Gamify and Socialize: Beyond the Buzzwords

Bing Gordon joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a partner in 2008. He leads on the sFund, the investment initiative to fund and build applications and services that deliver on the promise of the social web. The sFund, launched in 2010 with strategic partners Amazon.com, Facebook, Zynga, Comcast, Liberty Media and Allen & Co., has made 16 investments to date, including four seeds. Bing serves on the board of directors of sFund companies Klout and Lockerz; sFund strategics Amazon and Zynga; as well as MEVIO and Zazzle. He was also a founding director at Katango (acquired by Google 2011), ngmoco (acquired by DeNA 2010) and Audible (acquired by Amazon in 2008). Before joining KPCB, Bing had been a long-time executive at Electronic Arts, beginning with EA’s founding in 1982 with initial funding from Kleiner Perkins. He was chief creative officer at EA from 1998 to 2008 and previously headed EA marketing and product development. Bing drove EA’s branding strategy with EA Sports, developed EA’s pricing strategy for package goods and online games, created EA’s studio organization, and contributed to the design and marketing of many EA franchises, including John Madden Football, The Sims, Sim City, Need for Speed, Tiger Woods Golf, Club Pogo and Command and Conquer. Bing was awarded the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, and he held the game industry's first endowed chair in game design at The University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. He earned an M.B.A. from Stanford University and his B.A. degree from Yale University, where he serves on the President’s Council. Bing's favorite games of all time are World of Warcraft, the Sims, Diablo, Pogo, Civilization, Columns, Freecell, Farmville and Cityville.