Entrepreneur’s Perspective: How to Build a Talent Abundance in the New Era of Gaming?
The direction of business and our competencies is changing as digitalization and technology evolve at a daily pace. This is especially hard to keep up with in gaming and Web3 gaming. Constantly shifting industry trends, new languages and tools, and many moving parts…
As Boğaziçi Ventures, we established the BV Growth (BVG) Fund at the end of 2020 after receiving our first capital commitments from investors, and since then we have invested in roughly 30 Turkey-based, early-stage, innovation-focused technology companies. While growing alongside our portfolio companies, we launched our LinkedIn newsletter BV Insights about a year ago as a knowledge bank for our team to share deep expertise. From now on, we also want to bring our portfolio companies’ specialist insights to you, our valued readers. In this article, Alp SEZGİNSOY, Founder of DOJO Talent—a BV Growth portfolio company that provides instant access to talent in Web3 and gaming, supports talent development, and builds community—shares practical perspectives on how to reach talent in gaming and how to build sustainable talent strategies for startups. Enjoy!
The Shift in Work and Skills
The direction of business and our competencies is changing as digitalization and technology evolve at a daily pace. This is especially hard to keep up with in gaming and Web3 gaming. Constantly shifting industry trends, new languages and tools, and many moving parts… In such dynamic sectors, developing, finding, and hiring highly specialized talent is one of the biggest operational challenges. Moreover, traditional models for accessing and engaging talent lag behind the innovation this new era demands.
Projected Talent Shortage by 2030 in the World’s Top 20 Economies — Korn Ferry, 2022
With the rapid rise in technology adoption and skill transformation, the gaming industry is far from alone in its talent-access challenges. Looking at the world’s most innovative organizations (e.g., NASA, Microsoft), we see a clear transition toward new workforce models.
Source: Accenture, reviewed by the author.
The New Workforce Mix
To respond quickly to changing dynamics and expanding opportunities, companies are now incorporating multiple work models—not just full-time—into their operating systems. Core components of this modern workforce include:
Full-Time Employees: Your core team—people aligned with company values, familiar with the games and ways of working.
Close-Network Workforce: Not full-time, but collaborators who repeatedly work with you on projects and development.
Custom Talent Pools: On-demand, company-curated pools of specialists from around the world that you can tap as a managed service.
Project-Based Talent Network: Global experts you can access instantly to staff specific, time-boxed needs.
You can layer AI and automation atop these human-centered models. Kept in the realm of human capabilities, these four pillars form the essential workforce architecture for innovation and rapid adaptation. The first step is adopting talent platforms and optimizing these channels.
As Fortune 500 companies quickly shift to flexible models, a fast-growing, ever-evolving sector like gaming will fall behind in innovation if it sticks to limited models. The video game market is expected to reach $546.99B by 2030. With over 3B players worldwide, the industry grows above 13% annually, and some areas—such as educational games—are expanding at twice that rate.
What You Gain by Meeting the Moment
Access to Specific Capabilities: Instantly bring in skills you can’t always keep in-house—e.g., a game economy designer or a UEFN developer—precisely for the time you need.
Speed: While full-time hiring can take 2+ months, platform-based matching takes 1–3 days, and start-of-work averages ~3 days.
Flexibility: Scale teams up or down with your project or live-ops needs; end projects immediately when done.
On-the-Job Upskilling: Bring in experts to seed new capabilities and transfer know-how to your team.
Cost Advantage: Flexible models let you work with top specialists you may not be able to hire full-time.
Quality & Meritocracy: Reviews, portfolios, and rating systems provide quality assurance and merit-based matching.
What You Need to Make It Work
Think Big, Start Small: Yes, you can build a global, cloud-based workforce uniquely yours. Start with a small step—e.g., a one-hour session with a global strategist, or a 1–2 month engagement with a Unity developer or game economy designer.
Remote-First Readiness: World-class talent is ready to work with you—just not necessarily onsite. Building remote workflows is critical for flexibility and access.
Time & Authority: For an external expert to succeed, assign an internal point person who can devote 15–30% of their time and grant the necessary access and decision rights.
Growth Mindset: Park the fixed mindset. Be willing to experiment, learn fast, and iterate your model.
Bottom line: Innovation depends on how well you leverage talent. In gaming, you can find the best capabilities instantly on a single platform. Learn more at www.dojotalent.com.
About DOJO Talent
DOJO Talent is an AI-powered talent marketplace enabling studios in Web3 and gaming to fill skill gaps quickly, seamlessly, and flexibly across roles like game engineering, design, art, blockchain development, and community management. It also lets talent build next-gen careers safely on one platform.
For over 10 years, we’ve worked with dedication to contribute to—and create value for—Turkey’s technology startup ecosystem. With deep expertise and a strong network, we support entrepreneurs. Join us to scale your technology venture and plug into our global network with Boğaziçi Venture