Philip Sanderson

Venture Capitalist

📍 San Francisco, California, United States🔄 Updated September 2026💼 24 investments📅 29 years investing🗓 Last invested Feb 2021𝕏 @upgrade_to_unlock
VC🌍 United States20+ investments
24
Total investments
6
Early stage
7
Mid stage
1
Late stage
29y
Years active

Portfolio

17 investments · sorted by recency
All investments
Early stage
Mid stage
Late stage
Board Member
Nov 2020
Spyke Games is a mobile gaming company, built by a team who values creativity and innovation. We believe that when talented people unite around a single mission and are given the freedom to operate, something magical happens. The end result is the creation of games that will be played for years to come.
early stageComputer Games
Board Member
Oct 2020
Where it's fun to create fun games!
early stageComputer Games
Former Investor
Aug 2020
AppLovin helps businesses of any size reach over a billion people who play mobile games every day. Every ad runs fullscreen during natural pauses in gameplay, no scrolling past, no swiping away. Mobile gamers are mainstream consumers who shop, decide, and buy. AppLovin lets you meet them there.
Investor
May 2020
Skillz is the leading mobile games platform that connects players in fair, fun, and meaningful competition. The Skillz platform helps developers build multi-million dollar franchises by enabling social competition in their games. Leveraging its patented technology, Skillz hosts billions of casual esports tournaments for millions of mobile players worldwide, and distributes millions in prizes each month. Skillz has also earned recognition as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, CNBC’s Disruptor 50, Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups, San Francisco Business Times’ Best Places to Work, and the #1 fastest-growing company in America on the Inc. 5000. We’re building a groundbreaking company thats pioneering an entirely new industry, and were searching for top-notch people to join our mission. If you’re up for the challenge, we’d love to meet you!
Board Member
Mar 2020
We bring people together through virtual entertainment. Our shows enable artists and audiences to collaborate in the creation of the most interactive live performance experiences in the world. Waves are live, interactive and immersive shows that are unlike any virtual concert you have ever experienced. We combine the best of live music, gaming and broadcast technology to transform the live music experience. Waves are live streamed globally on wave.watch and across popular social and gaming platforms including YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, TikTok, Facebook and Roblox.
Investor (Former Board Member)
May 2015
Upwave is the Analytics Platform for Brand Advertising. Upwave makes brand advertising more impactful. Upwave is the only platform that provides customers: - Scale: Our unmatched digital network enables fast, accurate, data collection from millions of everyday consumers - Real-time brand insights: Real-time dashboards for the most accurate up-to-date brand insights, all conveniently accessible on a single platform - Optimization: Seamless integration with DSPs and social platforms means bid optimization and audiences to improve marketing impact Our customers are Fortune 500 companies across multiple verticals including CPG, technology, and financial services as well as the largest global advertising agencies measuring and optimizing digital campaigns for their customers. We are backed by leading investors (Y Combinator, Uncork Capital, Bloomberg Beta, PivotNorth, Ridge Ventures, Conductive Ventures, leading MarTech founders).
Investor (Former Board Member)
Aug 2014
We make games because we love them, and because games have the power to bring people together. We established Phoenix Labs in 2014 to create a place where diverse teams of people could come together to build deep multiplayer games. Weve assembled an experienced, passionate team of developers across our locations in Vancouver, BC, Montréal, QC, and San Mateo, CA. In May 2019, we launched our first game, Dauntless. It was the first game ever to launch with true crossplay and cross-progression. Since then, we’ve watched our community grow to more than 25 million players across four platforms. Our next game, Fae Farm, will launch in late 2023. Fae Farm is a magic-infused farm sim where players create their own cozy home in the enchanted world of Azoria, available on the Nintendo Switch.
early stageComputer Games
Investor (Former Board Member)
Mar 2014
Next Games is a Netflix game studio creating compelling fans-first interactive experiences by combining the stories of well-known movies and shows with interesting game mechanics. An unwavering focus on fans and fun gameplay is at the core of the studio’s game development, free from the constraints of free-to-play. www.nextgames.com
early stageComputer Games
Investor (Former Board Member)
Sep 2013
We create fun online games to smart people! We are the makers of SongPop, #1 top rated game of 2012 and #5 most downloaded iOS game of 2012. Since we launched the game in summer 2012, more than 100 million players have played the game. We are currently working on exciting projects. Come on join us!
Investor
Mar 2013
GuideSpark is the leader in change communications guiding over 1,000 enterprise customers to business success by changing the hearts and minds of employees. GuideSpark Communicate Cloud™ drives organizational change with communication journeys, targeted experiences that reach, engage and change employee behavior to achieve your critical business goals around Talent Strategies, M&A, and Digital Transformation. Manage, measure and scale your internal communication effectiveness with GuideSpark. For more information visit guidespark.com.
Investor (sold to Glu)
Mar 2013
