Behind the Scenes with our Head of Finance & Partnerships, Teri Tan

Mighty Bear Games’ Head of Finance & Partnerships, Teri Tan, is the latest to take the hot seat as part of our ongoing spotlight series, profiling the team members who are shaping the future of an accessible, inclusive, and fun decentralized gaming ecosystem.

Singaporean native, and self-proclaimed DotA addict, Teri brings you through their life from being a member of the Singapore national soccer team to meeting their partner through a shared love of an NFT collection.

Tell me about yourself, your background, and your career to date.

So, my career to date has mostly been in finance roles. Prior to my current role at Mighty Bear Games, I lived in New York City for ten years and worked at a crypto merchant bank called Galaxy. I spent my time there across a number of roles — initially on the investments team, then helped out on more strategic matters, including M&A, and did several acquisitions on behalf of Galaxy. In my last two years there, I was one of the founding members of Galaxy’s investment banking team and a year into this, I specialized in Web3 gaming, NFTs, and the metaverse sub-industries. I then moved back to Singapore to join Mighty Bear Games — and here we are!

Tell me a bit about your current role at Mighty Bear Games.

I’m the Head of Finance and Partnerships. On the finance side, I am in charge of anything from internal planning and budgeting, to fundraising and investor relations. The partnership side includes commercial opportunities, user acquisition, and product partnerships. So, think of me as one of the main external facing roles at Mighty Bear Games — in addition to our Co-Founder and CEO Simon, of course!

I was initially attracted to Mighty Bear Games and the opportunity to work here because of the company’s traditional game developer experience. It’s no secret that the current Web3 gaming landscape needs good games and Mighty Bear Games is one of the teams with a solid shot of becoming the next major player in this space. Of course, having traditional game dev expertise is not enough, Mighty Bear Games also has quite a Web3 native team, which is a core part of the requirements to succeed. The whole studio is knowledgeable in Web3, from the senior developer to the junior artist. For me, that was a really big part of what I wanted to do next, so the fact that I could combine my interest in both Web3 and gaming was a bit of a no-brainer for me. I always liked gaming as a kid, and growing up I never thought that I could make gaming part of my career. Now, I am very pleased at the convergence of my professional expertise and my passion!

What is something that most people do not know about you?

Something that not many people know about me is that I used to play on the Singapore national soccer team. I was also featured in a soccer advertisement for Audi alongside players from FC Bayern Munich. I just showed up and was suddenly playing with World Cup superstars!

What feature in ‘Mighty Action Heroes’ are you most excited for?

I am most excited about all of the upcoming social features (shhhh not going to expose our plans yet ;)) I think of gaming as a very social activity, and so, many of my favourite games are those I can play with my brother. Our way of hanging out is sitting on the couch and playing games for a couple of hours. So, that’s why social features are the most exciting features in my opinion.

What action hero best depicts your life?

Not quite an action hero, but the first character to pop into my mind is a minion. When you think of a minion, you think of somebody who’s really small — I am physically very tiny, only being five feet. A minion is also full of energy but also sometimes a little bit annoying. They’re also very bright and capture a lot of attention, and I feel like that’s an accurate representation of my character.

Do you have any favourite games that you enjoy playing?

I refer to myself as a DotA addict. I have been playing DotA for almost 15 years now and if you ask anyone close to me, they would say it is one of my defining characteristics. I am also obsessed with escape rooms. I’ve tried them in quite a number of countries! There aren’t that many virtual versions, but my favourite is Rusty Lake. They are a puzzle/escape room-style series of games that are very addictive.

If you could have any superpower, what would you choose?

If I could have any superpower, I would want infinite energy. I wouldn’t have to sleep and I could go to every party, hang out with everybody, and not be tired. I could do everything!

Do you have a favourite NFT Collection?

My favourite NFT collection is Doodles — hands down. They are sentimental to me as quite a few good things have happened in my life because of Doodles.

My first NFT was actually an Axie back in 2018. I was quite inactive in NFTs for quite a bit of time after that. In 2021, I purchased a Doodle and reentered the space. I then happened to meet one of the founders, Burnt Toast, and we really clicked! He made me realise how great the Doodles community is. Then, thereafter, I met so many amazing people including our Co-Founder and CEO Simon Davis, at a Singapore Doodles event — and we all know how that turned out! I also met my partner by bonding over our passion for Doodles. So yes, Doodles is a lot more than just an NFT collection to me!

What’s one piece of advice that you’d give to anyone that’s been transformative in your career?

The biggest piece of advice that I try to remind myself of every day is that it’s okay to take a break and take care of yourself.

It’s also most definitely important for you to have fun in your career. I didn’t realise how much fun that you could have in a job until I joined Mighty Bear Games. It’s the small things, like somebody responding to your very serious question at work with a GIF, that build culture at the company. I didn’t realise that I was missing all that until now and how important it is to have fun!

To keep up with Teri, you can follow them on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Join the Mighty Bear Games community and learn more about how we’re making decentralized gaming accessible for everyone here.