Steve Hoffman: Founders Space

By Nate Bailey | August 30, 2021

In this episode of the Championship Leadership podcast, we are privileged to interview Steve Hoffman, CEO of Founders Space, one of the world’s leading startup accelerators. He will recount his story of how he started in Hollywood and worked his way up to become a TV Development Executive.

He will also share his brutal experience and the struggles of raising Venture Capital when he was just starting with his business and how he rose and conquered the world of the Games and Entertainment Industry.

Grab a copy of Steve’s Best Seller ”Surviving a Startup” here on Amazon. Click the image below!

In This Episode:

[3:08] What does championship leadership mean to Steve?
[4:27] Who is Steve Hoffman and what brought him to where he is today?
[22:29] Leaders that have influenced him.
[27:59] His vision, future plans, and the impact he wants to make.
[29:36] Surviving a Startup
[34:05] Episode takeaways.

Important Quotes:

“Expose yourself to new things like there are so many new things in the world you’re probably only scratching the surface, you don’t know what you don’t know.”

“Open your mind that challenges you and do stuff outside of your business.”

“Challenge yourself to do tough matters, challenge yourself to try to be the best.”

About The Guest:

Steve Hoffman (Captain Hoff) is the Captain & CEO of Founders Space, one of the world’s leading startup accelerators. Founders Space was ranked the #1 incubator for overseas startups by Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazines.

Hoffman is also a venture investor, serial entrepreneur, and author of several award-winning books. These include “Make Elephants Fly” (published by Hachette), “Surviving a Startup” (published by HarperCollins), and “The Five Forces” (published by BenBella).

Hoffman was founder and Chairman of the Producers Guild Silicon Valley Chapter, served on the Board of Governors of the New Media Council, and was a founding member of the Academy of Television’s Interactive Media Group.

While in Hollywood, Hoffman worked as a TV development executive at Fries Entertainment, known for producing over a hundred TV shows, acquired by MGM.

He went on to pioneer interactive television with his venture-funded startup Spiderdance, which produced interactive TV shows with NBC, MTV, Turner, Warner Brothers, History Channel, Game Show Network, and others.

In Silicon Valley, Hoffman founded two more venture-backed startups, in the areas of games and entertainment, and worked as Mobile Studio Head for Infospace, with such hit mobile games as Tetris, Wheel of Fortune, Tomb Raider, Thief, Hitman, Skee-Ball, and X-Files.

Hoffman went on to launch Founders Space, with the mission to educate and accelerate entrepreneurs. Founders Space has become one of the top startup accelerators in the world. Hoffman has trained hundreds of startup founders and corporate executives in the art of innovation and provided consulting to many of the world’s largest corporations, including Qualcomm, Huawei, Bosch, Intel, Disney, Warner Brothers, NBC, Gulf Oil, Siemens, and Viacom.

Hoffman earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of California and a master’s degree in film and television from the University of Southern California. He currently resides in San Francisco but spends most of his time in the air, visiting startups, investors, and innovators all over the world.