Bing Gordon has become known in recent years for his role as a partner at venerated Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, but anyone who knows him will tell you that he isn’t your typical finance head. As someone whose career has spanned not just technology and VC but also gaming, literature, and entertainment, he has a very well-honed creative side.
And according to Gordon, that’s not as unusual in this world as people might think. In a chat this week at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, he said that tech entrepreneurship is actually a naturally very creative endeavor in itself — and offered some insight for how entrepreneurs can overcome bouts of the proverbial “writer’s block” that artists and creatives often face.
I met with Bing on the morning of our last day at the notoriously party-hearty SXSW, and it was a bit of an early start for both of us — but he is always a fascinating person to talk with, and this time was no exception. Watch the video embedded above to hear about his outlook on keeping creativity alive, what television could look like in the near future as gamification takes hold, where gaming startups go from here in general, why despite recent stock market setbacks he’s actually long on Zynga, and much more.