QuizUp is the world's biggest trivia game, available on iOS, Android, Amazon devices and web. Play real-time trivia matches while making new friends. Check us out at www.quizup.com. QuizUp is now part of Glu Mobile. Welcome to our players.
Investor
Aug 2012
Discord is used by over 200 million people every month for many different reasons, but there’s one thing that nearly everyone does on our platform: play video games. Over 90% of our users play games, spending a combined 1.5 billion hours playing thousands of unique titles on Discord each month. Discord plays a uniquely important role in the future of gaming. We are focused on making it easier and more fun for people to talk and hang out before, during, and after playing games. We believe games give us a way to have fun with our favorite people, whether listening to music together or grinding in competitive matches for diamond rank. Join us in our mission! Take a look at https://discordapp.com/jobs for openings.
Investor (sold to YouTube)
Feb 2011
BandPage was acquired by YouTube Music in 2016. It is no longer an active service. BandPage used to be the central profile that more than 500,000 musicians used to engage and sell to hundreds of millions of fans across the largest music services in the world. The BandPage Platform and Marketplace powered musicians’ content and stores across many music providers.
Investor (Former Board Member)
May 2009
Simply Hired is a job search engine that collects job listings from all over the web, including company career pages, job boards and niche job websites. Then, similar to major search engines such as Google and Yahoo!, Simply Hired matches and displays relevant jobs to job seekers on the Simply Hired website, mobile app, and numerous partner sites. Simply Hired lists job openings from 700,000 unique employers. The company operates job search engines in 24 countries and 12 languages. For the past 3 years, Simply Hired has been named a ‘Top job search website’ by Forbes and PC Magazine.
Investor (Former Board Member)
Aug 2008
Telltale Games helped pioneer episodic narrative games. Now, working with a team of talented industry veterans, we honor that tradition while pushing the boundaries of interactive storytelling. Telltale’s games and stories—they move people. Telltale’s legacy includes several award-winning and best-selling franchises including Batman: The Telltale Series, The Wolf Among Us, and more. Over 80 Awards since the studio was founded. As the new Telltale, we’ve already announced that The Wolf Among Us 2 is in development (12/2019) – and we’re just getting started. Telltale continues to expand its lineup with internationally recognized and acclaimed properties from partners such as DC Comics and other unannounced stories that capture the imaginations of gamers across the world. The new Telltale uses a distributed development model. Our new workflow is based around sustainable business practices. We are using a modern engine and pipeline – built upon the Unreal Engine. We are focused and functioning as a digital-first developer and publisher of games on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, PC, Android, and iOS devices. Most importantly, we value every team member, working to create stories that inspire people. We’re excited to set the foundations for the next great wave of Telltale’s narrative experiences. With you. Telltale is located in Malibu & Corte Madera, California – both beautiful locations with easy access to the spectacular California coast. We offer a competitive salary commensurate with your experience, benefits, and an exciting and collaborative work environment.
Show all 17 investments ↓
Experience · 28 entries
All (28)
Investments (24)
Founder (1)
Board (15)
2021
Board Member
Feb 2021
Overwolf is the guild for in-game creators. We empower them to build, grow, and monetize in-game apps and mods. Built for creators by creators, Overwolf is uniting the in-game creator community. Our mission is to make sure that creators have everything they need to make a living doing what they love: developing awesome gaming experiences, enjoyed by both gamers and game developers.
2020
Board Member
Nov 2020
Spyke Games is a mobile gaming company, built by a team who values creativity and innovation. We believe that when talented people unite around a single mission and are given the freedom to operate, something magical happens. The end result is the creation of games that will be played for years to come.
early stageComputer Games
Board Member
Oct 2020
Where it's fun to create fun games!
early stageComputer Games
Former Investor
Aug 2020
AppLovin helps businesses of any size reach over a billion people who play mobile games every day. Every ad runs fullscreen during natural pauses in gameplay, no scrolling past, no swiping away. Mobile gamers are mainstream consumers who shop, decide, and buy. AppLovin lets you meet them there.
Investor
May 2020
Skillz is the leading mobile games platform that connects players in fair, fun, and meaningful competition. The Skillz platform helps developers build multi-million dollar franchises by enabling social competition in their games. Leveraging its patented technology, Skillz hosts billions of casual esports tournaments for millions of mobile players worldwide, and distributes millions in prizes each month. Skillz has also earned recognition as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, CNBC’s Disruptor 50, Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups, San Francisco Business Times’ Best Places to Work, and the #1 fastest-growing company in America on the Inc. 5000. We’re building a groundbreaking company thats pioneering an entirely new industry, and were searching for top-notch people to join our mission. If you’re up for the challenge, we’d love to meet you!
Show all 28 entries ↓
Investment activity
1997–2021 · 24 investments
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