Who’s Talking

David Helgason, CEO/Co-Founder, Unity Technologies

“By the way, if the story that John will tell you ever sounds too good to be true it actually isn’t: John did a lot of very good and very important work with us, and I loved working with him. He delivered incredible numbers, but also enabled a lot of great people doing a lot of good work with him.”

Allen Foo, Founder/CEO, VooX

“John always kept team morale up, and made it a point for his direct reports to continuously learn as a team. His ability to work through challenging times and to develop new ways to achieve the targets were always inspiring.”

Wil Yang, Global Business Development, Shin Starr

“John has a rare mix of productivity and diplomacy and sets a great example for the rest of the team, and explains why everyone loves working with him.”

John Riccitiello, CEO, Unity Software Inc.

“We’d not have the Unity Asia we have now without you.”

Shinobu Toyoda, President/Chairman, Unity Technologies Japan

“Nobody knows and loves all the cultures of Asia better than John Goodale.”

David Helgason, CEO/Co-Founder, Unity Technologies

“When we hired you we knew you could sell stuff. We had no idea you could build and lead such a great team.”

Projects

Meta4 Interactive (Montreal). Strategic Advisor.

Running the games vertical, and the APAC business for Meta4’s PowerUP platform, which enables in-game branded entertainment in Roblox and Fortnite, in a powerful way to reach GenZ audiences. (more/more)

Solis Interactive (Chicago). Corporate Development Advisor.

Home of the most amazing WebGPU tech I’ve ever seen, enabling console-quality games in a browser. (more/more)

Infinite Realms (Boston). Strategic Advisor.

An innovative AI-powered UGC platform transforming story-rich IP in to canon-authentic, interactive experiences. (more)

Unleashed Games (Boston). Strategic Advisor.

From some of the same team that brought us World of Warcraft, Haven is a co-op MMORPG set in a world where reality has been shattered by chaotic magic. (more/more)

UXIF Studios (Austin). Strategic Advisor.

A premiere UX/UI studio that has worked on amazing franchises like Fortnite, Lord of the Rings, Valorant and many others. (more)

SAIJ.ai (Budapest). Strategic Advisor / APAC Lead.

AI teammates for gaming creators, streamers and esports teams. Content creation tools for the game industry to boost engagement and grow audiences. (more)

Unlock Audio (Chicago). BD|Partnerships (contract).

The best and brightest game audio pros across a variety of skills and backgrounds. Your complete solution for music, sound design, voice over, mixing, implementation, and more.

Monsarrat (Los Angeles). Advisor.

Creating the future of AR games. (more)

Kapnetix (Brno, Czech Republic). Advisor.

Reimagining motion capture pipelines with AI automation, turning tasks like cleanup from a 40-hour nightmare into just 10 minutes. The team comprised of AI experts, animation professionals and game industry veterans is focused on freeing animators from repetitive work so they can spend more time creating the experiences we love. (more)

CoWrite (Tokyo, Japan). Advisor.

A boutique consultancy based in Japan with a global reach, providing M&A advisory and HR recruiting services. Focusing on IT, web and games markets. (more)

NAK3D (Zurich, Switzerland). Advisor.

Bridging fashion and gaming with AI. Transforming real-world apparel into seamless digital assets for immersive virtual experiences. NAK3D is the perfect cross-section of AI, fashion, retail and games. (more)

Venture Tech Partners LLC (Boise, Idaho). Principal.

A boutique consultancy that offers high-level, global expansion, strategic planning, and execution to Enterprise SaaS, Games, and EduTech companies worldwide. (more)

IRL Entertainment (Irvine, California). Advisor.

Opening esports stadiums across the U.S. with an initial target of opening six locations over the next five years. (more)

KinematicSoup Technologies Inc (Kelowna, BC, Canada). Advisor.

Kelowna, BC, Canada. A leading company supplying tools to multiplayer game developers to simplify and speed up game development. Creators of Scene Fusion – often referred to as “the Google Docs of game development” – and Reactor, a powerful technology that enables single-click deployment of multiplayer games. (more)

Advisory Board Roles:

I serve on about a dozen additional Advisory Boards and/or as an Advisor to several global companies in Poland, the Czech Republic, UAE, Korea, Japan, the U.S. and elsewhere. Please inquire for more details.

Principles

TRUST: The foundation of success.

Any business school teaches the formula S x E = R where Strategy times Execution equals Results (or Revenue). Trust takes it a step beyond, where Strategy times Execution, compounded by Trust equals Results/Revenue. In other words, (S x E)T = R. If you’re on my team, be prepared to undergo half- or full-day seminars on this topic.

DEMAND BUT SUPPORT: How miracles are achieved.

In managerial roles I’m pretty tough. I demand big things. Achieving stretch goals is a must! However, I don’t leave things there. I make sure that adequate resources are available to accomplish miracles, and I’m right there in the trenches with my teams getting stuff done.

LEAD BY EXAMPLE: Or, lead by doing.

I believe that the best way to inspire a team to be successful is to be successful myself. Professionally and personally I strive for excellence in all that I do, and I’ve “been there, done that.”

WORK HARD, PLAY HARD: Be tireless in work and play.

Every direct report I’ve ever had has said that there is no way that they could match my work pace. However, after the work is done I encourage playing equally as hard individually, as teams and most importantly, as family.