Profiles Contact

Andrew Paradise

Founder & CEO

Skillz

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Andrew Paradise

Bjørnulf Østvik

Andrew Paradise’s Biography

Andrew Paradise is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Skillz, a pioneer of mobile skill-based competition that connects players and developers through social competition. Andrew is a highly regarded leader, entrepreneur and inventor in the gaming and tech industries, having founded and sold numerous companies throughout his career.

Skillz’s platform gives game developers the opportunity to monetize their content by building franchises and enabling player competition in their games. It hosts billions of casual mobile gaming tournaments for millions of mobile players around the world and distributes millions of dollars in real-world prizes each month.

As CEO, Andrew has led the company through periods of significant growth, culminating in it becoming the global leader in mobile gaming industry. Under his leadership, Skillz has been recognized with many honors, including Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, CNBC’s Disruptor 50, Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups and the #1 fastest-growing company in America on the Inc. 5000.

Andrew has been widely recognized for his... Andrew Paradise is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Skillz, a pioneer of mobile skill-based competition that connects players and developers through social competition. Andrew is a highly regarded leader, entrepreneur and inventor in the gaming and tech industries, having founded and sold numerous companies throughout his career.

Skillz’s platform gives game developers the opportunity to monetize their content by building franchises and enabling player competition in their games. It hosts billions of casual mobile gaming tournaments for millions of mobile players around the world and distributes millions of dollars in real-world prizes each month.

As CEO, Andrew has led the company through periods of significant growth, culminating in it becoming the global leader in mobile gaming industry. Under his leadership, Skillz has been recognized with many honors, including Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, CNBC’s Disruptor 50, Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups and the #1 fastest-growing company in America on the Inc. 5000.

Andrew has been widely recognized for his success and has earned his reputation as a thought leader in the gaming and tech space. He was listed in the ‘40 under 40 Class of 2018’ by the San Francisco Business Times, and has been a featured speaker on gaming and tech at the Milken Institute’s annual conference, MWCA, Inc. Conference, SXSW and more. Andrew has also been featured in articles and interviews by The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Forbes, CNBC, Bloomberg and more. He has also registered several patents.

Andrew holds a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Massachusetts and a BCom from the University of Auckland. READ MORE VIEW LESS

Andrew Paradise’s Newsfeed

Medium

Andrew Paradise of Skillz On Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Suite Executive

Read more

Business Wire

Skillz Spotlights Innovation, Monetization and Growth at the 36th Annual Game Developers Conference

Read more

Andrew Paradise’s Background

Skillz

Founder & CEO

2012 - Present

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Skillz is a premier mobile gaming platform that unites players and developers through engaging, skill-based competitions, offering opportunities to win real-world prizes. By integrating their patented technology, Skillz hosts billions of tournaments globally, empowering developers to monetize their games and fostering a vibrant community of competitive gamers.

Intuit

Director of Payment Solutions

Mountain View, CA, USA

Intuit is a global technology platform that helps consumers and small businesses overcome their most important financial challenges. Andrew served as Director following the acquisition of AisleBuyer.

View all Hide

Andrew Paradise’s Gallery

Media

Skillz Reports Higher Revenues, Losses During ‘Huge Building Year’

Feb 2022

New York, NY, USA

Skillz experienced significant revenue growth but also faced higher losses as the company heavily invested in scaling its platform. Andrew Paradise emphasized the strategic importance of this "building year" as a pivotal phase to expand Skillz's user base and enhance its long-term market position.

Skillz starts trading as a public company as mobile esports heats up

Dec 2020

San Francisco, CA, USA

Skillz began trading publicly on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "SKLZ," marking a significant milestone in the growing mobile esports industry.

Skillz Plans to Disrupt Esports with Mobile Gaming

Feb 2020

The Skillz esports disruption goal is to democratize esports by enabling competitive play and prize opportunities across various mobile game genres, including puzzles and card games, thereby broadening participation beyond traditional player-versus-player battle titles.

Skillz wins two new patents, is now helping brands sponsor e-sports tournaments

Nov 2016

San Francisco, CA, USA

CEO & founder, Andrew Paradise, said the patents cover two core elements of his company’s technology. 'One is for the algorithm that enables Skillz to evaluate how much an outcome in a game is based on skill vs. chance...the second has to do with our integration technology.'

Intuit Acquires Mobile Payments Company AisleBuyer, Will Integrate Into GoPayment, POS Solutions

2014

San Francisco, CA, USA

Intuit acquired AisleBuyer, a Boston-based startup known for its virtual shopping assistant app that enables in-store customers to bypass checkout lines by paying directly via their mobile phones.

View all Hide

Interviews

Skillz CEO Andrew Paradise on ‘Big Buck Hunter’ launch and future growth

Sep 2021

New York, NY, USA

Skillz CEO joins ‘Closing Bell’ to discuss the company’s upcoming launch for its ‘Big Buck Hunter’ game and where the biggest growth opportunities are for the company.

Skillz CEO Andrew Paradise on Aarki acquisition and the company’s outlook

Jun 2021

New York, NY, USA

Skillz CEO joins ‘Closing Bell’ to discuss the decision to acquire Aarki, what the business is investing in and the future of the company.

We’re revolutionizing the gaming industry as the leading e-sports platform, says Skillz CEO

Dec 2020

New York, NY, USA

The latest company to go public via SPAC is mobile e-sports platform, Skillz. The company's CEO joins ‘Closing Bell’ to talk about its business and future trends in the industry.

Get Your SPAC Game on with Skillz

Oct 2020

Andrew Paradise discusses taking Skillz public, market opportunities for mobile gaming and what the future holds for the company.

