Nauman Mulla is the Co-Founder and COO of STAN — a blockchain-based esports fan engagement startup that lies at the intersection of esports, influencer tech and Web3. At STAN, he is primarily responsible for handling partnerships, operations and execution. He also oversees influencer management and community management in order to ensure that the long-term objectives of the startup are fulfilled.
Son of a central government engineer, Nauman completed his education at Government School, Sankeshwar and then he moved to Belagavi to complete a Bachelor in Business Administration at Shaikh College Belgaum Institute of Management Studies. Consequently, living there provided him with immense exposure and opportunities while competing against the brightest minds. This spark of ambition offered him a glimpse of what lay beyond Belagavi for the journey ahead. Later, he got into the prestigious AIMS Institute, Bengaluru, to pursue his Masters in Business Administration.
After completing his education, Nauman took a step toward the corporate world. He has worked with a bunch of prestigious companies like Apple, Times of India, Decathlon, Emaar Dubai, Nimo TV (Huya Live), and India Today Group. While working with the professionals he gained experience in the field of operations management, sales, marketing, and most importantly, esports. His never-die attitude and excellent communication skills eventually paved the way for him in relationship building, team-building and leadership. His father and the exposure he received during his graduation played a very important role in inculcating these skills in Nauman’s personality.
Nauman, from his teenage years, was inclined towards gaming and took great interest in it. As he quotes, “I live and breathe gaming as my prime hobby and interest”. He played games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) with great pleasure. This fascination led him to follow the international esports tournaments on Ten Sports. It was when his job started that didn’t allow him to be able to invest enough time in what he actually enjoyed. It was the launch of PUBG that brought all his childhood memories back and he got his hands back on gaming. He started playing the game religiously along with his cousins and aced great levels. He closely followed the start and rise of MortaL, Scout, and SoniC in PUBG (now called BGMI). In other games like FreeFire, he followed the rise of Total Gaming, Assassins Army, Lokesh Gamer, and Telugu Gaming FF. Over time, he built close relationships with the gamers and esports Orgs like Villager esports, SkyEsports, GlobalEsports, War Mania and many more.
Nauman’s work experience has indeed contributed a lot in helping him become who and what he is today. His stint at Nimo TV (Huya Live) taught him how to organize esports events and live stream matches; Decathlon gave him crucial knowledge about team management and conducting turn-key projects. Every bit has helped him bring STAN to life along with other co-founders. He met Parth, co-founder and CEO of STAN, right after his time with Nimo TV (Huya Live) where he helped Parth in organizing 2-3 PUBG Mobile events, and thereafter teamed up with him to play a key role in scaling Parth’s startup EWar Games. Parth later pitched the idea to pursue a venture on something around digital collectibles, and Nauman added the gamification and perks aspect to the mix; this in turn eventually led to the creation of STAN.
Nauman’s long-term vision with STAN is to play out on the global stage, as he believes that the scope of the product is not limited only to India. He wants to create the largest blockchain-based NFT gaming ecosystem helping the creator economy in gaming and esports. The mission of STAN is to bridge the gap between gaming creators and gaming fans. Nauman along with his team is working hard to make sure that they help the growing esports community across India while creating stars out of STAN.
Beyond work, Nauman is an avid gamer forever. He also likes to play badminton and is a nerd when it comes to collecting classics and superbikes!
About STAN:
STAN- a Bengaluru-headquartered up-and-coming blockchain-based fan engagement startup that is dedicated to uplifting and empowering the fans of various gaming creators and esports players in India and worldwide. To this end, STAN provides a first-of-its-kind platform and community where they get to collect, play and engage with their favorite esports and gaming-related collectibles and earn amazing perks and rewards. Notably, STAN’s platform is built on top of the Polygon blockchain, and thus it enables engagement for its users through a plethora of fun gamified loopable layers on the platform, which is made easily accessible to non-crypto native users along with the added advantages of abstraction, low gas fees and fast processing of the transactions. The start-up is funded and backed by renowned VC firms like General Capitalist and Better Capital; it has recently raised US $2.5M in its maiden seed fundraising round.
STAN is also coming up soon with India’s first blockchain-based fantasy for esports. They also have plans to add many new features on their platform and aggressively acquire new users in the near future, alongside continuing to partner with many more leading creators and celebrated legends in the esports arena. STAN aims to be every esports/gaming fan’s top-of-the-mind and one-stop destination to actively engage, play and grow closer to their idols through a uniquely crafted experience utilizing digital collectibles/mutable NFTs, all while enabling fans to realize their wildest and craziest fan dreams, while in parallel also tapping into the booming Web3 economy!