Folmann

Gaming is quietly becoming one of the most regulated and creator-driven industries at the same time. So I started The UGC Landscape: a weekly roundup of the signals shaping creator-driven gaming. First roundup just went live. These are a few developments from the past week that caught my attention. See more here: linkedin.com/pulse/ugc-land…

I founded Chosen to be the buyer I wish existed when I sold my own. If you intro me to a founder of a gaming or creator business we end up buying, I’ll give you $50k. Simple as that. DM open.

When I sold my first company, I wished there was a buyer who truly understood what it meant to build something from the ground up. That’s why I founded @wearechosenio, to be the buyer I wish existed back then. We’re always looking for incredible gaming platforms, creator tools, or community-driven businesses that deserve to scale. If you introduce me to a founder we end up acquiring, I’ll personally send you $50k as a thank you. DM me, and let’s make something legendary happen.

🚨 The Fallout Modathon has begun! From now-31 Dec 2025, upload a Fallout-themed mod and tag it “Fallout Modathon 2025” Win profile badges, exclusive merch, game keys and a trip to VEGAS. 🎰 Submit your entry now at NexusMods.com! (T&C's apply) #FalloutModathon2025

@Vara_Dark Done.

@FolmannVictor I gave a follow but your DMs aren’t open. Please send me a message. 😃

It seems that Nexus Mods is going 100% corpo. Their new owners seem to be involved in some CRINGE 'Git Gud' gamer master classes and judging by their past, I personally believe we should be worried they didn't purchase Nexus Mods for 'the good of gamer kind'. It's never good when one of those people has posted a "Gaming Startup Monetization Cheat Sheet" that claims In-App Purchases and NFT's are a "Top Tool for Monetization."

Appreciate you taking the time to dig in and share your thoughts, Vara. I get the skepticism. We haven’t earned your trust yet, and frankly, until we’ve tangibly helped mod authors and users, anything I say should be viewed as just words. That’s why we’ve chosen to listen first, support the team quietly, and let our actions speak louder than any post ever could. We’re not here to change what makes Nexus great, we’re here to preserve it and build with the community, not around it, and definitely not above it. As for the “Monetization Cheat Sheet” I understand how it might look out of context. But the core purpose of that sheet is to help founders understand how to avoid harmful monetization. If you look closely, most of it is red flags, warnings, and advice on what not to do. It’s a toolbox, not a strategy. If you ever want to chat directly, my DMs are always open. I’m listening, and learning.

From everything i've found so far, it just seems like a really convoluted trail of startups and social platforms that've either failed or have made no real impact and when pairing that with a "Monetization Cheat Sheet", it really doesn't look good for the future of Nexus Mods. Selling to this group isn't about making the platform great. It wasn't about finding the best entity that could throw as much money as possible towards the site to keep it alive and thriving. These individuals haven't done anything to better the industry, and in fact, many of their ideas have been completely rejected by gamers. Pay-To-Play, NTFs, Subscriptions? This all screams to me prioritizing monetization over player experience. They don't seem to have any passion for the industry. The rumor is that Nexus Mods had been sold for $70 million. If that is even CLOSE to being the truth, it only shows that DarkOne didn't give a damn about the platform or the platform's 30 million registered users. He took the biggest payout he could get his hands on and didn't give a damn about what would be best for gamers. If that was his focus, he could've gauged reactions by posting about his struggles on social media. He could've openly communicated his troubles on the website and voiced how he was looking for a suitable successor. Transparency is what SO MANY of us ask for nowadays plus actively praise, and rarely do we get it from companies. As an individual, he had no reason to withhold his plans for the future of the platform. This sale came out of nowhere, and when he withheld information on who acquired it (besides the 3 names of individuals "who’ve come on board to lead this next chapter", it seemed VERY suspicious. And it seems now we have a good idea why.

This is spot on. Funny enough, I’d argue founders are some of the most calculated risk-takers out there—taking control of your own destiny isn’t a gamble, it’s the safest bet you can make. I never had the pleasure? of working a big corporate job, but I learned the lessons just by watching. Some think I have the highest risk appetite because I keep betting on things that, statistically, should fail. Yet here I am—building, selling, investing in what I (hopefully) know a lot about. Still learning new things every day. I can relate.

Goldman Sachs was the most powerful bank on Wall Street. I watched it almost die from the inside. In 2008, after years of being the good student every Indian parent years for, I landed my dream job at Goldman Sachs. I thought I was stepping onto a rocket ship. Instead, I walked straight into the biggest financial disaster of our lifetime. • Bear Stearns had collapsed. • Lehman Brothers was on the brink. • Merrill Lynch was merging with Bank of America. • The markets were in total chaos. Inside Goldman, people were panicking. I was 25, young, and didn’t have much money in the markets. I wasn’t afraid of losing my job. But the same couldn’t be said for the senior bankers around me. Some of the wealthiest, most successful people I had ever met were breaking down. Associates, who had never smoked a day in their lives, were sparking up just to deal with the stress. For Goldman, survival was in question. • Lehman was gone. • The stock was tanking. • The banking industry was going down and taking the US economy with it. Goldman was in danger of dying. Then two Wednesday nights changed everything. The first Wednesday: I was at my desk when the news broke. Goldman Sachs wasconverting into a bank holding company. This was HUGE. It meant Goldman could take deposits like a traditional bank, stabilizing its funding. But it wasn’t enough. The second Wednesday: THE headline hit. Warren Buffett investing $5 billion into Goldman Sachs. Imagine being so respected that when you invest, the whole market gains trust. After Buffet, the panic began to subside. But something shifted inside me. I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t panicking. I was watching. For all the prestige of Wall Street, I realized something: 👉 This world was NOT as stable as people thought. 👉 More importantly, this wasn’t the world I wanted to stay in. The financial crisis showed me no salary, bonus, or title was worth being stuck in something I didn’t love and couldn't control. You feel me? I saw brilliant people, who spent decades climbing the ranks, staring into the abys. That realization made my decision to leave and start my own business a lot easier. Looking back, 2008 was a freeing moment for me. Because when the whole world was playing defense, I saw my opportunity to go on offense. And that made all the difference.

