In this live Q&A, Brent Bushnell explains how his team decides which ideas to pursue, describing a three‑filter framework: (1) does the project pay for itself as paid R&D, (2) does the partner agree to co‑market the work, and (3) does it deliver a high margin. He illustrates the model with collaborations for IndyCar, the NFL, NBA, and the Olympics, which allowed his team to build a video‑stitching pipeline on client money before selling the service. Bushnell emphasizes rapid, public prototyping in a Lean Startup style, noting that early public releases can reveal a bad idea within a week (e.g., the "Rock Band for Space Battle" concept). He discusses the need for both constant external input—through art walks, galleries, and varied experiences—and periods of isolated reflection, likening the latter to a Walden‑type retreat. The conversation shifts to education, where Bushnell describes a two‑part STEAM ecosystem: high‑visibility events that act as a lightning‑rod, and a teacher‑training curriculum that sustains impact, complemented by home‑solution kits. He offers advice on subscription‑box style educational kits, arguing that discovering a similar product can be a validation of market demand rather than a deterrent. Throughout, Bushnell balances enthusiasm for experimentation with pragmatic criteria for resource allocation.
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So it seems like a lot of opportunities kind of land in your lap. How do you decide which opportunities and which ideas to actually follow through on?
You know, that is a really hard thing. And we still struggle with that, frankly. It's, you know, we end up with kind of a lot of, you know, I definitely like to cultivate inbound, right? You know, I mean, it's a lot, it's so much, it's a very uphill battle to Yeah. Have the thing that you're trying to sell and going, please, you want this, really. Being able to have inbound is really special, but it also can be really distracting. If you have a theory of how the world should be, we often try to have those inbound things serve it, check minimally 2 of 3 boxes. So we never raised money. So we basically cash flowed projects and then invested into the stuff that we loved. And the filter that we would use was, does this thing pay us to build, as basically paid R&D? We have something we want to build. Can we get somebody else to pay for it? So, hey brand, we want to build this, we want to play with VR. We would love to, we will build this thing for you, IndyCar. And as a result, we ended up with understanding the whole pipeline process, video stitching, all of that kind of stuff on their dime. Did it again for the NFL and the NBA and the Olympics. And by the time we were done, we had a solid team and a whole process for how to build that. And now we can sell that. It's a tool. It's a service for us. And we are now pitching our own original content, but didn't have to go through all of the expense of building that to start. So that's filter 1. Filter 2, are they willing to market us alongside them? We're not just a vendor, we are a partner. And then now they're offsetting our marketing costs. So one, they're offsetting R&D costs. Next, they're offsetting marketing costs. And then the last one is, is it ridiculously high margin? Because then they're basically paying for us to do all sorts of other stuff.
What kind of— it sounds like a lot of people are doing surveys and customer scale readouts and customer feedback and all that for validation. Have you got things that you do for this? Obviously there's fun value and excitement.
Yeah, we try to put things out as often as possible. That whole Lean Startup, try, fail, iterate, blah, blah, blah. We just try to get everything out as fast as possible. Because oftentimes the stuff that is super hard and whatnot is the last 20%. You could really get a lot to know that we even have a good idea here. That early Rock Band for Space Battle thing was such a good example. Like, we could have known in a week that it was a terrible idea.
I'd play that.
You would play it? Yeah, well, so I want to see— I can't wait to see the version. We're going to retool it maybe as a tank game, and I think that'd be more fun. Just get it out of 3 axes and into 2. But engaging as early as often, and with the public. So we'll go to art galleries. We're actually in one of the biggest artist communities in the world, and so they have an art walk. We'll open up our doors. But trying to engage with people as often as possible has been really valuable for me.
By the way, it's just amazing.
Oh, thanks.
And it seems like your perception to, I guess, augment creativity is to be around randomized environments, a little side of crazy.
Yeah.
And just yesterday we talked to a speaker who said kind of like boredom breeds creativity, like being around kind of like a siloed space.
Yep.
So where do you see yourself?
In terms of that vision, is it blendable? I completely agree, both. I would do— I try to expose myself to tons of stuff, but then almost like the Walden approach, like, hey, now completely separate. I don't know if it's Bill Gates, but a couple of those guys will literally get off the grid completely for a month or more. And I think that that's also— you also need that time to reflect and strategize. No battle plan survives engagement with the enemy means you have a plan. You have a plan, and you just are open to modifying it as you learn more. And so I think you definitely need both sides, the sort of lots of input, and now craft a strategy and reflect and whatnot.
I would love to know— thank you for the talk. I would love to know more about all the cool stuff you do with the students and with kids and stuff? Because I had an idea yesterday about creating some kind of physical box with activities inside delivered to kids every month teaching about entrepreneurship, innovation, and stuff.
Very neat idea.
I don't know. I haven't researched anything yet. I'll probably use Wunder.
Yeah, I would definitely do the research. There are some kits and some sort of Birchbox approaches like that. Again, we were talking earlier. Someone was saying some of this stuff's already been done. I have a PhD computer scientist friend of mine who says the time between when he finds out something's already been done, that he thinks of something and finds out it's already been done, is shrinking. Pretty soon he's going to be sort of ahead of that. But I actually don't really think it should be too dissuading if you find out something's already been done. Because oftentimes, if you haven't heard about it, they're probably doing a terrible job. They're not marketing it well. And so it's almost like validation that there's a market for the thing that you're talking about.
about.
But so for us, we've done— we built a curriculum that we train teachers with on how to incorporate STEAM into their coursework. And so we have it as basically a 2-part system. The events are loud, they get marketing, they're sexy, they, you know, people want to talk about it. It's sort of— it has a powerful lightning rod. And then the real impact comes through that curriculum and the sort of ongoing program that can be deployed around it. And so for us, it's a whole ecosystem. We have a few things happening around home solutions. People will be able to take versions of this home and sort of large-scale media. So the event will be sort of the tip of the spear for the 1%, the people who are the most engaged, the most excited. And then there'll be a whole set of other content to sort of support that.
Great.
Are you Nolan's son?
I am. Wow. Did you go to the unveiling or whatever it was of the E.T. game?
You know, I did. I just watched that documentary. That's why I'm curious. Although I do have a picture of one of them if you want to see. A friend of mine runs games for Dave Buster's. And he ended up getting one with the authenticated thing and everything.
Who's your dad?
My dad is an inventor and a game maker also. Yeah. OK.
