From Dream to Delivery: How to Do Work You Love, Love What You Do and Launch Your Dream Project

3-time Inc. 500(TM) CEO Don Daglow has held multiple startup CEO and leadership positions in a career that covers much of the life-span of Silicon Valley. Teams under his leadership have shipped games with an aggregate of over $1 billion in retail sales, and his work has been honored with a Technical Emmy(R) and recognized by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Don advises a wide range of startups and established international companies, coaching both new and experienced CEO's, executives and teams facing the challenges of team-building, management, product development, industry growth and competition. He is also Senior Director for Strategic Partnerships at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY; serves as an advisor and mentor at the Founders Space accelerator in San Francisco; and is the volunteer President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Foundation, the charitable wing of the Academy. Daglow has delivered keynotes and speeches at The Smithsonian Art Museum in Washington D.C., BAFTA in London, the Biennale in Frankfurt, Medientage in Munich and many international games conferences. Originally trained as a playwright, Don began his career as a teacher and writer. Starting in 1971, he wrote mainframe computer games as a hobby before the introduction of Pong and home computers, and entered the games industry early in the first cycle of home video games. Starting as one of the original five Intellivision engineers at Mattel Electronics in 1980, he became Director of Applications Software for what grew to be a billion-dollar business. In 1983 he joined a small Silicon Valley startup called Electronic Arts, which went public and became a major international corporation. After working as an executive for Broderbund, which was sold to The Learning Company for $416 million, he founded Stormfront Studios, which he led for 20 years. In 2008 Don accepted a Technical and Engineering Emmy(R) Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his creation of Neverwinter Nights, the first graphical MMORPG, which paved the way for the multi-billion-dollar World of Warcraft. He lives in Marin County, California with his wife Marta. His professional website is www.daglowslaws.com.