Inner Table founder Kirat on using celebrities and live streams to set his poker studio apart in a market where every studio looks the same: “Unfortunately, if you go to a poker studio, there’s not something very unique that you can do. The good thing we have is a bunch of influencer and celebrity connects.” “If you really look at it, it’s very commoditised, right? Every poker studio is better than the other when it comes to decor. There’s no real way to separate them.” “What I’ve learned over time is what real poker players are looking for is a lot of normies, or what are traditionally called fish, to play with. That’s how you attract the best.” “The best poker players, they don’t want to play against regs. They want to play against new people, people who are playing casually and for leisure.” “India is a very celebrity-driven country. Everyone wants to see themselves on YouTube. If we start a tournament, we would have motivations other than money to reach the final table, just to be on the channel.” “Mostly you’ll see in India, any channel that does well follows 3 years after a channel that did well in the US. MrBeast did well in the US, you’ll find someone who’s doing the exact same content in India in 3 years.” “It’s a blue ocean market in general. Competition doesn’t change much here. The market is pretty big.” FT @kirat_tw @TheInnerTable

Ownership Podcast S2 E2: Kirat (@TheInnerTable) "Taking poker mainstream, one studio at a time." 00:00 Intro 01:00 @kirat_tw's background: Superteam, Backpack and a 600K YouTube channel 02:16 From Goldman to Gather Town to Backpack 04:56 Surviving FTX and going all in on YouTube 06:02 What The Inner Table is and why poker 06:49 How India banned online poker but legalised offline studios 08:03 The economics of a poker studio 09:43 Kirat's poker history and what the game teaches founders 13:29 Bigger ambitions beyond one studio 15:52 What makes The Inner Table different 18:48 Community, licensing and the launch timeline 19:56 Why Kirat chose MetaDAO and Backable 21:29 The raise: terms and what $100K builds 23:11 What early success looks like 24:15 The biggest risk: regulation 26:22 Where crypto could fit: token perks and freerolls 28:01 Why back The Inner Table and closing thoughts This show is sponsored by @MetaDAOProject

InnerTable founder Kirat on how India's online poker ban opened a "blue ocean" for offline poker studios: "Around last year is when a regulation came out, and anything related to or close to gambling, or even games of skill, got banned, including poker. But there was no regulation around offline poker." "Every state will decide on its own whether or not playing Texas Hold'em is considered to be a game of skill or not. And if it is deemed to be a game of skill, then yes, you can start offline places where people play these specific games." "It started off with Karnataka, then Uttar Pradesh, recently Haryana. That now covers 4 to 5 states, around 10 to 20% of the Indian map." "Poker studios are fairly profitable. Most of the revenue comes from a 5% rake. It's a very blue ocean business. If you start one, you'll definitely be profitable." "Even if you have probably 100 people stepping into your poker studio every day, in a country like India, you can make at least $200K a month in top line, probably more." "We're starting in Noida or Delhi with our very first studio. We're going to start live streaming offline poker events in the country, to make it more mainstream." FT @kirat_tw @TheInnerTable