♪ haslinda: hello. i am haslinda amin in singapore. in the gaming world, he is a cult figure, a young man racing towards his first billion. tan min-liang is cofounder, ceo, and creative director at razer, a gaming hardware company at the forefront of what is today an estimated $100 billion industry. tan min-liang is today's high flyer. though consistently rated among the best gaming laptops in the world, razer began with a mouse

and grew from there. a market long neglected by the hardware giants, but one which has seen phenomenal growth. key to razer's success is building its brand around a club-like atmosphere, a slick logo, and stores that act like gaming dens in the real world. ♪ >> welcome to the first razer store in hong kong. [applause] >> thank you. haslinda: a cult figure at the company. ♪ haslinda: tan min-liang, welcome to "high flyers." we are excited to have you here. so you ditched law to be a gamer. huge gamer. min-liang: yes. haslinda: tell us what happened. min-liang: i was trained as a lawyer. i practiced law for about three

years, and i really enjoyed practicing law. haslinda: tell us the truth. min-liang: i have always enjoyed practicing the law, but i have always been a gamer first, since i was a kid. i have been incredibly passionate about gaming all the time. one day it was all about us trying to get an unfair advantage in gaming. it's all about that as a gamer, it is about positioning the monitor right, making sure you have the best gear possible. haslinda: it is about the mouse. min-liang: absolutely. the mouse is a bit like a weapon in the arsenal of a gamer. it is about precision. it is about accuracy. we came together all of us and said, can we design a better mouse? not a better mousetrap, but a better mouse. that was how it started. this was way before the days of crowdfunding, etc. we kind of fell into it by saying, ok, we are going to do the world's gaming mouse and we first design something more precise and accurate. we asked a couple friends, we are going to do a small run, do

you guys want one? it kind of grew from there. we grew from gaming mice, gaming keyboards. we are now number one in terms of gaming peripherals. we moved on to gaming laptops, and now virtual currency. and that is where we are. haslinda: you are highly successful, but the journey was quite difficult. in the early days, it started with two of you. it grew to 12 in a small room, as big as a genesis closet. what went through your mind? did you ever envision it was going to be this big? min-liang: no. i think for us it has always been about the product, right? we did not have an ultralong roadmap at that point in time. it was about designing products for ourselves. there was something very cool and we continue to see that. in fact, our teams are still pretty small in terms of designing product. it was, back then it was always the motto, "for gamers, by gamers." it has remained that since. haslinda: what is the most challenging part? because i know that you went through the dotcom crisis. also the taiwan earthquake. was that possibly the lowest point?

min-liang: back then in the early days it was just fun and games for us. we had not officially incorporated the company. we started in 2005. but when we first started, the question has been asked many times, what is our biggest challenge? but as gamers, it's like playing a computer game. even until today. every time we hit a roadblock or an obstacle, we take a step back and go, ok, how do i get around this? because we have been trained as gamers from day one, it is about trying again, again, and again. you can get there, you try a different way. you can't find a different way, you search on the internet for a walk through. so we enjoy challenges, and that is the odd thing about it. and once we cross that challenge, we go what is the next one? what else will we dominate or take over? that has been the mantra for razer, the management, the team, for the past couple of years. haslinda: isn't it true that you are pretty hands-on? as hands-on as you can be? you are involved in everything from developing the product to marketing the product, every aspect of the process? min-liang: well, we have a

pretty phenomenal team at razer. haslinda: but you are involved still in everything. min-liang: i am very involved in the brand. i am very involved with the marketing. i am very involved with the design of every single product. haslinda: why is there a need to be involved in every aspect? min-liang: it just came a little bit naturally for me. right from the get go, i sit in on every single aspect, whether it is industrial design, graphic design, a poster in poland or something we are shipping in the u.s. or something in asia. the stores, for example, i still go to every single store before it launches to ensure that every single aspect, the orientation of the logo, the light, color, is all in line with the brand. and the team has kind of realized the brand, essentially the razer brand is a logo for gamers all around the world. that is something that is a responsibility for us, to keep up that. haslinda: where do you go from here? you are what? 700 strong in nine countries in terms of global footprint?

