After visiting the Bay, Parnell returned to Detroit and started organizing his own events, inviting Kickstarter founder Charles Adler and Reddit co-founder (and Serena Williams’ hubby) Alexis Ohanian to speak.
Over the next few years, he bounced between jobs in the tech space, spending a few months at a venture capital firm and a year at a rapidly growing fiber optics startup.
His credibility grew, and so did his connections. He sought mentorship from a number of entrepreneurs, like Amanda Lewan and David Anderson, co-founders of Bamboo, one of Detroit’s largest co-working spaces..
In 2015, he quit his job and built a Call of Duty team, which he sold the following year to one of the leading organizations in eSports; he tried to launch a gaming league but couldn’t gain any traction.
On the dance floor at Austin’s South by Southwest festival in March 2017, Parnell bumped into a friend, venture capitalist Suzy Ryoo. A few feet away was another friend of hers–Pham, the investor from VC firm Science. Ryoo made an introduction.
The pair learned they shared a mutual interest in eSports, which was projected to be a $696 million industry in 2017. They exchanged contact info, and by the next day, Pham reached out: He wanted Parnell to start a company in Los Angeles, and he wanted to help fund it.
Read Parnell’s full come-up story on Inc. and follow PlayVS’s progress here.
Hustle & Motivate: This 25-Year-Old Raised Over $25 Million For His Video Game Business was originally published on globalgrind.com
