Steven Hoffman (Captain Hoff) is a venture investor, expert on AI strategy, and author of three award-winning books: Make Elephants Fly, Surviving a Startup, and The Five Forces.
Hoffman served on the Board of Governors of the Producers Guild’s New Media Council, was the founder and Chairman of the Producers Guild Silicon Valley Chapter, and was a founding member of the Academy of Television’s Interactive Media Group.
Hoffman is also the Chairman & CEO of Founders Space, a global market builder that works all over the world, helping entrepreneurs, governments, and corporations access new markets, innovate, and accelerate growth.
Hoffman has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs launch their companies in Silicon Valley and around the globe. He has also advised corporations on innovation strategy, including Qualcomm, Huawei, Alibaba, Bosch, Intel, Disney, Warner Brothers, Ad Age, MetLife, NBC, A&E, Siemens, Viacom, Turner, Gulf Oil, Ford, etc.
Prior to this, Hoffman worked as a TV development executive at Fries Entertainment, which produced over a hundred TV shows, movies, and mini-series that were acquired by MGM. He went on to pioneer interactive television with his venture-funded startup, Spiderdance, which produced interactive TV shows with NBC, MTV, Turner, Warner Brothers, History Channel, Game Show Network, and others.
As a serial entrepreneur, Hoffman combined new technologies with entertainment, producing groundbreaking games and interactive shows, like WebRIOT, No Boundaries, Weakest Link, Yumby, and RocketOn. He was also Head of Infospace's Mobile Games Studio, whose play-for-prizes games included Tetris, Wheel of Fortune, Tomb Raider, Thief, Hitman, Skee-Ball, X-Files, and more.
Hoffman earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of California and a master’s degree in film and television from the University of Southern California. He currently resides in California but spends most of his time helping entrepreneurs and innovators around the world bring their dreams to life.