Overview
This episode of The Peel features Pim de Witte, co-founder and CEO of Medal, discussing the evolution of gaming, Medal’s journey as a platform for capturing and sharing gaming moments, lessons learned from building and scaling startups, and insights into remote work, company culture, and acquisitions in the gaming tech sector.
Medal’s Origin and Product Evolution
- Medal enables users to capture, edit, and share significant gaming moments with friends.
- The platform serves as a digital camera for virtual environments, focusing on personal experiences rather than generic content feeds.
- Medal began by aggregating gaming clips from Reddit but shifted focus to building native capture tools for short-form video.
- The rise of Fortnite, TikTok, and the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated Medal's growth due to increased demand for shareable gaming content.
- Medal expanded from PC and mobile capture to integrations with consoles, with a focus on easy sharing and editing.
Insights on Gaming and Social Trends
- Gaming is inherently social and can connect people globally, removing geographic barriers to friendship.
- Roblox serves as a flexible, cross-platform hub for user-generated games, comparing its dynamic content cycle to TikTok’s feed model.
- Success in gaming platforms depends on optimizing “loops” that allow users to play and interact regardless of device.
Fundraising and Company Growth
- Early fundraising was challenging due to lack of network and focus, eventually securing initial backing from personal contacts.
- Medal's major growth inflection points aligned with the launch of new games and social changes in the gaming landscape.
- Fundraising for Series A and beyond became easier as metrics improved and founder reputation grew.
- Growth allowed Medal to acquire multiple complementary companies, focusing on technology and talent.
Culture, Management, and Remote Work
- Medal initially thrived with an in-person culture, but a shift to fully remote during COVID-19 led to a drop in culture and hiring standards.
- The company reverted to a hybrid/in-person model, mandating in-person attendance for decision-makers and periodic office presence for ICs.
- Hiring focuses on depth of technical expertise, humility in addressing mistakes, and long-term building commitment.
Product and Iteration Strategies
- Building retention and rapid iteration are key to product success; solving user pain points directly impacts engagement and growth.
- Medal’s product focus evolved from content network effects to core recorder quality based on user feedback.
- Monetization is primarily via subscriptions offering longer uploads, watermark removal, and profile enhancements.
Acquisitions and Competitive Landscape
- Medal has acquired six companies for tech, talent, and product synergy, preferring quick, relationship-based deals.
- Respectful competitor relationships facilitate smoother acquisitions and collaboration opportunities.
- As market leadership solidified, focus shifted from competitors to solving user retention and technical quality challenges.
Notable Leadership and Lessons Learned
- Pim admires Elon Musk for mission-driven leadership, though notes the importance of careful, people-centered decision-making.
- Major mistakes included reacting too strongly to remote work and lowering hiring standards during rapid scaling.
Decisions
- Pivot to building Medal as a native capture platform rather than a generic clip aggregator.
- Return to in-person/hybrid work to strengthen culture and hiring standards.
Action Items
- TBD – Product Team: Continue international expansion efforts focused on Latin America and Japan.
- TBD – Engineering: Address backlog in recorder quality and edge use cases.
- TBD – Leadership: Maintain high standards for hiring and reinforce in-person decision-making culture.
Recommendations / Advice
- Prioritize rapid iteration and user retention when building products.
- Share vision openly with investors if confident in execution speed and unique capabilities.
- In acquisitions, move quickly and focus on relationships, product integration, and long-term team alignment.
Questions / Follow-Ups
- What further monetization methods will Medal deploy beyond subscriptions and pending ad features?
- How will Medal sustain growth as the gaming market and user engagement patterns evolve globally?