Founder’s Field Guide
Episode 17 Superpowering Teams
Founder’s Field Guide

Episode 17: Superpowering Teams

Superpowering Teams

Ilkka Paananen is the Founder and CEO of Supercell, a mobile game developer based in Finland. We cover how Supercell hires and designs teams, why they incorporate as little process as possible, and the rise of global, social games.

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[00:02:51] – (First question) – Why he is the “least powerful CEO in the world.”

[00:04:03] – His career prior to Supercell

[00:07:53] – Lessons from his prior career that he brought to Supercell

[00:11:49] – What he looks for in identifying and recruiting the best people

[00:13:46] – The funnel of getting great people into the business through the rest of the team

[00:15:44] – The Supercell recruitment team

[00:17:33] – Interviewing and screening applicants

[00:18:39] – Building teams and how they are the driving force behind the company

[00:21:29] – The culture of trust throughout the company

[00:24:13] – Ensuring teams know when to kill a project

[00:26:11] – Celebrating after a project gets shutdown

[00:28:15] – Why retention is such an important focus of the company

[00:30:40] – How reach and depth lead to a game’s success

[00:32:21] – The teams outside of development and how they operate

[00:34:53] – His day-to-day

[00:35:49] – Biggest surprises within Supercell since its founding

[00:36:38] – What makes for a good game

[00:37:59] – The notion of infinite games

[00:39:28] – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

Superpowering Teams

Introduction

Patrick
My guest today is Ilkka Paananen, founder and CEO of Supercell, one of the most successful mobile game developers in the world, based in Finland. Supercell has built hugely successful games like, Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, which have each reached over a hundred million daily active users. What interests me most about the company is Supercell's unique culture built on decentralized autonomous teams with nearly total creative control. Ilkka and I talk about how Supercell hires and designs team, why they incorporate as little process as possible, and the rise of global social games. I hope you enjoy this great conversation with Ilkka Paananen.

The Supercell Story

So Ilkka, I've been so excited to do this with you for two reasons. One, I've been spending so much time thinking about in COVID, playing video games with myself and my young son. I think a great way to begin this conversation is with one of my favorite lines of yours, which is, you once said, "I am the least powerful CEO in the world." I love this concept because it'll introduce the idea of culture and teams, and people that we're going to spend most of our time talking about, which may sound a little strange for a video game company, but I think it's amazing and critical. So what did you mean by this line? Why did you say that? What does it mean to Supercell's culture?

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