The Wild Startup Life of Kevin Chou, Builder at Heart

• Kevin Chou transformed his childhood passion for gaming into a series of major blockchain-driven ventures.
• He blends tech innovation with personal values, always aiming to empower creators and give back.

Kevin Chou grew up spending a lot of time in his parents’ dining room in Moorpark, California. Not to eat but rather to play 8-bit games on his father’s IBM XT machine. Maybe at that time nobody would have imagined that this Taiwanese-born lad would later be a major player in the blockchain, gaming, and esports sectors. But sometimes life is like that—a story could alter just because of a floppy disk.

Unlike most other business grads, Chou did not instantly follow the safe route after graduating magna cum laude from UC Berkeley. Rather, he entered the gaming space, starting Kabam in 2006.

Kabam is not just any gaming firm; it has drawn more than 500 million worldwide gamers and turned in more than $400 million annually. Their games are also no joke, collaborating with giant licenses such as Marvel, Star Wars, and The Hunger Games.

But Kevin didn’t simply retire and enjoy the outcome even if Kabam was finally sold for almost $1 billion to Netmarble, 21st Century Fox, and GAEA. He rather began a new chapter.

Kevin Chou: From Esports Glory to Blockchain Vision

Chou continued his great success at Kabam, not stopping there. Through Gen.G, an esports company bridging the Asian and North American gaming communities, he resurfaced front and foremost. In 2017 their squad even took home the League of Legends world championship.

Still, Chou’s interest was piqued by factors other than mere rivalry. He saw a more general possibility: how technology may allow fans, creators, and gamers more fair financial gains.

Moreover, this is what spawned two projects that mark turning points in the interaction between the creative economy and blockchain: Forte and Rally.

Forte is meant to include blockchain technologies in the gaming economy. Imagine playing a game, but this time the in-game items and currencies have real value that you can take outside the screen. Sounds exciting, right?

Rally, on the other hand, is aimed specifically at content creators. They can build their own digital currency, allowing their community to support them directly, without the intermediary of a big platform. Many people were clearly excited about the project when its market value in 2021 exceeded $3 billion.

Giving Back With Purpose and Personality

Kevin Chou is, of course, not limited in his focus to large-scale projects and numbers. Funding the building of Connie & Kevin Chou Hall at Berkeley Haas, he and his wife, Connie Chen, also made gifts to their almamater. This move reflects the principles they treasure as well as a symbol of success: returning to the society that has molded them.

Fascinatingly, Chou has often offered a straightforward but quite moving life philosophy: “Find out what’s weird and unique about you, and then use it.” It doesn’t sound like advice from a corporate director, but that’s exactly what makes it unique—he speaks from life experience, not from a textbook.

Simplifying Crypto for the Masses

Not stopping with Forte and Rally, Kevin Chou has now started SuperLayer, a crypto venture studio hoping to create user-friendly crypto products and bring 100 million new individuals into this ecosystem.

Chou wants to simplify understanding and application of blockchain technology if many people still find it exclusive and incomprehensible. He is doing something similar in the blockchain space, like when he reduced complex games into enjoyable experiences via Kabam.

Of course, not all projects go perfectly either. Projects like Rally have to keep changing because of several technological difficulties and changes in the crypto industry.

Chou still seems to be cool, though, as if he is used to the turns of startup life. For someone who began his career on 8-bit floppy disks, new difficulties are not frightening; rather, they offer a chance to get back in the game.