This was super interesting. It took me a while to get through it, but I was engaged every time I read. I loved hearing about the rise of a black CFO from Detroit & I learned a lot about Esports & their value for students. I also learned a lot about the rise of a start up and business practices in general. I admire a lot of the qualities of Delane Parnell. He has stayed true to himself, his upbringing, his original goals for PlayVS and his treatment of others.

Reading this book made me want to get into esports! I grew up a gamer and hearing about the story of Delane Parnell and the struggles he went through to achieve his dream was absolutely fantastic. He sounds like an amazing person and reading about all of the achievements of not just him, but the people around him who helped make his company a reality was great. I really recommend this book and I'm glad I took my time reading it.

This book spent the first couple dozen pages throwing so many people and so much information, including multiple companies, at me without even getting to many members of the team that's the main focus of the book. Writing style was good otherwise but I just don't think this would get much attention in our library system

This was such a great read and left me confused as to why I had not heard of this founder before. Learning about esports and Delane was interesting and made this book hard to put down. Seeing some of the obstacles Delane faced was heartbreaking and highlighted his determination and focus. I would recommend this book to others, especially those interested in tech and esports. Will keep my eye out for when this title is released.

As someone deeply steeped in the tech industry, I am embarrassed to admit that this is the first time I have heard of Delane Parnell and his rise to run one of the most successful startups of the modern era. His company, PlayVS, has grown into an eSports powerhouse, and Parnell's origin story is told with lots of verve and interest in this book. When he funded his first venture round, he was the third largest such round by a Black-owned business. PlayVS was responsible for recruiting thousands of high school gamers to participate in the first ever varsity-level gaming contests, with almost half of the players being in their first after-school activity ever. The story shows the numerous obstacles that the venture capital world -- like the rest of society -- places on successful Black entrepreneurs and how remarkable Parnell managed to overcome them to build his company. For all potential entrepreneurs, this is a must-read book.

As a gamer and a former streamer who also grew up in a city just like Kevin's, it's always nice to hear about people who were able to separate themselves from the "normal" of their surroundings and make something more of themselves.

The gaming industry is always changing; not just for esports from pretty much every aspect of gaming. From MMORPG's to FPS to even farming sim games like Animal Crossing -- this pandemic played a huge part in changing the gaming industry forever.

I absolutely enjoyed reading about this; people who create careers based on gaming don't get enough credit. It's now a very competitive niche, to succeed is not an easy thing to accomplish these days. But there is an audience for every gaming niche, even something like esports which was just one of those casual genre's you'd play with friends.

I was really intrigued by the premise of e-sports that whole gaming aspect of this! The story of Delane Parnell and everything that you learn about reading this book is super interesting.

For someone who knew little about esports (except it existed) and had never even heard of Delane Parnell this was an very intriguing read. You learn a lot about esports, start ups, the gaming and tech industry. Delane's story is very inspiring and shows the importance of perseverance. I enjoyed this book very much.

The only thing i didn't really like was way the book was set up. You not only get the story of Delane Parnell en PlayVS, but also how esports changed the lives of American students. Both are very compelling, but those storylines do not intertwine very smoothly. You go from one chapter about Delane to suddenly another chapter just about esports and no mention of Delane. In the beginning of the book that is a bit confusing, espcially because the book is marketed as the story of Delane Parnell.