min-liang: a third of our business is in the u.s., a third of it is in europe, a third in asia. so that is very cool. unfortunately, it also makes me have to look at every single aspect of the company regionally. we have got nine offices. our headquarters in san francisco, regional headquarters for asia-pacific in singapore, china headquarters in shanghai, and european headquarters in hamburg. that global footprint is really important for us because we are reaching out to gamers everywhere. we have to build distribution channels. we have to build stores everywhere, build different products for different gamers in different cultures in different game genres. we love it. we do this every single day. i wake up energized. haslinda: how difficult was it getting funding in the early days when few people understood what gaming was all about? min-liang: getting funding was incredibly difficult, at least from institutional investors in the early days, primarily because, as you mentioned, gaming has always been viewed as

a niche, but today it has become the biggest $100 billion niche, a pretty big niche right now. what our vision was to do was an entire ecosystem. think about it, two guys saying we will build an entire ecosystem of millions of products, of hardware products. we will have millions of people on our software platforms, and we will have services on top of that. it was a bit of a stretch for many of the guys in the early days. it was difficult, but we were able to get some really cool angel investors who believed in our vision, and since then we have had institutional investors, really great ones. intel capital, we recently had mr. li ka-shing invest through horizon ventures. i think, you know, since then, gaming has become more of an accepted market. it is one of the biggest segments in the entertainment industry, and one of the biggest areas investors are focused on. ♪ min-liang: the big question has been, razer is one of the biggest brands in gaming, when are we going to go mainstream?

i say we will never go mainstream. ♪ ♪

haslinda: "for gamers, by gamers," that is your mission, that's your motto. what is that about? min-liang: well, that is us in a single line for razer. "for gamers," we build everything for gamers and design and engineer products and services of course, and "by gamers," it is us, ourselves. when we were first founded, it was all about creating the very best experiences for ourselves as gamers. hand that's what we do. haslinda: you hire gamers essentially with an appreciation for gaming or you can't be part of the company? min-liang: absolutely. that is the number one thing we ask every single person. are you a gamer? do you appreciate gaming? of course, not everyone is a hard-core gamer, but it is really important that every single person that joins razer appreciates gaming, appreciates

gamers. haslinda: you talk about how your product has to be the best. take us through the thought process when developing a product, and what does it go through? i know you say sometimes you say burn hundreds, even millions of dollars to get to the right product. min-liang: it is simpler than that. the put things in perspective, we just want to design products for ourselves. until this day, since we were founded in 2005, it has always been the same thing, about designing the products for ourselves. and you think about it, if you are designing a product you are passionate about, it is no holds barred, no costs that will be spared, no compromises that will be made. and when you put things in perspective with the very best technical teams or engineers, that is what we really focus on, right? to really get things to the next level. haslinda: you have said before it does not have to make commercial sense. you have made, for instance, a left-handed mouse, which didn't quite sell, because few people need that.

why? why make products which do not make commercial sense? min-liang: well, that really goes back to our motto, "for gamers, by gamers," making sure -- when we talk about -- haslinda: you have to be profitable? min-liang: absolutely not. i will give you an example. when i first wanted a gaming laptop for myself, they were big and thick and heavy back in the day. i went to all the laptop manufacturers and said, design me a gaming laptop. superthin, superlight, and superpowerful. and they said it is going to be really expensive. nobody wants that. i went to every single one of them and i said let's do that. haslinda: not just expensive, they said it was impossible. min-liang: they said it was impossible, and it was not something people would want to buy, right? we went out and acquired the very best talent to build myself the best gaming laptop. and today, it is the fastest-growing segment in the pc segment. thin, powerful, light gaming laptops. haslinda: what is the vision like? what is the end goal? i mean, currently you talk about a cult following, about how some

of your followers tattoo the logo of the company, but some also tattoo your name on their arms, truth be told. min-liang: yes. haslinda: what is the end goal? min-liang: i don't think we have a real end goal in mind. it is a constant iterative process. it is all about making sure that everything we design -- haslinda: you acquired thx recently? min-liang: yes, absolutely. haslinda: what is the vision? min-liang: today, razer, we are the biggest brand from a lifestyle perspective for gamers, 2.6 billion gamers, a massive, massive segment. but over and above, entertainment, all of entertainment -- you've got movies, music. we acquired thx primarily because it has a cult following in music and movies. it is one of the biggest brands on the planet for that segment. so we look at all of entertainment as a whole. we believe we're going to build one of the biggest entertainment companies on the planet, and that's what we want to do, to

constantly push ahead and build the companies on the back of gaming, movies, and music. haslinda: do you need to bridge the gap between gamers and non-gamers in terms of your product? min-liang: that is a great question. i think, in the early days when i first founded the company, a lot of people said isn't gaming in niche market? we have many names for gamers all around the world. otaku in japan, things like that. but gaming is a little tiny subculture that has become a massive phenomenon worldwide. about every single person now is slowly being converted to a gamer. so back in the day, when gaming was stereotyped as a teenager living in his parents' basement, now almost every single person is gaming in some form or another. pc gaming, console gaming, mobile gaming. and for us, the big question has been --razer is one of the biggest brands in gaming, when are we going to go mainstream? i will say we will never go mainstream. haslinda: at a time when

