Karthik Bala has been developing video games for 27 years. Many developers aspire to work on one groundbreaking, culturally resonant product in their career. Karthik has been fortunate enough to have led his team to deliver multiple blockbuster entertainment franchises such as Guitar Hero and Skylanders. Building a team and company culture that can repeatedly break through can be difficult, and few succeed. Is there a pattern? Karthik will talk about some of his failures and building an organization to achieve repeated success through failure and reinvention. Karthik along with his brother Guha Bala co-founded Vicarious Visions in 1991 while both were in high school. VV has since grown to become an industry-leading game developer, helping to shape popular culture around the world. In 2005 Vicarious Visions was acquired by Activision|Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI). Over the years, VV has developed multiple billion dollar franchises including Skylanders & Guitar Hero as well as garnering critical acclaim include the prestigious BAFTA award, Nickelodeon Parent’s Choice, and numerous Game of the Year awards. Karthik holds degrees in Computer Science and Psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at
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