Mitch Lasky

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Mitch Lasky
Mitch Lasky, 2013.jpg
Lasky in 2013
Born
Mitchell Harold Lasky [1]

(1962-01-18) January 18, 1962 (age 63)
Los Angeles, California
Alma mater Harvard College, University of Virginia School of Law
Occupation Venture Capitalist
EmployerGeneral Partner at Benchmark
Spouse
Cecilia Barajas
​
(m. 1987)​
[2]
Children2, including Quadeca

Mitchell Harold "Mitch" Lasky (born January 18, 1962) is a general partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Benchmark [3] and a former entrepreneur and video game executive.

Contents

Education and early career

Lasky received a B.A. degree in History and Literature from Harvard College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. [4]

Early in his career, Lasky practiced law at the Los Angeles firm Irell & Manella, where he worked on various technology-related intellectual property cases. [5] In 1993, he joined The Walt Disney Company. [6] He left Disney in 1994 to launch a multiplayer online game company, Serum Entertainment Software. [4]

Lasky subsequently spent five years at video game publisher Activision, including a stint as executive vice president of Worldwide Studios, [7] helping to launch Quake 3 , Tony Hawk's Pro Skater , and Spider-Man .

In 2000, [8] he joined mobile games company JAMDAT as CEO, [9] and took the company public in 2004. [10] Electronic Arts acquired JAMDAT for $680 million in 2006. [6] Lasky served as executive vice president of mobile and online games at Electronic Arts from 2006 to 2007, after the JAMDAT acquisition. [11]

Benchmark

Lasky joined Benchmark in 2007 as a general partner. [12] He focuses on identifying investment opportunities in mobile, games, digital privacy and identity, and online education. [12] He has led the firm’s investments in and serves on the boards of Snapchat, Ubiquity6, [13] CyanogenMod, Engine Yard, Gaia, Riot Games, PlayFab, [14] Vivox, Grockit, Gaikai, RedRobot, Meteor Entertainment, thatgamecompany, and NaturalMotion. [6] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]

Personal life

Mitch Lasky is the father of musician and YouTuber Benjamin "Quadeca" Lasky. [21]

References

  1. ↑ "Mitchell H Lasky in 'California Birth Index, 1905-1995'". familysearch.org. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Mitchell Harold Lasky and Cecilia Maria Barajas in 'Virginia, Marriage Certificates, 1936-1988'". familysearch.org. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Is VR The Future Of Gaming?". Forbes. Retrieved January 7, 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Board of Directors". Company. Gaikai. Archived from the original on September 2, 2012. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Mitchell Lasky J.D." Executive Profile. Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on July 28, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 Takahashi, Dean (July 17, 2012). "Benchmark's Mitch Lasky: Game publishers will evolve or die (interview)". Venture Beat. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Printable Biography of Mitch Lasky". Biographies. All American Speakers. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Mitch Lasky". Speaker Bio. Dice Summit. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  9. ↑ Elliott, Phil (July 10, 2008). "Mitch Lasky speaks out against "state regulation" of videogames". Games Industry International. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  10. ↑ "Good Reception for Cellphone Game Maker IPO". Los Angeles Times . Reuters. September 29, 2004. p. 28. Retrieved June 12, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ Remo, Chris (January 13, 2010). "Former EA Exec Lasky: 'EA Is In The Wrong Business'". Gamasutra. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  12. 1 2 "Lasky steps down at EA, joins VC firm". RCR Wireless. March 20, 2007. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  13. ↑ "AR startup Ubiquity6 lands $27M Series B to build a more user-friendly augmented reality". TechCrunch. August 14, 2018.
  14. ↑ Eric, Johnson (February 27, 2015). "Benchmark Leads $7.4 Million Round in Live Games Platform PlayFab". www.recode.com. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  15. ↑ Schonfeld, Erick (January 11, 2008). "Benchmark Bets on Ruby on Rails With $3.5 Million Investment in Engine Yard". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  16. ↑ Williams, Mike (July 18, 2012). "Benchmark's Mitch Lasky: The value of publishers "isn't clear"". Games Industry International. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  17. ↑ "Mitch Lasky". VentureBeat Profiles. VentureBeat. Archived from the original on September 29, 2009. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  18. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (September 14, 2011). "Red Robot Labs raises $8.5M for location-based mobile gaming". VentureBeat. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  19. ↑ Gallagher, Billy (February 8, 2013). "Snapchat Raises $13.5M Series A Led By Benchmark, Now Sees 60M Snaps Sent Per Day". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 23, 2013.
  20. ↑ Cutler, Kim-Mai (September 18, 2013). "Cyanogen Mod Raises $7M To Find A Direct-To-Consumer Route For Android Firmware". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
  21. ↑ McClain, James (December 1, 2020). "Venture Capitalist Mitch Lasky Drops $40 Million on Malibu's Broad Beach". Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on September 13, 2024. Retrieved January 7, 2025.
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