Future Group: Startup Story, Funding & Lessons (2026)

From The Matrix to a $75M Fundraise: A Founder's Playbook

Raising $75 million is a monumental task. Raising it for a product that doesn’t fit into any existing box—a new category of tech-driven entertainment—is even harder. Yet that’s what Bård Anders Kasin, founder of Portal One, accomplished.

His journey from a small town in Norway to the visual effects team on The Matrix to a two-time founder provides a blueprint for ambitious builders. It’s a case study in developing technical mastery, making hard strategic choices, and telling a story so compelling that investors have to buy in. We’ve distilled his experience into a tactical playbook.

Lesson 1: Develop Technical Creativity and “Sharp Elbows”

Long before he founded companies, Kasin was a teenager obsessed with 3D graphics in a small Norwegian town. When a local industrial CEO saw him modeling a helicopter, he was hired on the spot at 16 to visualize factories, working from after school until midnight.

The first test of his entrepreneurial instincts came when he needed a more powerful computer. A new Silicon Graphics machine cost $10,000—an impossible sum. Instead of giving up, he found a creative workaround. He located a used machine from Coca-Cola in Canada with a broken graphics card. Then, he convinced a bank to finance the $7,000 purchase and the cost of a support agreement. That agreement meant Silicon Graphics was obligated to replace the broken card, getting him a $10,000 machine for a fraction of the price.

The Founder Takeaway: This isn’t just a clever anecdote; it’s the startup mindset in miniature. Your resourcefulness is your primary asset. Whether it’s negotiating a server bill, finding a backchannel to a key recruit, or structuring a creative deal, the ability to find a way around obstacles is a non-negotiable founder skill.

Lesson 2: The Fork in the Road: B2B vs. B2C

After decades of pushing boundaries in film and TV (including a pivotal stint in San Francisco working on The Matrix ), Kasin co-founded his first company, The Future Group. The startup developed groundbreaking interactive mixed-reality technology.

Soon, they faced a classic strategic dilemma. They had two potential paths:

B2B: License their powerful technology to other large media companies. · B2C: Use the technology to build their own consumer-facing entertainment experiences.

His investors, more familiar with predictable enterprise SaaS models, pushed for the B2B licensing path. The company followed that advice, rebranding as Pixotope. It became a massive success, powering broadcasts for the Super Bowl, The Weather Channel, and major Chinese television networks.

But Kasin’s passion remained on the consumer side. He made the difficult decision to leave and pursue the B2C vision himself, founding Portal One.

How to Navigate the B2B vs. B2C Decision

Founders often stumble here, letting their investors’ biases dictate their company’s entire future. Use this framework to make a deliberate choice.

Investor Archetype: Does your cap table have deep enterprise SaaS experience or consumer growth experts? Their network and advice will be most valuable if aligned with your model. Kasin’s first investors understood B2B, which made it a safer path for them. · Go-to-Market Motion: Are you built to hire and manage a team of account executives closing six-figure deals? Or are you wired for performance marketing, community building, and viral loops? They are fundamentally different disciplines. · Capital Efficiency: B2B often involves a longer, more expensive sales cycle but can lead to large, recurring contracts. B2C can scale explosively but may require burning millions on marketing to acquire users before revenue catches up. · Founder-Market Fit: What are you genuinely passionate about? Kasin’s story shows that even a successful B2B outcome couldn’t override his desire to build a B2C experience. A mismatch here leads to founder burnout.

The common mistake: Choosing a model solely because it seems easier to fundraise for in the short term. This can trap you in a business you don’t love, building for a customer you don’t understand.

Lesson 3: The Art of Creating a New Category

Portal One doesn’t make games in the traditional sense. It’s a platform for "hybrid entertainment," combining live TV-quality production with interactive gameplay. When you’re pitching something that doesn’t exist, you can’t use simple comparisons. You have to create the category itself.

This is high-difficulty fundraising. Investors are trained in pattern-matching. If they can’t fit you into a neat box (e.g., "It’s a SaaS for dentists"), their default answer is "no." To get to "yes," you need a new playbook.

How to Pitch a New Category

Name It, Frame It: Give the new category a name. "Hybrid games," "social entertainment," "interactive mixed reality." This gives investors a handle to grab onto. · Use Strategic Analogies: Since a direct comparison is impossible, use analogies. Portal One combines the production value of TV, the engagement of interactive gaming, and the community of social media. This paints a picture using familiar concepts. · Show, Don’t Tell: For an abstract concept, a demo is worth a thousand slides. Kasin’s deep experience meant he could build a compelling prototype that made the vision tangible. · Answer the "Why Now?": A new category is only possible when an underlying shift occurs. Is it new technology (like 5G or cloud streaming)? A cultural shift (like the rise of the creator economy)? You must articulate why your idea is finally possible today.

Lesson 4: Raising $75M with the Second-Time Founder Superpower

Kasin’s ability to raise an immense $75M round for Portal One wasn't magic. It was a direct result of the credibility he built and the success he delivered with Pixotope. Being a second-time founder is a fundraising superpower.

His previous investors knew he could execute. They had seen him build a team, develop world-class technology, and find a successful business model. This de-risked the new venture enormously. When you're a known quantity, the fundraising conversation changes from "Can you do it?" to "How big can this be?"

To raise a round of this magnitude, your "storytelling" needs to evolve beyond a simple pitch deck. You need to present a complete and rigorous business case. For a $75M check, investors expect:

A Multi-Year Financial Model: Detailed projections on user growth, revenue, and burn rate. · A Precise Use of Funds: Exactly how the capital will be deployed across hiring, platform development, marketing, and content acquisition. · A Clear Vision for the Platform: A roadmap for how Portal One would grow from a single experience to a platform where other developers could build their own hybrid games. · A Compelling Narrative: A story that ties it all together. For Kasin, it was the culmination of his life’s work—from The Matrix to Pixotope, all leading to this moment.

The non-obvious truth: The expectations for second-time founders are also much higher. You’re expected to move faster, make fewer unforced errors, and recruit a world-class team from day one. The advantage is real, but it comes with immense pressure.

How to Apply This Playbook This Week

You don’t need to be raising $75M to use these lessons. Here are four things you can do right now:

Audit Your Resourcefulness. Identify one obstacle holding you back. Instead of accepting it, spend an hour brainstorming three "hacks" or unconventional ways to get around it, just like Kasin did with his first computer. · Clarify Your Business Model. Write down the core pros and cons of a B2B versus B2C model for your startup. Be brutally honest about which model aligns with your passion and skills, not just what seems trendy. · Pressure-Test Your Category Narrative. If you’re building something new, try to explain it to a friend using the "Name It, Frame It" and analogy method. If they don’t get it, your story isn’t sharp enough. · Map Your "Sequel" Advantage. Even if this is your first startup, what prior project, job, or success gives you unique credibility? Define that advantage and make sure it’s at the core of your pitch.