everybody is going digital, you are actually opening up stores. what is the thinking? it's fascinating to think that your stores are always congested with gamers. min-liang: we don't necessarily look at strategies of other companies as a whole. we look at what the gamer wants. and in this case, we want to build a nexus, a temple, for gamers to be able to gather off-line. when they have to go to the mall, they all come to the razer store. they can see every single razer store involved -- san francisco, taipei, hong kong, it is always packed with an incredible number of gamers. that is where they identify themselves. they are going to go there and really focus on doing what they do best, which is gaming. haslinda: how do you feel when you take a look at your social media reach? because when you take a look at your own facebook account, it is more than 600,000 followers. take a look at razer's. it is 7.5 million. how do you engage the people who follow razer and yourself? min-liang: i think that is one of the biggest differences for

ourselves. right from the get-go, we always felt the customer is part of the team. and we are always talking to the customer in any ways and means -- they reach out to us, we reach out back to them. so we have got millions of followers on twitter, instagram, snapchat. myself, i talk directly to the gamers. it is a little unfiltered. i will be up front. most ceo's don't talk to gamers themselves, but i am there sharing the games i am playing. i'm chatting with the gamers all the time. i think it is an incredible way to get a finger on the pulse of how we are doing, the products we should be making, because "for gamers, by gamers" has always been about that for razer. haslinda: razer has been called the apple of gaming. min-liang: right. haslinda: is that a compliment? for you? min-liang: well, i think for ourselves, we chart our own destiny, right? i have got a huge amount of respect for what apple does. i think a lot of the parallels come from the fact that we have got a massive, massive fan base. there are two consumer brands.

apple is one of them. we are one of them. right? we have a massive fanatical base globally. for ourselves, i think we are focused on gamers, which is quite different from what apple is focused on. apple kind of grew their business on the back of music, which is a phenomenal segment to be in, but gaming we see as the future, and we believe it we will grow together with gaming as one of the biggest companies on the planet. ♪ min-liang: we see the whole entertainment industry converging. we have got the movie business getting into gaming. gamers getting into the movie business. that is what we are really excited about, that whole convergence, and there is so much to do. ♪ ♪

haslinda: born and bred in singapore. mom had a great influence on the family. min-liang: absolutely. my mom and dad had a great influence on all of us. haslinda: four kids? min-liang: four kids. she kind of bucked the trend of two is enough. back in the day, after two older sisters and an older brother. haslinda: take that. min-liang: right. my mom and dad have both had a

clear goals for their kids, for us, and here we are. haslinda: mom was also pretty clear what she wanted the kids to do. there are two lawyers and two doctors. min-liang: she was pretty traditional. i think back in the day she said like any singaporean parent, i think being a doctor or a lawyer would be a great profession. you guys can take your pick. you have lots of choices. my eldest sister is a doctor, my second sister is a lawyer. my brother is an oncologist. i was a lawyer for a bit. it worked out fine. haslinda: what was the reaction when you told the folks, law is not for me anymore? i want to try something else. be an entrepreneur. it was not a big deal at the time, be an entrepreneur? min-liang: it is definitely not now. startup culture is encouraged. haslinda: and sexy. min-liang: well, today. back then it was not. my parents and my father and mother have always been incredibly supportive of everything that we would do, our

passions, etc., so they were really progressive from that perspective. they said, look, you have got something to fall back on if need be, having your law degree, but if you want to do anything, including gaming, you can absolutely do that. haslinda: they knew what it was all about, though. min-liang: not exactly, at the start. i will be honest. i did it first and said, by the way, i am doing this razer thing. it took them a while to understand exactly what we were doing. and today i constantly remind my parents of how much they tried to restrict my gaming time. i say, look, it all worked out. haslinda: and you started gaming at the age of five. min-liang: absolutely, back on the apple ii. i have been gaming for a really long time. that is what i do. i believe there are many kids out there telling their parents, hey, look at him. you should give me more time to play computer games. i could be doing a gaming company in the future. haslinda: what is some advice that you can give to aspiring

entrepreneurs out there, the millennials wanting to do what you do, who hold you as a role model? min-liang: i'm not sure about being a role model. but i would say -- haslinda: when you have your name tattooed on someone's arm, you are probably more than just a role model. min-liang: i think it is about a couple of things. being passionate is really important. we have heard that often everywhere. but on top of that, it's not just about being passionate. it's about making sure everything you do is the very best possible. the passion really helps when it motivates you, when you're trying to design the 25th iteration of the same product, when you are kind of moving it a little bit, trying to eke out the very best amount of design and technology out of it. that will last you through, push you through, but making sure every single thing meets the bar. and when you meet the bar, it is always about the next thing you do to iterate on top of that and to push on top of that. that is what i would say. min-liang: but how do you motivate your team? i mean, they produce the best, and yet for the next product,