Skillz CEO on the company's plan to go public

Sep 2020

New York, NY, USA

Andrew Paradise says going public via SPAC is just one step in becoming a ‘hundred-year company.'

Andrew Paradise On The State Of The Mobile Games Market

May 2020

Ahead of the Los Angeles Games Conference, Andrew Paradise shared his thoughts on the changes affecting creativity in the arena, what role fundraising tournaments have played in COVID and the mobile game trends he foresees emerging.

Agile Culture Improves Growth with Andrew Paradise at Skillz

Sep 2019

Skillz was the #1 fastest growing company in 2017’s Inc 5000 list. Their revenue growth of 50,059 percent in three years proves they understand growth. CEO, Andrew, shares how his teams think about their work in the agile framework. Create a team that moves fast and makes

Competitive Mobile Gaming with Andrew Paradise, CEO and Founder of Skillz

Aug 2017

New York, NY, USA

Andrew Paradise appears on the For Your Innovation podcast to discuss the mobile gaming market, the technology infrastructure required for mobile gaming platforms, strategies for monetizing mobile gamers, the significance of social experiences both within and beyond games, and the growing popularity of casual and professional esports.

View all Hide

Features

How Skillz CEO Andrew Paradise Built an Inc. 5000 Leader

Aug 2017

New York, NY, USA

This feature highlights Skillz' placement in the No. 1 spot on the Inc. 5000 list, the first gaming entity ever to top the chart. In a discussion with founder, Andrew Paradise, the article traces the company's story, from its founding in 2012 to its current success hosting tens of millions of customers monthly on its platform.

Publications

3 Business Lessons I Learned From Playing Video Games

Author

Aug 2023

Andrew explains how the virtual world of gaming has motivated him - also leading to improved processes and better engagement with teammates.

Fueling Epic Wins: Skillz Puts Developers First with Innovative Revenue Model

Author

May 2023

In this article for LinkedIn, Andrew explains why Skillz utilizes an innovative revenue model to reward game developers fairly, describing them as the lifeblood of their business as the creators of the games that players love.

View all Hide

Awards & Recognition

CNBC Disruptor 50 list

Honoree

2019

New York, NY, USA

Skillz was honored with a place on the list for the second year in a row. The CNBC Disruptor 50 list features private companies — from biotech and machine learning to transportation, retail and agriculture — whose innovations are changing the world.

40 Under 40 | Class of 2018

Honoree

2018

San Francisco, CA, USA

The San Francisco Business Times’ 40 Under 40 highlights some of the young business leaders making their mark on the Bay Area and the world. The leaders and entrepreneurs that make up the list come from a variety of fields, including technology, real estate, finance, healthcare, law, philanthropy, food and more.

Speaking Engagements

Milken Institute Global Conference

Panel member

2021

Beverly Hills, CA, USA

Andrew, along with other leaders in the tech space, took part in a panel titled 'Leading Companies Through the New Digital Reality'. Panel members discussed the new reality companies are facing around the globe, including what the workspace of the future will look like and what the shift to e-commerce could mean for the small and medium businesses that drive the economy.

South by Southwest

Panel member

Apr 2021

Andrew and other leaders in the tech and gaming industries participated in a panel titled 'Gaming for Good: The Future of Fundraising'. The panel discussed opportunities for organizations to rally the gaming community and drive meaningful change, while also sharing an inside look at the success of companies across esports, technology and nonprofits.

View all Hide

Business Interests

Cooperative Gameplay in Peer-to-peer Wagering Platform

Patent | US-9697680

With this peer-to-peer program, data can be received and can include a request to initiate a cooperative digital skills-based gaming competition and an identification of one or more additional players to invite to join a cooperative team.

Online Software Video Capture and Replay System

Patent | US-9630097

The user-activity video signal can comprise a video capture characterizing a user's interaction with a software application on a client. The software application can have an interface display space on the client and the software application can execute on the client in operation with at least one remote backend computing system.

Event Platform for Peer-to-Peer Digital Gaming Competition

Patent | US-9479602

On this platform, data is received identifying a peer-to-peer gaming event and comprising a request to register for the peer-to-peer gaming event, the request originating from peer-to-peer gaming platform software executing on a client.

Integrations Portal for a Peer-to-Peer Game Platform

Patent | US-9349246

An integrations portal can communicate with a developer client and can include an interface to prompt the developer client for and to receive peer-to-peer competition settings and third-party game mechanics. Additionally, a peer-to-peer wagering platform can be in communication with the integrations portal and a plurality of player clients and can receive data from the integrations portal.

Determining Game Skill Factor

Patent | US-8882576

This program enables access to data representing a measurable outcome for each of multiple game trials. Using the accessed data, a second variance measure of the measurable outcome can be calculated for one or more players across the game trials associated with them.

Dynamic Gameplay Advertisements

Patent | US-8715077

Historical skill-based gaming metrics for a primary user, along with similar metrics for one or more additional users, are retrieved. Based on this data and a predefined set of rules, a targeted advertisement is selected for presentation to the primary user.

View all Hide

Press Releases

Skillz to Participate in Wedbush Winter Games Conference

Dec 2021

New York, NY, USA

Andrew Paradise participated in a fireside chat at the Wedbush Winter Games Conference.

7th Annual Digital Entertainment World Features Speakers from Pluto TV, Roc Nation, CBS, NBC, Epic Games and more

Jan 2020

New York, NY, USA

Andrew Paradise is listed as a featured speaker at the 7th annual Digital Entertainment World (DEW), which will assemble industry leaders who play a significant role in the business of creating and monetizing digital entertainment content.

View all Hide

Andrew Paradise’s Education

The University of Auckland

BCom | Economics

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

B.A. | English Literature