Captain Hoff (Steve Hoffman) is the Chairman & CEO of Founders Space, venture investor, AI expert, and the author of three award-winning books: Make Elephants Fly (radical innovation), Surviving a Startup (entrepreneurship), and The Five Forces (AI & the future).

Founders Space is a global venture builder with 50 strategic partners in 22 countries. Founders Space works all over the world, helping entrepreneurs, governments, and corporations leverage AI, innovate, and accelerate growth.

Hoffman has mentored and incubated hundreds of startups. He also advises global corporations on innovation and AI strategy. These include Qualcomm, Huawei, Alibaba, Bosch, Intel, Disney, Warner Brothers, Volkswagen, PwC, Ad Age, MetLife, Infosys, Ralph Lauren, NBC, A&E, Siemens, Viacom, Turner, Gulf Oil, Ford, EXL, etc.

Hoffman served on the Board of Governors of the Producers Guild’s New Media Council, was the founder and Chairman of the Producers Guild Silicon Valley Chapter, and was a founding member of the Academy of Television’s Interactive Media Group.

Prior to this, Hoffman worked as a TV development executive at Fries Entertainment, which produced over a hundred TV shows, movies, and mini-series that were acquired by MGM. He went on to pioneer interactive television with his venture-funded startup, Spiderdance, which produced interactive TV shows with NBC, MTV, Turner, Warner Brothers, History Channel, Game Show Network, and others.

As a serial entrepreneur, Hoffman combined new technologies with entertainment, producing groundbreaking games and interactive shows, like “WebRIOT,” “No Boundaries,” “Weakest Link,” “Yumby,” and “RocketOn.” He was also Head of Infospace’s Mobile Games Studio, whose play-for-prizes games included “Tetris,” “Wheel of Fortune,” “Tomb Raider,” “Thief,” “Hitman,” “Skee-Ball,” “X-Files,” and more.

Hoffman earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of California and a master’s degree in film and television from the University of Southern California. He currently resides in California but spends most of his time helping entrepreneurs and innovators around the world bring their dreams to life.