The Twenty Minute VC

Stephane Kurgan: Lessons Scaling King from 100 Employees to 2,400; How to Find Great Talent | E1041

Stephane Kurgan is widely considered one of the best operators in Europe. During his tenure as COO @ King, King went from $65m to $2.4B in bookings, from 100 to 2,400 employees, and did a $7B IPO before being acquired by Activision Blizzard. Prior to joining King, Stephane served as CFO of Tideway Ltd. (acquired by BMC Software) and was the co-founder and CEO of Digital Reserve. Today, Stephane serves as a Venture Partner at Index Ventures, one of the leading venture firms of the last decade and more recently as an executive advisor at Technology Crossover Ventures. ------------------------------------------------ Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 00:58 Entrepreneurial Journey and Startup Insights 08:30 Relationship Building and Leadership Development 15:08 Effective Communication and Trust in Teams 22:08 Goal Setting and Feedback for Success 35:32 Scaling and Building Successful Companies 52:13 Personal and Philosophical Insights 1:01:42 Quick-Fire Round ------------------------------------------------ In Today’s Episode with Stephane Kurgan We Discuss: 1. From Belgium Boy to Europe’s Leading Operator: How a CD Rom company was the starting place for one of Europe’s best executives? What does Steph believe he is running away from? What does Steph know now that he wishes he had known when he started? 2. Four Criteria of Truly Great Leaders: What four traits do all truly special leaders have? What are the 1-2 that are the hardest to find in great leaders today? Why does Steph believe that even the best leaders are wrong 40% of the time? How does Steph approach decision-making? How has it changed over time? What is the most toxic element of decisions within companies today? When does Steph change plan because a decision is wrong vs stick to it? 3. Speed of Execution and Mission Statements: How important does Steph believe speed of execution is today? What are the elements that one can go fast on vs go slow and be very deliberate on? What elements has Steph gone fast on in the past that led to a mistake? How would he have changed his approach with the benefit of hindsight? Why does Steph believe that mission statements have different value at different company stages? What is Steph’s biggest advice to founders on creating mission statements? 4. Delivering Feedback and Maintaining Trust: What are 1-2 of Steph’s biggest lessons when it comes to delivering feedback well? What are the biggest mistakes founders make when delivering feedback today? Can trust be regained once lost? How? Does Steph start from a position of full trust or is it gained gradually over time? ------------------------------------------------ Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Stephane Kurgan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephane_kurgan Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ------------------------------------------------ #StephaneKurgan #IndexVentures #HarryStebbings

Stephane KurganguestHarry Stebbingshost

Jul 27, 20231h 5mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

From Candy Crush To Coaching: Stéphane Kurgan’s Playbook For Scale

Stéphane Kurgan, former COO of King and now VC at Index, reflects on scaling King from 100 to 2,400 employees and the principles that guided its growth, culture and ethics. He emphasizes data-driven decision-making, radical but pragmatic transparency, and the importance of communication, trust and speed of execution in scaling organizations. Kurgan also shares frameworks for evaluating leaders, hiring and retaining top talent, setting goals, and giving feedback, along with candid stories about failure, career droughts, and repairing his relationship with his father. The conversation closes with how his operational background shapes his investing, his views on luck, money, and parenting, and what he looks for in founders today.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Treat failure as a core leadership competency, not an exception.

Kurgan argues that a great manager is right only ~55–60% of the time; the real job is to keep making decisions, learn quickly, and avoid repeating the same mistake, rather than to chase perfect accuracy.

Let data overrule intuition in product and monetization decisions.

At King, very strong product instincts were frequently contradicted by player data; the company systematically tested features (including extremely lucrative ones) and was willing to cap monetization for ethical reasons, prioritizing long-term trust with players and employees.

Design communication systems deliberately; 90% of scaling is comms and decisions.

As organizations grow, perceived communication quality always deteriorates unless leaders over-invest in clear narratives, vertical cascades, horizontal information sharing, and repeated messaging, all built on a foundation of trust.

Hold a very high hiring bar and protect cultural fit at all costs.

King used a structured, multi-interviewer, unanimity-based hiring process; relaxing that standard led to mis-hires who then hired others like them, creating misaligned pockets that took years to fix—demonstrating that bad hires are more damaging than slow hiring.

Use structured frameworks to evaluate leaders across four dimensions.

Kurgan assesses executives on functional performance, organizational maturity (team/process/succession), contribution to the corporate agenda, and their personal leadership journey (role modeling, thought leadership, self-development), creating a balanced view beyond just hitting numbers.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

It’s great to fuck up. I think you have to fuck up.

— Stéphane Kurgan

The job is not to be right, the job is to make decisions.

— Stéphane Kurgan

There’s much more downside in making the wrong hire than in not bringing in the right person.

— Stéphane Kurgan

Luck is a combination of opportunity and preparedness. Your job is to be prepared.

— Stéphane Kurgan (paraphrasing Seneca)

You should not be a consumer of your team’s time; you should be a multiplier of it.

— Stéphane Kurgan

Data-driven product decisions versus intuition in gaming and beyondOrganizational design, communication, and trust in rapidly scaling companiesHiring philosophies, cultural fit, and the high cost of wrong hiresLeadership evaluation, feedback, and the role of vulnerabilityRadical transparency: benefits, limits, and practical implementationDiversity in leadership and the ‘Sisyphus’ problem of retaining women leadersCareer arcs, luck (Seneca), personal setbacks, and transitioning into venture investing

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