Ed Fries spent decades creating games at Microsoft Game Studios and co-founding Xbox before becoming an investor, giving him unusually deep understanding of game development compared to typical finance-background VCs. At 1Up Ventures, he makes many small checks into around 50 game studios per fund to create a tight founder community that shares knowledge, while focusing exclusively on companies that make and sell games rather than tools or infrastructure. Ed Fries spent decades creating games at Microsoft Game Studios and co-founding Xbox before becoming an investor, giving him unusually deep understanding of game development compared to typical finance-background VCs. At 1Up Ventures, he makes many small checks into around 50 game studios per fund to create a tight founder community that shares knowledge, while focusing exclusively on companies that make and sell games rather than tools or infrastructure.