The Neon Show How Erik Allebest Built $150 Million+ Chess Empire
How a 1,500-Year-Old Game Became an Online Sensation
It started as a simple idea in 2005—a hub for chess enthusiasts to connect, chat, and share their love for the game.
Erik Allebest and Jay Severson, two college buddies with a shared passion for strategy, had just purchased the domain Chess.com for $55,000.
Initially, it was a forum, but then the demand for online play began to soar.
In 2007, they launched the first subscription-based version of Chess.com.
Within a few years, the platform began to gain members and marked its place as the go-to site for chess lovers.
In 2023, it hosted the first-ever Champions Chess Tour, offering a record-breaking $2 million prize pool.
Last year alone, 12.5 billion games were played on Chess.com—an astonishing 35 million games per day.
In this episode of the NEON Show, Erik Allebest, co-founder of Chess.com, discusses his journey from a chess enthusiast to creating the world's largest online chess platform. He talks about his entrepreneurial start, the hurdles in building a sustainable business, and key moments in Chess.com’s success, including lawsuits, early VC rejections, a $600 million valuation, and scaling during the pandemic.
Timestamp
00:00 - Introduction
02:06 - Family influence on Erik’s entrepreneurial mindset
05:00 - Falling in love with chess at 18 through books
07:25 - Selling an e-commerce business to fund chess.com
09:00 - Founding challenges and initial growth struggles
13:50 - Why conventional careers didn’t suit Erik
18:30 - Settling lawsuits, including the vodka-based case
21:50 - Persevering despite doubts about the chess market
22:55 - General Atlantic’s investment in chess.com
26:10 - Key insights learned from investor partnerships
29:56 - Shifting from entrepreneur to CEO
33:24 - Erik’s passion for creating products
37:18 - How media boosted chess’s popularity globally
44:23 - The downsides of rapid monetization
46:53 - Managing chess.com’s pandemic-driven growth
50:06 - Erik’s focus on sustainability and future growth
56:00 - India’s cultural impact on global chess
59:24 - Erik’s views on digital security risks
01:03:40 - Why employees stay for passion, not just pay
01:07:26 - Erik’s belief in chess’s continued global growth
01:09:00 - Embracing errors as learning opportunities
-----
Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journeys from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys.
Hence was born The Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes.
We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings.
-----
Check us out on:
Website: https://neon.fund/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/
Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww
Connect with Siddhartha on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/
Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7
-----
This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.