sometimes for weeks at a time — also became a passion for Muzyka and De Boer. Their travels helped bring Muzyka close to the many problems plaguing the planet, and he was searching for ways to make social change. His work at BioWare had started to feel a little routine. And for Muzyka, routine is antithetical to his belief in the Taoist philosophy of self-improvement. His goal, whether in joining medical school or launching a gaming company, is simple: strive to be better than he was the day before. “Don’t seek an outcome,” he says, “just strive.” The question, though, was strive toward what? “I was wondering, what am I passionate about? What am I most interested in?” He thought back to his Hippocratic oath, to the self-discovery made possible through his games, to the rush of his entrepreneurial days. The answer lay where all of these overlapped. Not long after the 2011 lecture in London, Muzyka got to work on his resignation letter and an even more important letter for his colleagues. “I feel similar now to how I felt in the early days of BioWare,” he wrote in his retirement blog. “While I was still practising as an ER physician, back when I first realized that the world of video games was my next career ‘chapter.’ ” This newest “third chapter” would be different and downright scary, he wrote, but it “stems from the simple hope of helping the world to be a better place.” Muzyka and Zeschuk would reunite once more before the game community, at the 2013 Game Developers Choice Awards in San Francisco, where they were honoured with lifetime achievement awards. By then, Zeschuk had launched his web series, The Beer Diaries. And Muzyka had found Threshold Impact’s first investment: NPO Zero, a for-profit venture that offers services such as marketing and accounting to non-profits so they can focus on their philanthropic efforts. Other Threshold Impact investments include the organic food
delivery service SPUD.com (Sustainable Produce, Urban Delivery); Lenddo, a microfinancing organization operating in the developing world that helps people who are working to develop a new credit history and build banking relationships to leverage their social media reputations to obtain a loan; and Basis Science, which produces health-focused wearable technology. (In March, Intel acquired Basis for an undisclosed price.) Since October 2012, Muzyka has vetted some 200 startups through Threshold Impact. While he vets candidates for passion, humility, creativity, leadership and business and finance fundamentals, his wife, De Boer, looks primarily at the finances. “I tend to be more conservative in our investment approach,” she says. It’s too early to say what Threshold Impact will grow to be. Education, health care, social and animal rights, the environment, entrepreneurial mentorship, information technology and medical innovations are all interesting and important to Muzyka. For the moment, he is “data gathering,” as he has been known to call the step before deciding. He has also joined the investment team as a venture adviser at iNovia Capital, a North American venture capital firm that funds new technology, which along with his angel investing and mentorship with early-stage entrepreneurs has brought him closer to the guts and glory of entrepreneurship he has missed since leaving BioWare. The startup world today is a lot different from the one Muzyka and his partners entered in the early ’90s, when they had to max out their credit cards to get BioWare off the ground. Their first office was so rundown that they’d start the computers in a particular order every morning so as not to perturb the faulty electrical wiring. Today, even in a modest city like Edmonton, there is a community of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, incubators and co-work spaces, and multiple organizations to help new companies.
Muzyka is excited to be a part of this entrepreneurial “ecosystem.” He’s also excited to share his good fortune and experience with other entrepreneurs through the U of A’s Venture Mentoring Service, launched last fall. The VMS volunteer program pairs successful alumni of varied entrepreneurial backgrounds with alumni and students looking for guidance. Each fledgling entrepreneur is paired with several mentors to assist in pitching, fundraising, human resources, marketing, leadership or whatever daunting skill they’re lacking. As chair of the program, Muzyka helped select the first 15 entrepreneurs and the first 30 mentors — including, of course, Zeschuk. [More on VMS, page 19.] Ashlyn Bernier, ’06 BSc, ’11 PhD, ’13 MBA, manager of the Venture Mentoring Service, got to know Muzyka as they worked on the VMS pilot program. “Ray is surprisingly humble, considering his accomplishments,” Bernier says. “He’s going to be great as the champion of VMS.” The focus of the Venture Mentoring Service — which is based on a program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that has spawned some 40 incarnations around the world — is less on the company and more on the entrepreneur. It’s about building people. And that, in a way, includes Muzyka, in his ongoing quest for self-improvement. At just 45, Muzyka has had three careers: doctor, game developer and angel investor. Although each career is dramatically different, he can see how each chapter adds up to a single story — that “simple hope” of helping make the world a better place. “In health care, you’re administering medicine in a very personal way. At BioWare, I was helping the world in a different way, bringing people emotional engagement and happiness through story-based games. This new chapter is about trying to provide a different kind of support and help.” Will it be his last chapter? “I hope not,” he says. “There’s still room for one or two more.” new trail spring 2014 21