{"podcast":{"title":"Deconstructor of Fun","slug":"deconstructor-of-fun-223878","podcast_index_feed_id":223878,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/500026c/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://www.deconstructoroffun.com","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/738867/738867-1707997600386-9686d82cf1bc9.jpg","author":"Deconstructor of Fun","episode_count":823,"summary":"Deconstructor of Fun podcast is created by games professionals for games professionals. We explore the business side of the games industry with the goal of bringing listeners content that is relevant, insightful, and entertaining on a weekly basis. Hosts: Michail Katkoff www.linkedin.com/in/michailkatkoff/ Eric Kress www.linkedin.com/in/erickress/ Phillip Black www.linkedin.com/in/phillip-black-economist/ Jen Donahoe www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferdonahoe","last_synced_at":"2026-09-14T22:20:05.879573+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/deconstructor-of-fun-223878"},"episode":{"title":"347. Questions Istanbul Founders Stopped Asking I Akin Babayigit, Arcadia Gaming Partners","slug":"347-questions-istanbul-founders-stopped-asking-i-akin-babayigit-arcadia-gaming-partners","published_at":"2026-09-07T12:55:16+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/deconstructor-of-fun-223878/347-questions-istanbul-founders-stopped-asking-i-akin-babayigit-arcadia-gaming-partners","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/deconstructor-of-fun-223878","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/episodes/347--Questions-Istanbul-Founders-Stopped-Asking-I-Akin-Babayigit--Arcadia-Gaming-Partners-e3ofa4h","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/500026c/podcast/play/125331025/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-8-7%2F431357983-44100-2-332666e3e733c.mp3","summary":"McKinsey, the United Nations, Skype, Rocket Internet, Facebook, King. Then Akin Babayigit co-founded Tripledot, spun out Luna Labs, and now runs Arcadia Gaming Partners, a $100M fund he deploys alone.He left Türkiye at sixteen and never moved back, which makes him one of the few people who can talk about Istanbul as both an insider and an outsider. We get into how the ecosystem was built, why Sidar Şahin still shapes it years after disappearing, why payback windows are the wrong lens, and what he told a room of Turkish founders that they did not want to hear.Chapters 02:42 Leaving Türkiye 06:23 Building Tripledot 08:51 The Sidar myth 18:21 One trick? 20:47 First mover advantage 23:25 Payback versus IRR 28:32 What AI changes 31:43 The AppLovin dependency 40:07 fal and Layer 42:22 What Türkiye lacks 49:28 The unsexy work 54:24 After gaming 1:05:20 Türkiye and Israel","meta_description":"McKinsey, the United Nations, Skype, Rocket Internet, Facebook, King. Then Akin Babayigit co-founded Tripledot, spun out Luna Labs, and now runs Arcadia G…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4436,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/deconstructor-of-fun-223878/episodes/347-questions-istanbul-founders-stopped-asking-i-akin-babayigit-arcadia-gaming-partners/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/deconstructor-of-fun-223878/347-questions-istanbul-founders-stopped-asking-i-akin-babayigit-arcadia-gaming-partners.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}