they have to exceed even the last expectations. min-liang: absolutely. and it is tough. we have won the biggest tech show seven times in a row. in the history of ces, we are the only tech company to be able to do that. for us coming into the eighth year, we've got to go like, ok, how do we push a little above that? and on top of it, when we have no one else to benchmark to, when we have the best gaming peripherals, the very best gaming laptop, there is no one to copy. so we only have ourselves to push ahead. and the way, i think i speak to the team, it is all about, look at our customer. look at how they feel when we launch a product. they camp overnight. they are there. some of them issued death threats, unfortunately. when they can't get a hold of the product. haslinda: they cry. min-liang: they cry. and they are so intensely passionate about the product. and that is what motivates the team. i don't motivate the team. the culture does not motivate the team. the customers do. and when an engineer, a

designer, a marketer realizes that our customers are so intensely in love with our products, that is what motivates them to make something even better the next time. haslinda: is there one product that makes you extremely proud? min-liang: i am proud of all our products. haslinda: is there one special one? min-liang: i think it is the entire ecosystem we have built. we have shipped a lot of hardware at razer. we have shipped $2 billion worth in the past couple of years, but on top of that, we have built this massive software platform that all the hardware connects back. that is 35 million people connected on a single platform. that itself we found incredibly cool. now we are serving up services on top of that. from moving to hardware, building a software platform, and now serving up virtual currency to millions of gamers out there, that is what i am really proud of. the team is really multidisciplinary. they are multitalented. they are really able to evolve really quickly from hardware to

software to services at the same time. and this razer ecosystem is something we are really proud of. and on top of that, it is a brand. the millions of fans out there, it is something we are really proud of, but something we feel incredibly responsible for. haslinda: you acquired thx. are you looking for more acquisitions? min-liang: i think historically -- haslinda: what would make sense? min-liang: we have acquired a couple of companies. in the past, we acquired oqo. one of the best companies. we hired them to build our gaming laptops. we acquired a company which has games on the android platform. we recently acquired nextbit, which has some of the most talented android engineers on the planet. they built a really cool cloud-based phone. we are always on the hunt for talent. most of the acquisitions are acquihires. they all joined because they look at the razer brand, they want to be able to design great product for gamers out there.

we are some of the coolest people in the world today. and that is what we continue to do, bring in great talent, and we are always on the lookout for phenomenal talent. haslinda: do you have free time? do you have other passions apart from razer? min-liang: i have no other passions aside from gaming. i'll be honest, i spend all my time at work. i love what i do. i can't imagine -- haslinda: commuting to three locations where you are-based? min-liang: singapore, san francisco, taipei. i go through the circuit every month. now i have taken up the dual role as ceo of thx at the same time. how challenging is that? min-liang: it is very cool. thx, all of us have seen that deep note sequence. we are looking at charting out what we can do, push the limits for cinema, push the limits for the home, push the limits for mobile. we have some of the best audio systems in cars today, the automotive segment. there is so much more. we see the whole entertainment industry converging. we have got the movie business

getting into gaming, gamers getting into the movie business. and that is what we are really excited about, that whole convergence. and there is so much to do. haslinda: so look into the crystal ball for us. how will technology change? what can we expect 10, 20 years down the road? what will be the game changer? min-liang: i think the biggest game changer that everybody is talking about, the biggest disruptor, will be ai, artificial intelligence. and to that point, i used self driving cars as a good example, where many things are automated. we do see that premise where in the future, if you get into a self-driving car, there are two things you have to do at that point in time, productivity or entertainment. and entertainment, that is what we are focused on. we want to bring the very best experiences, whether it is in the home, the cinema, mobile, in the car, and that's what we want to do at razer. to bring that across. haslinda: tan min-liang, we thank you for being on "high flyers" today. it has been a pleasure. min-liang: thank you so much.

haslinda: thank you. min-liang: appreciate your time. ♪

>> coming up on "bloomberg best," the stories that shaped the week in business around the world. tensions take another leg up. >> this will take chinese policymakers by surprise. china could make life more difficult. theresa may wins a brexit battle with parliament. >> they bake -- backed off. tries to hammer out a compromise on oil supplies. >> the victory goes to the saudi's. >> a chinese tech giant prepares to go public. disney and comcast five for fox.