@Mta_railfanner @fifarenderz Yes!

@fifarenderz Is draft finally coming?? 😭🙏

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@purefootball_x @fifarenderz Draft

@fifarenderz Context??

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@rohitdotmittal Well said

For most people, building a repeatable framework to churn out $1M, $3M, $5M, or $10M companies with less money raised is way more valuable than building one $1b+ company. I think building the former allows you to build the latter. All great founders and companies developed muscle of building by tinkering with many projects we don't see. Before aiming to build a $1B company, try to build a $1M ARR company as quickly as possible (even if that's the ceiling of the business). The skills you'll learn will help you build the next big company faster. Sitting on the sidelines, trying to "only" build a big company is a loser move.

@imrichbeotch @SenSanders No

@SenSanders And they get taxed at 60%

Mr. President: Instead of stealing Greenland from Denmark, I have a better idea.   In Denmark, everyone is guaranteed health care, college education is free, parents receive 1-year of paid paternity leave & workers don’t make less than $22 an hour.  Let's steal those ideas.

@elonmusk Elon, less drama, more planet-saving. Your rants are louder than your rockets

Altman literally testified to Congress that he wouldn’t get OpenAI compensation and now he wants $10 billion! What a liar.

PMF in gaming looks nothing like what you see in SaaS. While Figma took 5 years to find it, gaming companies often know within months if they have a hit or a miss. User engagement either explodes immediately or doesn't. Players don't "gradually" fall in love with games like companies "gradually" adopt enterprise software. When Among Us launched, it took just weeks to go viral. Same story with Fall Guys. So, while this viral image by Lenny Rachitsky shows software companies taking 2-5 years to find PMF, gaming follows a different playbook: 1. Launch fast (months, not years) 2. Watch engagement like a hawk 3. Double down or move on quickly. The real skill in gaming is knowing when to cut your losses vs. when to go all-in on early signals. This effect even extends to gaming B2B companies. Your customers' games may be viral one day but fail to monetize (and pay you) the next. That's why gaming is a different kind of software business. Curious to hear from other gaming founders about their PMF journeys 🎮

@ZssBecker @bryan_johnson Not really

@bryan_johnson ^ More so bad parenting (aka participation award - be the kids best friend never tell them no or spank them and listen to them like an adult) is DEEPLY rewarded.

People do things that reward them with power, status and respect, good parenting does not get rewarded properly in current culture.

Saying “body count obsession” is just a Zoomer or young millennial thing misses the bigger picture. People have always judged others for their sexual choices—it’s just called different things now. The term “body count” is new and crude, but the idea of gossiping and worrying about who’s been with who has been around forever. This isn’t some brand-new issue.

The body count obsession is primarily a zoomer / young millennial phenomenon. I don't remember having a single conversation in my youth about this topic. Not one. Discussing the *exact* number of people anyone had been with would have been very strange. Of course, you could put two and two together, people had an idea of what someone's story was. There have long been terms to describe people and their experience. But the level of focus on exact number etc... this wasn't a thing. The term "body count" is also super vulgar. Before, people might have used more subtle innuendo to describe "sleeping with" someone or "being with" someone or - to really go back - "knowing someone." All of this kind of language plays a part in giving wiggle room to people and sort of softening things. "Body count" like many things today is the bottom of the barrel, extremely vulgar and coarse. There is some line between honesty and vulgarity. Or dishonesty and massaging the truth in a forgiving way. There is also, of course, "don't ask; don't tell" which applies to many things of manners and getting along in life. This is actually civility. That's dead. It's a good example of the mainstream culture, and a good example of zoomer / young millennial dysfunction. Part of the problem they suffer is the dichotomy between an insanely vulgar digital world with incredibly coarse language and brutal honesty(?) and a seemingly extremely self-conscious, unsexy, anti-social real world. (These are obviously related) It's a crazy reality. A detente where people who have very few romantic encounters speak in incredibly vulgar language about that which they aren't really engaging in. No wonder people are so screwed up.

@LeadingReport Source?

BREAKING: Greenland’s leader, Múte Egede, said he is prepared to negotiate with Trump about the future of the Arctic territory.

@FortniteDotGG Congrats! Looks great

I'm testing a new shop layout you can customize: smaller images, hidden text, and more. Check it out and let me know what could be improved fortnite.gg/shop

@elonmusk Lack of color here. @CommunityNotes let’s get the actual percentage of people who wants that from Greenland, it’s less than 5%

If the people of Greenland want their territory to join America, we should accept them!

@Ovieaggrey It’s very bright!

@FolmannVictor Great future ahead