The business side of your game studio, handled by someone who has run one.

Advisor and part-time exec for game teams. Former studio CEO. Product and business, operations, key hires, publishers and investors.

  • Self-published game

    • 150%+

      ROAS, D30+

    • $2M+

      revenue to date

    As CEO, I started the game, built the team, launched it and set up UA, monetization and production to scale.

  • Publisher deal

    • 100%

      D30 ROAS

      4 months of rework, then terms signed by a publisher.

  • Studio

    • ~50

      people

      Operations and team built from scratch.

Portrait of Ilia Matanov

Previously at Playrix, Kefir, Flo Health

Client teams built by veterans of Gaijin, Product Madness, MY.GAMES and tinyBuild.

Next: Game Show Asia, Bangkok, Oct 28. Meet me there.

Five teams, five results.

  • Idle RPG studio

    Monetization overhauled, analytics set up. First early signal above 100% ROAS D7 on its own paid users.

  • Non-gaming business funding a mobile game

    Game direction rebuilt as a studio inside the business: strategy, business plan, four key roles, a hiring plan through to scale. Development nearly 2× faster than on the previous version; CPI 3× lower after setting tests.

  • Team led by a 20-year industry veteran

    From five rejections to talks with the two largest publishers in its genre, in about a month.

  • Five-person senior team looking for freelance work

    Repackaged from hired hands into an investable studio: offer, deal model, investor deck. Direct interest from a tier-1 publisher within two weeks.

  • Studio preparing to raise

    Repositioned the game and closed the gap in the team: a producer with a project sold to a publisher, hired in two weeks. Raise prepared for four audiences: decks, deal terms, cap table.

Case: own studio, as CEO

Anime Dating Sim, launched from scratch: 150%+ ROAS self-published, $2M+ revenue to date.

From zero. I started the project and hired the whole team, every person on it.

Production. An AI pipeline made art 5× and narrative 3× faster.

Scale. Six-figure partnerships with two of the largest ad networks.

Producing one story went from 5 months to 3–4 weeks.

5 months

3–4 weeks

I took three weeks off and nothing changed.

Runs without me. After I handed the project over, ROAS went higher still.

Where I come in. Most projects need more than one.

  • Product and business

    What to build, what to cut and what it will earn: positioning, economy and monetization, roadmap, unit economics, UA and payback.

  • Operations

    Planning, release cadence, budgets and burn. A studio that ships on schedule and knows what each month costs.

    −20% burn rate. Cut as COO, before I took over as CEO.

  • Team and key hires

    A team built from scratch, or the one person your project, team and business actually need. I source, interview and close.

    ~500 interviews over the past couple of years. Every one run personally.

    <5% annual turnover. In the studio I led. Average tenure 2.5 years.

  • Publishers and investors

    Positioning, pitch, deal terms and direct introductions to publishers, games funds and generalist investors.

    2,000 contacts. Publishers and investors, in my own database.

I meet the industry in person, not just online.

  • Ilia in conversation at a mobile games mixer
  • Ilia listening in a group conversation at an evening industry event
  • Ilia with fellow attendees at an industry event
  • Ilia with a booth team at a games conference
  • Ilia at the sponsor wall of a games conference

From one call to a seat in the team.

  1. 30 minutes

    30-min call

    Free. You leave with a clear read on one decision and the next step.
  2. 2–3 days

    Pitch and positioning review

    Before you go to an investor or a publisher: the deck, the numbers, the ask.
  3. about 2 weeks

    Focused audit

    Product, economy, operations, go-to-market, funding readiness. A written report with a verdict.
  4. a few sessions

    Focused sprint

    One or a few defined tasks, solved over several working sessions.
  5. monthly

    Ongoing advisory or part-time exec

    Regular access through a stage, or a role inside the team.

More revenue from the same UA spend.

Live games on the platform see up to 25% higher ROAS on the same budget.

Same UA budget

Up to +25% ROAS

What's included depends on your stage and what you need.

ML platform. For live games buying traffic. Early LTV forecasts, smarter UA budget allocation and player segments. Built and run by a team of senior data engineers. LiveOps tools are next.

Analytics audit. Find what's broken or missing in your events, attribution and dashboards before you bet on the numbers.

Setup from scratch. An event plan, integration and dashboards sized to the stage your game is at.

Decisions, not reports. I read the data with your team and turn it into product, monetization and UA decisions.

Early access

Balance workspace for idle games

Every variable on one canvas. Each change simulated across player segments before it ships.

Writing

The question next to the question

The three questions founders bring to a first call, and what sits next to each.

Bring one decision. I'll give it thirty minutes.

The call is free. You leave with a clear read on that decision and the next step.

Book a 30-min call