Why NFX Invested in Latitude: The AI-Powered Gaming Platform

Latitude is a fast-growing AI startup in Salt Lake City. They are a group of young, brilliant Ph.D.s and computer scientists with very special skills. They are applying those skills to building new types of games. Games the world hasn’t seen yet. They already have a million monthly active users with no marketing and they are already the largest consumers of GPT-3 processing.

When we were Founders ourselves, we rarely got an inside look at how investors made decisions. That’s why for the benefit of the Founder community we’re making known the three reasons why we invested in Latitude.

1. Unusual technical knowledge

This team is the go-to team for people around the world exploring applications of NLP AI — specifically OpenAI’s GPT platform, and specifically gaming. Doing something great in AI typically starts with horsepower and this team has it.

2. Contrarian approach

Most gaming companies and gaming teams will want to add AI to their games in the next 5 years. That will be great and will work.

But Latitude is an AI company first. They are coming from AI to games, not starting with games and adding AI. This different approach will produce a whole new class of games and has a chance to build the next iconic, defining company of the next level of games entertainment.

Gaming companies have been successful doing things their way for a long time. They have certain mental models and success patterns. Creating something new requires new mental models. New approaches.
We think the biggest breakthrough with AI and games will come from Latitude’s direction and it will be disruptive, not incremental.

3. Judgment

Great consumer companies need to balance many elements, and this team has great judgment. Balancing Growth and profitability. Speed and stability. Control and partnership. New approaches and tried-and-true techniques.
Developing this new form of entertainment is going to require skillful decision making from the founding team and the building of a unique culture. We believe this team has that ability.

We can’t wait to see what they come up with next. If you’re into AI and the future of humanity, you should try to get in touch with them.