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XHow a Card Game About Combustible Cats Took Netflix By Storm
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.

Netflix will launch a mobile game and TV show based on “Exploding Kittens,” a popular card game created in Los Angeles.
The streaming giant, which has recently expanded into the realm of gaming, will release “Exploding Kittens - The Game'' on mobile devices in May and follow that with an “Exploding Kittens” adult animated comedy series in 2023, it announced Monday. It’s the first time that Netflix will launch a mobile game and adapt it into a TV series.
Launched in 2015, Exploding Kittens claims to have sold more than 18 million tabletop games in over 50 countries. Its flagship game of the same name is a Russian-roulette-style competition, in which players try to avoid drawing “Exploding Kitten” cards that eliminate them. Players can “defuse” the cats with cards representing laser pointers and catnip sandwiches, according to the game’s description.
Netflix has paid Exploding Kittens to license the rights to the card game's intellectual property, representatives from both companies told dot.LA. Neither firm disclosed financial terms.
“The co-development of a game and animated series breaks new ground for Netflix,” Mike Moon, Netflix’s head of adult animation, said in a statement. “We couldn’t think of a better game to build a universe around than ‘Exploding Kittens,’ one of the most inventive, iconic and original games of this century.”
Exploding Kittens co-creator and chief creative officer Matthew Inman.Courtesy of Exploding Kittens
The show “Exploding Kittens” will see the eternal conflict between heaven and hell manifest itself on Earth when both God and the Devil are embodied as chunky house cats, according to Netflix. Starring Tom Ellis (“Rush,” “Lucifer”), Lucy Liu (“Shazam,” “Elementary”) and Mark Proksch ("What We Do In The Shadows," "Better Call Saul"), it’s currently in development with showrunners Shane Kosakowski and Matthew Inman, the latter being the co-creator and chief creative officer of Exploding Kittens, Inc.
Inman, the cartoonist behind The Oatmeal webcomic, created the card game alongside Exploding Kittens CEO Elan Lee, the former chief design officer for Xbox Entertainment Studios. Lee had previously developed a card game called “Bomb Squad” that eliminated players who drew bomb cards, he told dot.LA. Inman, who met Lee through a mutual friend, thought the game was great but needed a new name, believing that exploding munitions seemed too on-the-nose. Instead, players should be scared of something cute, fluffy and adorable like an exploding kitten, he suggested.
“At that moment, we formed a partnership and decided to start working together and have done so ever since,” Lee said.
They eventually raised more than $8.7 million for the original Exploding Kittens game in what remains the most-backed Kickstarter campaign by number of donors ever. Since then, the firm has grown to over 80 full-time employees that have helped make 15 games along with 14 puzzles and expansion packs. The company will launch the seventh iteration of Exploding Kittens, “Zombie Kittens,” next month.
Exploding Kittens’ leap to Netflix can be traced to a $30 million investment in 2019 from TCG Capital, the L.A.-based investment firm run by ex-News Corp. executive Peter Chernin. Chernin convinced the game’s creators to expand their IP and think about shows, movies and other ways to let people “live in these worlds instead of just play the games,” Lee said. The company started shopping its IP a little over a year ago before striking a deal with Netflix, according to Inman.
“We were like, ‘What do we do next?’ We were all over Target, Walgreens, Walmart. We wanted to do something else,” Inman said. “I'm a cartoonist, a writer, worked in animation and boards. This felt like a natural fit for me, to go back to what I think I’m good at.”
Exploding Kittens co-creator and CEO Elan Lee.Courtesy of Exploding Kittens
Netflix has moved to expand beyond movies and shows as it faces more competition and slower subscriber growth. The company has bought three gaming studios since September—including Glendale-based Night School—and now has 17 mobile titles available to subscribers. The streaming service has also rolled out interactive programming—starting with the 2018 film “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” and more recently with the trivia cartoon “Cat Burglar”—that blur the lines between TV and games. That comes as data indicates that younger consumers increasingly prefer gaming over more passive forms of media.
Netflix’s “Exploding Kittens - The Game” will retain the gameplay of the tabletop version and be available to subscribers free of charge. The Netflix version adds exclusive cards that help players find Exploding Kittens or reverse the order of the cards in the deck. Future cards and game mechanics will be tied to the animated series.
Over the years, the founders said they have debated the best way to measure their success—from the Uber driver who knew about “Exploding Kittens” to the late Alex Trebek asking a question about the card game during an episode of “Jeopardy!”
“We debate this stuff because it's fun and interesting, and there's no right answer,” Lee said. “Until a Netflix show came around. That is definitively a right answer.”
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Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
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Plus Capital Partner Amanda Groves on Celebrity Equity Investments
On this episode of the L.A. Venture podcast, Amanda Groves talks about how PLUS Capital advises celebrity investors and why more high-profile individuals are choosing to invest instead of endorse.
As a partner at PLUS, Groves works with over 70 artists and athletes, helping to guide their investment strategies. PLUS advises their talent roster to combine their financial capital with their social capital and focus on five investment areas: the future of work, future of education, health and wellness, the conscious consumer and sustainability.
