By Damian Martinez, journalist at G&M News.
Can you describe the genesis of Zero Labs?
It’s a project that started about three years ago, but really started to come together over the last year and a half. Our goal is to build a startup accelerator based in Las Vegas focused on the gaming industry. There are other categories of industries that interest us, but the original predominant focus is launching new products, companies, and businesses all around gaming. What we have done in this time is to build a startup ecosystem that gathers the public sector, universities, and private expertise. I brought my background, my private expertise on launching and building companies, my experience with venture capital and investing in the gaming industry. Then I partnered with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), and the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED).
Which are the advantages of this association?
The partnership with the UNLV provides a great facility that we use for running startups and launchpads. In there, I bring in a team so that we can open the doors and accept applications from all over the world. We’re trying to bring everyone that has a gaming idea or an early-stage company. They flew to Las Vegas for an intensive three-day program. What my team of experts does is take the companies and the ideas through the launchpad to test them and see if this is going to work in the gaming industry. Afterwards, when you come out on the other side, the companies get guidance, know-how to better build their product or business, and to go to market. Then, of course, we bring in venture capital (VC) funds. We introduce all of these companies to VCs and then, hopefully through all of this ecosystem, they have a pathway to go to market and raise money.
How did the experience go with the first group of startups?
We did the first launchpad in January 2024. There were 17 companies and approximately 30 participants who went to the program. It was a diverse group. Some of the startups were from the gaming and hospitality industries, and other ones from sports technology, biotech and even aerospace. I would say a fair number of these companies immediately went out and started raising money. The next launchpad is happening in the middle of May 2024. We just finished going through all the applications and sending out acceptance letters. We’ll have 20 companies and 35 participants.
What pieces of advice would you give to a startup that wants to enter the betting sector?
The first thing is that, if you’re going to launch a company in the gaming industry, you need to really know which product vertical you’re launching into. Are you B2C or B2B? Do you want to be an operator or a supplier? Because they’re massively different. Once you know where you’re going to live between those two broad swim lanes, you need to understand your domain expertise. If you’re building a regulatory technology platform for online casinos to do AML or KYC, for example, you really need to know that space and the pain points. When you come to the market with the idea, you will have to be an expert because the people you’re going to be selling to know that product just as well, if not, better than you do. Same thing whether it’s sports betting data or online casino platforms, you’ve got to be a domain expert at what you’re trying to do.
Currently, what is the biggest challenge for startups?
The biggest challenge, even if you have a great idea for a company, is raising money. If you’re sitting on the venture capital and the funding side, your biggest challenge is passing your way through hundreds of applications to find the right group of people and ideas that are worth funding. Therefore, on both sides of the equation, there is a problem because there is no place to find a good group of companies on a regular basis and a place to access venture capital. Zero Labs sits in the middle of those two. We’re saying to the companies, ideas, and entrepreneurs “come here and we will help you improve the company” and we’re saying to the VCs “come here because there is a pool of tested and proven out companies with some ideas that we’ve worked on.”
In which segment of the gaming and hospitality industries do you see that there is an opportunity for new companies?
A lot of it is timing. It depends on like what is needed now versus what will be needed later. Obviously, metaverse and crypto related products or casinos are already growing and will keep on doing so. I can see that those will be very dominant in the coming years. That space is going to be really important as we get into the latter half of this decade. On the other hand, if you’re an entrepreneur or you’re trying to build and launch something, right now, you have to be very specific about what is missing in today’s gaming environment that people need. It’s hard to say, but one of the most popular areas currently is everything around B2B infrastructure. The startups will have to think what piece of infrastructure they can build or provide to all these operators that work in different parts of the world. It could be a good idea to build agnostic infrastructure whether it relates to things like data centers or even data on sports or platforms. They would have to ask themselves “how can I, on the B2B side, build something that is agnostic, and I can distribute all over the world digitally?”. The future is open to different interesting possibilities for the sector.