Marco Mereu was one of the co-founders of esports company XSet, which debuted at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
That experience enabled him and his team “to lean on the explosive growth of gaming, esports and content creation to build something meaningful,” he said.
“I saw firsthand the value of authenticity in building audiences through esports,” he told L.A. Inno. “Authenticity begins with transparent, two-way communication.”
It's this kind of communication he had in mind when he created M80. It's a company built specifically for esports and gaming fans, with a mission to engage with them through multiple avenues, including products enabled for Web3 — the next stage of the Internet, which is expected to incorporate concepts like decentralization, blockchain technologies and token-based economics.
M80 did a soft launch late last year, with the debut of several of its esports teams. It officially launched at the end of May, with $3 million in seed funding. Lead investors included Expert Dojo, a Los Angeles-based accelerator with an investment arm; VT Technology Ventures; and Practical Venture Capital.
Mereu, who serves as M80's CEO, has led five gaming and esports companies, including serving as co-founder and COO of esports organization XSet, creating the video platform Framerate (acquired by Super League Gaming), building the influencer platform Roostr (acquired by Chartboost) and launching the indie mobile game publishing platform Gameblyr.
His co-founder Nate Schanker, who serves as director of marketing, brings an extensive background in esports marketing and social media management. At M80, he’s grown the organization’s reach to have more than 12 million followers in total over the past six months.
They're branching out at a moment when there remains a huge global appetite for gaming: More than 3 billion people around the world play video games, and more than 532 million people consume esports content.
Championship teams
At the heart of M80 are the organization's esports teams, which are already seeing some success. Its "Valorant" team has qualified for the upcoming VCT Ascension Americas tournament in Brazil and is now on track to qualify for a partnership in the premier "Valorant" international league, less than a year after launching.
Also its "Rainbow Six: Siege" team recently won the North American Championship and qualified for the $2 million Gamers8 tournament, one of the largest events for the title. M80 also fields a North American "Rocket League" team and one of the top five 'Street Fighter" players in the world.
Connecting with the fans of these teams is an important part of the company's business model.
"The fandom developed around M80’s esports teams is a loyal, highly engaged audience," Mereu said. "This allows M80 to organically connect brands to this young, hard-to-reach audience."
M80's social channels focus on engaging directly with its followers and creating "fun," shareable content, like videos and memes.
“I’m personally invested in understanding our core fanbase and fostering a direct connection with them," Mereu said. "We want to know what content they want to see, who their favorite creators are, what games are their favorite and so on.”
M80 also created a Discord channel to facilitate that direct communication.
The startup is extending that connection with physical goods, and plans to funnel its $3 million seed funding though M80 Labs, its innovation center, which develops and launches consumer packaged goods. It will also lead the development of web3 initiatives and digital collectibles, among other things.
The company launched its Essentials clothing line in March.
“It was a great start, and we’re excited to explore other goods, both physical products like gaming peripherals and high-utility digital items,” Mereu said.
M80 also plans to get revenue through strategic partnerships, esports prize winnings and e-commerce sales. It’s already inked partnerships with Ubisoft, Zowie, Secretlab, Aimlab and Omnicoach, to name a few.
“Not only did our brand partners help fuel our launch, but they cemented our immediate credibility in the esports space,” Mereu said. “We bring value to their users who then become fans of M80.”
Looking ahead to Web3
The M80 team believes that the Web2 gaming and esports fans of today represent the Web3 user base of tomorrow. The company has identified the creation of Web3-enabled products that are specifically tailored toward gamers’ habits and preferences as an avenue to increase revenue and deepen the connection with its fans.
While these products are still being built, an example is a one-of-a-kind M80-branded digital item that fans can buy, trade and sell online.
Gamers may have been skeptical of Web3 products in the past, Mereu said, attributing it to "the lack of value beyond the ecosystem they’re purchased in or a misunderstanding of what they want."
At M80, he said, "We want to ensure that the Web3 products we create aren’t just one-offs and that people will see both value in what we create and a genuine passion for serving our fans."
