Hrish is the founder and CEO of Superworld, a virtual world mapped onto Earth where you can buy blocks and create experiences. We met for the first episode of 50 Lunches. He's a digital nomad, travels constantly with his family, and speaks with the kind of ease that comes from having explored genuinely. The vision of Superworld... that's really just the shape he's given to a curiosity that's been driving him his whole life.
The explorer who built a platform for exploration
He's always loved exploring the world. Travel, new places, meeting people. Instead of fighting that, he built a company around it. Superworld lets anyone personalize their local map with content and services. You can buy blocks of Earth for about twenty dollars each. The vision is helping people interact with and monetize their relationship to real-world locations. You can build on your map, discover places and causes you care about, earn across advertising, e-commerce, gaming, real world assets. When I asked if this was his purpose, he gave it a ten. And then he explained... if he wasn't doing Superworld, he'd probably want to start a virtual world anyway. That's how aligned he is with the work. He's a social person, communicative, comfortable expressing vision and meeting with others who believe in that vision.
The through-line
He studied medicine initially, worked at the National Institutes of Health, pivoted to management consulting, then Wall Street to learn finance, then venture capital. He traveled to Eastern Europe and started a fund, investing in about twenty-five companies across Ukraine, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Moldova. Preply is one of them... now a unicorn. He co-founded Rogue Initiative Studios in Hollywood, a film, television, gaming, and immersive studio where his co-founder produced Call of Duty and his production partner is Michael Bay. Every career move was about learning something specific. Each taught him the next piece he needed. No linear path. Just curiosity chasing curiosity. When he saw Pokemon Go launch about ten years ago, he and his co-founder Max Woon thought... why does that have to be about Pokemon? Why not about your favorite places to travel, your favorite sports team, the nonprofits you support? That became Superworld.
What actually motivates
When I shared my Ikigai, he pointed out that 50 Lunches itself is the thing I'm doing naturally already. This format... the conversation, the pattern-seeking, the questions... is what I do when nobody's watching. It's play, not work. He said find what you do that looks like work to other people but feels like play to you. Do that. He's done it his whole life. Jumped on planes without knowing anyone. Joined fields he knew nothing about. Followed the excitement. Turned it into a company. The specific shape of the company matters less than the integrity of the pursuit. Stay curious. Jump in. See what you build.
