Lucien Parsons

Lucien Parsons is a games Fractional COO and Advisor with 20+ years in scaling startups, global partnerships, and advisory roles. Co-founder of ZeniMax Online, ex-AWS Global Partner Leader for Games, and former IGDA chair, he combines operational rigor with product, market, and financial strategy expertise.

Beyond the Pitch Deck: Building a Due Diligence Model That Understands Fun

Traditional investment diligence frameworks struggle to capture the elements that transform a good game concept into a commercially successful game. Over the last several years, many investors have pulled back from funding game content, in part because while current diligence excels at identifying financial risk, it struggles to assess creative execution risk. While no process can reliably forecast the next breakout title, better diligence can surface whether the conditions for success are present within a team. 

This workshop, led by Lucien Parsons (angel investor, VC LP, fractional COO advising early- and growth-stage game studios) is designed to bring together investors and developers to identify these conditions. Participants will collaborate to map traditional diligence inputs, such as team, market, and execution risk and identify new inputs onto the realities of game development, where creative iteration, audience response, and production dynamics play a central role. Rather than rejecting diligence, the session focuses on translating and mapping previous models into game-specific terms. Participants will leave with a diligence matrix they can adapt directly to investment review, publishing evaluation, or studio planning.