EGD 012: Growing a Profitable Games Company with Mariina Hallikainen CEO of Colossal Order

Today I talk with Mariina Hallikainen, the CEO of Colossal Order, a Tampere, Finland based company that developed the hugely successful game Cities: Skylines in 2015.
Mariina is a first-time CEO of a games company with 24 people, and she has been learning everything on the job. This is a really interesting discussion, and couldn’t be more pleased with all the insights that Mariina shares with us.
Some of the topics we cover:
- You were new to running a games company. How did you learn to do it?
- What was work like before Cities: Skylines came out? Versus now?
- How do you operate as a CEO of Colossal Order? What is your leadership style?
- How do you approach risk taking?
- Do you discuss the values? How much do they come up?
- How are your approaching new projects and growing the company?
- Where do you see the opportunities for Colossal in the market?
- Do you have a story that shaped you in how you approach your work?
Content mentioned on the episode:
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Where can you find the episode:
- Listen on Apple iTunes
- Listen on Spotify
- Listen on Stitcher
- More links to your favorite Podcast apps, click here
More episodes are available on the Podcast main page. Hope you enjoy the podcast!