Web3's Role in the New Golden Age of Entertainment: Insights from Press Start Capital's Steven Chien

Exploring the Intersection of Entertainment and Web3 with Press Start Capital's Steven Chien

Welcome to our series "Behind the Startup," where we explore the stories and insights of innovative entrepreneurs in the technology industry. Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Steven Chien, the founder of Press Start Capital, a venture capital firm that focuses on the intersection of entertainment and technology in the web3 space. Steven has a background in entertainment and technology, having been a pre-IPO employee at DivX and a co-founder of PRIMA Cinema. He is a thought leader in the web3 space and will be sharing his insights on the inspiration behind Press Start Capital, how they're contributing to the development of web3 technology, the future of entertainment, and the impact of their Press Start x Orange DAO Fellowship on the web3 economy. Join us as we dive into the world of web3 with Steven Chien.

Building the Future of Web3 Entertainment

Ishan Pandey: Hi Steven Chien, welcome to our series “Behind the Startup.” Please tell us about yourself and the inspiration behind Press Start Capital?

Steven Chien: Hi Ishan, thank you for having me. My entire pre-crypto career was spent at the intersection of Entertainment and Tech. I was a pre-IPO employee at DivX - a pioneer in peer-to-peer video, a co-founder of PRIMA Cinema - the first company to stream tentpole movies into homes on opening night, and led new product launches for talent agencies and professional sports leagues.

Press Start Capital’s origin began with a question - “how will web3 onboard the next billion users?” If you look at previous technology cycles, you’ll oftentimes find that it was an entertainment-related use case that brought that technology to the masses - smartphones, ecommerce, video streaming, etc.

Web3 enables new business models that are not possible with web2. This confluence of entertainment use cases (gaming in particular) attracting mass market consumers together with new business models create the conditions for what we call the “New Golden Age of Entertainment.”

Ishan Pandey: How are you contributing to the development of web3 technology?

Steven Chien: The web3 entertainment and gaming space is still very early - I’d say the equivalent to the 2nd inning of a baseball game. As builders ourselves, we view our role in the space is to encourage and help founders launch and experiment as much as possible. We run Press Start “MultiPlayer Fellowships ” as our unique way to support founders with capital, mentorship and a sandbox to experiment, launch and share insights.

Ishan Pandey: What do you think is the most important factor in attracting the next generation of crypto users?

Steven Chien: Most web3 founders understand that better user experiences will help attract the next generation of crypto users. I suggest web3 founders go one step further and think about how to integrate your web3 product into users’ existing behaviors, habits and workflows because humans are notoriously averse to changing their behaviors. For example, today’s web3 wallets still have a fairly high learning curve. I expect web3 wallets and apps that more closely resemble web2 onboarding experiences will have much higher adoption rates.

Ishan Pandey: Share your outlook on the future of entertainment and the role of web3?

Steven Chien: Gaming, which is 3x larger than movies and music combined, has been eating into Entertainment for some time now. Gaming will continue to be the largest and fastest growing Entertainment category for the foreseeable future, and most importantly, its cultural influence will continue to grow.

Web3 is an epic unlock for creators to finally reclaim ownership over their creations, cultivate deeper fandom and increase monetization thanks to new business models.

Web3 will play a critical role in accelerating a new creative renaissance during this “New Golden Age of Entertainment.”

Ishan Pandey: Please tell us about Press Start x Orange DAO Fellowship and its impact on the web3 economy?

Steven Chien: Our vision for this Fellowship was to support founders at the earliest stage, bring more builders to web3 and encourage experimentation.

All of these are important for the overall web3 industry to evolve and grow. Web3 is still in its infancy, so it is critical to encourage experimentation to unlock the next level of web3 innovation. We designed the Fellowship to be the most builder-friendly program in the space by offering funding, community support and accountability.

The Fellows in the program blew us away, with several gaining acceptance into top tier accelerators like Y Combinator and raising pre-seed rounds. The Fellowship has been said to “represent a new stage in the evolution of venture capital.”

Press Start Capital plans to launch more Fellowships as part of our “MultiPlayer Fellowship” strategy.

Don’t forget to like and share the story!