Rumored to launch on Dec 8 and officially premiering on Dec 12, Vive brings a lot of good news for the fans that have been waiting for this. This milestone has been made possible due to the co-production of HTC and Valve Corporation. Gaming companies such as Epic games have already announced support for this platform. This is a major milestone for Valve Corporation. Valves started out with developing games, among which Half-life was a major hit, then build a social platform for gamers and now provides technology solutions such as “Source”. With its platform “Steam”, the company is able to provide games to a community of 65 million users worldwide.

What was the last company that you think existed ten years back and has now emerged as a viable partner in this emerging ecosystem? Most companies in this emerging landscape vanish before they even have a prototype build. A couple of patents, a few developers, a well marketed launch, a bag full of social media fans, few booths in a gaming exposition and soon they become vaporware.

From 1996 to 2003, Valve made solid revenues based on Half-life, Half Life 2 and other products.

Somewhere between the Year 2 and Year 6, there is a moment in every entrepreneur’s life, which essentially becomes game changing to what happens next to the business. Do you sell the business? Do you stage for an IPO? Do you raise additional Capital from PEs.

Valve Corporation choose “None of the above” in that quiz and decided to stay Private. Its identity is not based on the trading stock price, nor is it based on the numerous 8ks announcing insider stock sales or stock grants but their identity is solely based on the Products and Platforms that bring value to their community. Its based on a promise they decided to keep from the time they launched the firm.

Valve Corporation is one of those firms that has seen it all in the gaming business.

Started in 1996, (I was probably still dabbling with my C++Compilers). Did I say a year that got you thinking. For a second imagine What you were doing in 1996. What were the brand names and headlines in the tech space in 1996? PC Users did not have even Pentium II in 1996. “Celeron” Processors were the thing of the future!

Valve Corporation is an example of a firm that never stopped believing. One can clearly see that each and every year since the late 1990s, Valve has experimented in strategic choices, learned and moved on to bigger things. Gaming has been their passion. Gave Newell, the founder ( not a CEO, actually calls himself a managing director!) kept the company Private and followed his instinct to drive his own strategic choices as opposed to molding his company to the whims of a bunch of wall street types had he taken the company public.

Despite being private with no source providing any details of its existing revenues, an article on Forbes in 2011 valued the company between $2 – $4 billon dollars. What is even surprising for someone like from the corporate world is that they still believe in their philosophy that they started with. The website of Valve corporation is proud to announce

“We’ve been boss-free since 1996.”

Imagine working with super smart, super talented colleagues in a free-wheeling, innovative environment—no bosses, no middle management, no bureaucracy. Just highly motivated peers coming together to make cool stuff. It’s amazing what creative people can come up with when there’s nobody there telling them what to do.

Valve can be credited with some very successful strategic choices it made to take advantage of broadband in the face of a threat. Game Piracy was one of those big threats which dampened many game developers revenues, especially if you had an international fan following. Instead of continuing to support the existing practice of releasing game by retail channels, Valve decided to provide the games via its customized social platform Steam. This strategic move allowed the firm to reap instant profits, mitigate piracy threat and build value with its direct customers.
In Summary, the ability to clearly develop a sustainable business and execute on some very nifty strategies to generate value in a nascent industry is not limited to firms with established leadership hierarchies or access to IPO Capital and series X funding. Very often, a team that works as a real team with shared vision and passion can deliver upon a promise that takes the world by storm.

Viva Vive! And we look forward to the launch of HTC Vive!