Founders Fund Launches “MAFIA the GAME” Starring Sam Altman, Palmer Luckey, and Bryan Johnson
Founders Fund has launched a new online game show, “MAFIA the GAME,” featuring a lineup of prominent Silicon Valley figures including OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, and biohacker Bryan Johnson. The debut episode premiered Thursday on YouTube and X, according to Business Insider and TechCrunch.
The show centers on the party game Mafia, in which players are assigned secret roles and try to figure out who among them is lying and “killing” off the others. Business Insider described the premiere as a murder-mystery-style competition with 12 participants drawn from the tech world, while the show itself frames the game as one about “deceiving and detecting deception.”
Alongside Altman, Luckey, and Johnson, the first episode included biohacker Josie Zayner, Wait But Why writer Tim Urban, professional poker player Liv Boeree, AI policy expert Ryan Beiermeister, Figma founder Dylan Field, Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike, angel investor Cyan Banister, Flexport founder Ryan Petersen, and Founders Fund partner Trae Stephens, according to Business Insider.
The series is being hosted by Mike Solana, Founders Fund’s chief marketing officer, who also moderated the debut episode. In a post on X, Solana said the next two episodes will be released on Thursdays over the coming weeks, suggesting the project is intended as an ongoing series rather than a one-off stunt.
The launch reflects a broader push by venture firms and tech companies to build audience-facing media around their brands and founders. In this case, Founders Fund is using a familiar social game and a cast of well-known tech personalities to turn Silicon Valley in-jokes and rivalries into entertainment, while giving viewers a rare chance to watch some of the industry’s most visible figures compete in a setting built around bluffing, strategy, and social pressure.