“The idea is if we can leverage these people who have incredible audiences—and influence over that audience—in the world of venture capital, you'd be able to help make those businesses move forward faster,” Groves said.
PLUS works to create celebrity partnerships by identifying each client’s passions and finding companies that align with them, Groves said. From there, the venture firm can reach out to prospective partners from its many contacts and can help evaluate businesses that approach its clients. Recently, PLUS paired actress Nina Dobrev with the candy company SmartSweets after she had told them about her love for its snacks.
Celebrity entrepreneurship has shifted quite a bit in recent years, Groves said. While celebrities are paid for endorsements, Groves said investing allows them to gain equity from the growth of companies that benefit from their work.
“Like in movies, for example, where they're earning a residual along the way, they thought, ‘You know, if we're going to partner with these brands and create a tremendous amount of enterprise value, we should be able to capture some of the upside that we're generating, too’,” she said.
Partnering in this way also allows her clients to work with a wider range of brands, including small brands that often can’t afford to spend millions on endorsements. Investing allows high-profile individuals to represent brands they care about, Groves said.
“The last piece of the puzzle was a drive towards authenticity,” Groves said. “A lot of these high-profile artists and athletes are not interested, once they've achieved some sort of level of success, in partnering with brands that they don't personally align with.”
Hear the full episode by clicking on the playhead above, and listen to LA Venture on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
dot.LA Editorial Intern Kristin Snyder contributed to this post.
Rivian Stock Roller Coaster Continues as Amazon Van Delivery Faces Delays
David Shultz is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Barbara, California. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside and Nautilus, among other publications.
Rivian’s stock lost 7% yesterday on the back of news that the company could face delays in fulfilling Amazon’s order for a fleet of electric delivery vans due to legal issues with a supplier. The electric vehicle maker is suing Commercial Vehicle Group (CVG) over a pricing dispute related to the seats that the supplier promised, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The legal issue could mean that Amazon may not receive their electric vans on time. The dispute hinges on whether or not Commercial Vehicle Group is allowed to raise the prices of its seats after Rivian made engineering and design changes to the original version. Rivian says the price hike from CVG violates the supply contract. CVG denies the claim.
Regardless, the dispute could hamper Rivian’s ability to deliver electric vans to Amazon on time. The ecommerce/streaming/cloud computing/AI megacorporation controls an 18% stake in Rivian as one of the company’s largest early investors. Amazon has previously said it hopes to buy 100,000 delivery vehicles from Rivian by 2030.
The stock plunge marked another wild turn for the EV manufacturer. Last week, Rivian shares dropped 21% on Monday after Ford, another early investor, announced its intent to sell 8 million shares. The next few days saw even further declines as virtually the entire market saw massive losses, but then Rivian rallied partially on the back of their earnings report on Wednesday, gaining 28% back by Friday. Then came yesterday’s 7% slide. Today the stock is up another 10%.
Hold on tight, who knows where we’re going next.
David Shultz is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Barbara, California. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside and Nautilus, among other publications.
Snapchat’s Attempt to Protect Young Users From Third-Party Apps Falls Short
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Some Snap Kit platform developers have skirted guidelines meant to make the app safer for children.
A new report from TechCrunch released Tuesday found that some third-party apps that connect to users’ Snap accounts have not been updated according to new guidelines announced in March. The restrictions, which target anonymous messaging and friend-finding apps, are meant to increase child safety. However, the investigation found a number of apps either ignore the new regulations or falsely claim to be integrated with Snapchat.
The Santa Monica-based social media company announced the changes after facing two separate lawsuits related to teen suicide allegedly caused by the app. Over 1,500 developers integrate Snap features like the camera and Bitmojis. Snap originally claimed the update would not affect many apps.
Developers had 30 days to revise their software, but the investigation found that some apps, such as the anonymous Q&A app Sendit, were granted an extension. Others blatantly avoided the changes—the anonymous messaging app HMU, which is now meant for adult users, is still available to users "9+" in the App Store. Certain apps that have been banned from Snap, like Intext, still advertise Snapchat integration.
“First and foremost, we put the privacy and safety of our community first and expect the products built by our developer community to adhere to that standard in addition to bringing fun and positive experiences to people,” Director of Platform Partnerships Alston Cheek told TechCrunch.
The news is a blow to Snap’s recent efforts to cast itself as a responsible social media platform The company recently announced Colleen DeCourcy would take over as the company’s new chief creative officer and CEO Evan Spiegel to recently made a a generous personal donation to graduates of Otis College of Art and Design. The social media company currently faces a lawsuit from a teenager who claims it has not done enough to protect minors from sexual exploitation. In April, 44 attorney generals sent a letter to Snap and TikTok urging the companies to strengthen parental controls.
Lawmakers are considering new policies that would hold social media companies accountable for the content on their platforms. One such bill would require social media companies to share data with independent researchers.
Snapchat recently rolled out augmented reality shopping features and influencer-led original content to grow its younger base of users.
Snap Inc., Snapchat's parent company, is an investor in dot.LA.
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.