| Brock Pierce | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 14, 1980 Minnesota |
| Years active | 1992–1997 |
Brock Pierce (born November 14, 1980 in Minnesota), is an entrepreneur best known for pioneering the market for virtual goods in online games. He has founded or co-founded seven companies, acquired more than thirty companies, and closed a dozen corporate finance transactions securing more than $200 million of funding on behalf of his companies. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur Brock had a brief stint as a producer and most of his childhood was spent as an actor.[1]
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Pierce founded Affinity Media (originally Internet Gaming Entertainment) in 2001 and resigned from his CEO position on June 26, 2007, but he remains an adviser and vice-chairman of the board of the company.[2] Under Pierce’s leadership, Affinity Media nurtured DAX, the largest virtual goods exchanges in South Korea and the US/Europe market with sites, such as ItemMania and Player Auctions, respectively. Pierce also ushered in the era of ZAM, which is a network of websites oriented to massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPG), such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, etc.[3] Affinity Media raised over $100 million from investors such as Goldman Sachs and Oak Investment Partners. In the recent past they were generating over $100 million a year in revenue.[4]
In 2001, Pierce founded Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE), which pioneered the MMORPG currency-selling services industry that link virtual economies with the real one. He started the business with $150k of his own money and impressively ran it up to $100M in revenue with $10M profits in a matter of a few years. Pierce’s entrepreneurship, especially his ambition after much adversity, caught the attention of Wired magazine, CNN Tech and CNN Money among others. In 2004, CNN claimed that IGE brought in more than $1 million USD each month. Since 2004, IGE has bought the next seven largest sites that cater to the virtual economy, “four eBay-style trading platforms, and about 40 fan and content sites.” (CNN Money) Pierce’s business savvy lead him to diversify his market and increase his revenues. Pierce estimated that IGE accounted for about 50% of this online market in the U.S., which has about $500 million in annual volume.[5][6]
In the summer of 2010, Titan Gaming, impressed with Brock Pierce’s success with IGE, recruited him to sit on its board along with EA Executive Keith McCurdy. Pierce joins other Southern California angel investors, such as MP3.com’s Michael Robertson, SOA Software’s Eric Pulier and William Quigley and Jim Armstrong of Clearstone Ventures among others.[7] During the same summer, Titan Gaming purchased the rising online gaming network, Xfire from Viacom. It is estimated that XFire, now Titan Gaming, is home to over 16 million users, but an estimate of active users is uncertain.[8][9]
In October 2011, Xfire announced that they had received 4 million dollar in capital from Intel Capital and other angel investors. With this round of funding, Xfire and Titan Gaming split to operate separately. Xfire is a social service for gamers that allows players to chat and talk with friends across multiple chat platforms. As of October, XFire has over 19 million users. [10]
Brock Pierce is a co-founder and Board Member of EverTune.
Evertune is a patented technology that keeps stringed instruments in tune for their lifetime. Evertune technology was awarded the best invention award in May 2010 by Popular Science magazine.[11] Many artists have begun using Evertune including but not limited to Jason Wade and Ben Carey ((Lifehouse)), Jerry Horton (Papa Roach), Panic! at the Disco, Slash, and James Burton (Elvis Presley).
Brock Pierce was the co-founder and a former chairman of myTaste, an online wine discovery and recommendation engine.
Pierce rode the Dot-com bubble with the Digital Entertainment Network, a multimedia and web television dot-com company that created four- to six-minute streaming-video series, including everything from sports to drama shows. DEN raised $88m dollars from blue chip investors such as Chase Capital Partners, Microsoft, Intel, and many more. As an 18 year old, Pierce was making $250,000 a year and held 5% of the company's shares. DEN is again active and has a collection of old videos as well as some new content, and has raised over $100 million from investors such as Goldman Sachs and Oak Investment Partners. In the recent past they were bringing in over $100 million a year in revenue.[12][13]
He began his acting career as a toddler, appearing in commercials.[14] His first major role was playing a young Emilio Estevez in The Mighty Ducks (1992). Pierce reprised the role again in D2: The Mighty Ducks.
From 1994, Pierce had small roles in Little Big League (1994), Ripper Man (1995), Problem Child 3: Junior in Love (1995), Three Wishes (1995), and Earth Minus Zero (1996).
Brock’s next big break was in 1996, when he starred alongside Sinbad as Luke Davenport in Disney's First Kid. Brock landed a few TV roles in 1997, including Legend of the Lost Tomb, The Two Voices, and appeared in The Ride by World Wide Pictures in 1998, but these roles would be his last credited performances.
Pierce retired from acting in favor of producing; he was the associate producer of Young Hollywood. Around this time is when young Pierce met Marc Collins-Rector and Chad Shackley. Together the three of them started the Digital Entertainment Network (DEN). Pierce was responsible for all of DEN’s initial production including a show for Gay Teenagers called Chad’s World,[15][16][17] which was a show loosely based upon the life of founder Marc Collins Rector.
On November 11, 2003 the business section of the New York Post (page 37) alleged that Brock Pierce and DEN co-founders Marc Collins-Rector, Chad Shackley had fled to Spain to avoid US sex trafficking charges. Brock Pierce and Marc Collins-Rector were later arrested on an international warrant after being indicted in New Jersey on five counts of child sex trafficking. Shackley and Pierce were released without charges in June 2002. [18]
Wired magazine claims that Brock Piercem, Marc Collins-Rector and Chad Shackley resigned from DEN on October 25, 1999 as a result of sexual harassment claims.[14] 4.5 million in default judgement were awarded in the sexual harrassment lawsuits.[14] "Pierce insists he didn't even know about them, and according to one of Pierce's former attorneys, the claims against him were later dismissed."[14]
The DEN IPO was postponed over publicity caused from the sexual harassment lawsuits.[14]
The IGE virtual-currency trading service was originally built in violation of the EULA agreements which made Brock a controversial figure amongst MMORPG publishers. IGE alleged cofounder, Alan Debonneville, filed a lawsuit against Pierce alleging fraud.[19] The suit was eventually settled out of court.
Currently Brock Pierce is the co-founder, chairman and president of Revenue APEX.[20]
Other recent start-ups include: Evertune, a patented technology that keeps stringed instruments in tune for their lifetime;[21] Titan Gaming; Taste Media, an online wine discovery and recommendation engine;
He appeared as a dining guest on an episode of Hell's Kitchen (U.S.) Season 7, which aired July 20, 2010.
Pierce appeared as a dining guest on an episode of Hell's Kitchen (U.S.) Season 10, which aired July 20, 2010.
Pierce is bisexual according to an interview with Oasis Magazine, an online gay interest magazine he stated:: "I'm not, at the moment, seeing anyone, so whether it's a girl or a guy... I don't want to eliminate myself from seeing anyone, because I like all people (...) I can say I'm very familiar with the issues gay teenagers face, very familiar."[22] Evidently Brock made this ambiguous statement to generate interest in DEN’s first show for gay teenagers called Chad’s World.