employees decided to leave and start his own company using the money he had just made from the exit to Sony. As a CEO, David was committed to working with PlayStation. So he was watching this former employee build his own company.

The employee contacted David and asked if he’d be interested in investing in his new company. David decided to check out the company. The guy demonstrated what he was working on, which was virtual reality. The company was called Oculus. David sat down and put on the VR headset. Then he started getting motion sickness because he was moving all over the place. He couldn’t wait to finish the demo.

David was initially very interested in investing in the company because he genuinely believed in his former employee. But after the motion sickness, he needed time to think about it. He researched and read some military papers on how the military had tried their hardest to stop motion sickness but had found no solution as it’s biological. David decided to pass on the opportunity to be a founding Oculus investor.

The company was a huge success and was bought for billions of dollars. David would have made hundreds of millions of dollars had he invested in the company.

Lessons learned

When you really believe in somebody, go ahead and support them.
Bet on the person, not the idea.

Andrew’s takeaways

We get stuck into frames of reference, and sometimes we get beholden to those references, and we can’t think beyond them.

Actionable advice

If there’s something wrong or something missing in an idea or business you want to invest in, ask yourself if there’s anything you can do to help. Can you see a way out of this? If yes, then maybe that would be the thing that unlocks you.

David’s recommendation

Whatever you want to learn, there is somebody on planet Earth that’s amazing at it and is willing to teach you. Your job is to find that person and do whatever you must to get in a room with them and learn.

No.1 goal for the next 12 months

David’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to grow his company and get it to a point where it’s crystal clear what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.

Parting words

“Think of a question that 100% of people will say yes to, and then go after that.”

David Perry – Bet on the Person, Not the Idea

Guest profile

Worst investment ever

Lessons learned

Andrew’s takeaways

Actionable advice

David’s recommendation

No.1 goal for the next 12 months

Parting words

Connect with David Perry

Andrew’s books

Andrew’s online programs

Connect with Andrew Stotz:

Further reading mentioned