Detroit native Delane Parnell, whose Los Angeles-based esports company has netted more than $100 million in venture capital, will be spending more time at home.
The founder of PlayVS, a growing competitor in the field of esports — that is, competitive video games — has a new business venture that aims to help Black-owned companies grow and create wealth that is taking aim at Detroit brands.
Oh, and he's also built a house here.
Parnell will be among featured speakers at Detroit Homecoming, an annual event produced by Crain's Detroit Business that brings Detroit "expats" who have found success in other cities back to their hometown to re-engage and potentially invest in the city (see box at right).
"I'm super excited," said Parnell, making a name for himself in the tech world after growing up in a home with no Internet access.
The 29-year-old Parnell, a native of the west side of Detroit and graduate of Southfield High who moved to Los Angeles in 2018, has raised $107 million in investment for his 4-year-old e-sports company.
PlayVS is now sanctioned by high school athletic associations in 24 states, allowing schools to form esports teams and compete for state championships in games such as "Super Smash Bros." and "Madden NFL 21."
At the collegiate level, PlayVS operates free, official, national leagues for partnered video-game publishers at schools across the U.S. and Canada.
PlayVS investors include the San Francisco 49ers, Sean "Diddy" Combs and Creative Arts Agency founder Michael Ovitz. Projections have esports surpassing $1 billion in revenue this year.
"Over the last 18 months or so, I've probably spent 70 percent of my time in Detroit with my family and getting integrated into the startup scene, doing various business deals," said Parnell, who before establishing PlayVS spent one year as a senior associate with Birmingham's IncWell Venture Capital and a year with connectivity company Rocket Fiber.
Trent Murray, senior writer for Sports Business Journal, has covered e-sports since 2018. He said PlayVS has been an industry leader in fundraising, and leading the way in developing what an organized high school e-sports that could eventually compare with a football team would look like.
"High school e-sports is still in the early stages," Murray said, "and could look very different 10 years from now. But PlayVS has definitely laid the groundwork for how game developers, schools and operators create the infrastructure for those leagues."
One major partnership Parnell is now a part of is with Detroit Venture Partners as an active partner assisting companies chosen for backing. Parnell and DVP Partner Jake Cohen have become good friends and discussed the partnership over lunch last year, Parnell said.
Parnell said he's grateful for the opportunity to contribute to an organization, founded by Rocket Cos. founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert in 2010, that is committed to aiding tech startups.
It's still fairly early in Parnell's entrepreneurial life, but his business is booming.
PlayVS is in all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Canada.
In the states where official partnerships have not been established, teams battle for regional titles endorsed by PlayVS, Parnell said. Parnell does not have a partnership with the Michigan High School Athletic Association, but does work with the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals to offer local students the chance to compete for regional titles.
"We've made great progress. We'll continue to expand," said Parnell, adding the company would have a staff of close to 200 by the end of the year, with operations primarily based in Los Angeles.
"We want to have partnerships in every market in the next 18 months to two years."
Parnell's next step could help other entrepreneurs.
Parnell has a new venture named MSRP, a reference to Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price.
The concept calls for building a holding company that acquires stakes in promising Black-owned lifestyle brands, and supports them with direct-to-consumer sales capability.
Parnell hopes to quickly amass a portfolio of brands with similar cultural impact as Beats by Dre, SKIMS, YEEZY, and even FashionNova. He could not share additional details about MSRP but says he has some big-name investors and celebrity talent in the fold.
The goal is to keep the companies authentically Black-owned under the MSRP umbrella, Parnell said. He said he has some Detroit brands in mind, but would not disclose those brands. An announcement is expected soon.
The term "MSRP" is mostly used in the automotive business, "so we're paying homage to Detroit in that way," Parnell said. The standard pricing in that business was created "as price protection for small retailers, saying that small and big businesses need to compete at the same level — checks and balances for retail in a way," Parnell said.
His MSRP venture aims to help smaller companies compete on a big field in a similar way.
"(Black) culture in this space has been exploited forever. Predominantly white companies have taken from our culture. There's been money made, but nothing really outside of that. The way brands benefit from Black culture, we want to benefit from the wealth we create for these brands, and have meaningful equity and ownership."
"We think the market of tomorrow cares about brands having cultural representation, being a cultural category leader. We want to make sure we're represented. I want to create thousands of millionaires, and I want them to be Black and Brown."
MSRP adds another item to Parnell's to-do list, but he remains focused on the growth of PlayVS.
MSRP, though, comes from a place deep in Parnell's heart.
"I'm really passionate about finding ways to narrow the wealth gap in the country," Parnell said. "I think that's meaningful work. In many ways, it's my life's work. I want to do that forever just like I want to work on PlayVS forever. My hands are pretty full between that and PlayVS, but there are systemic problems a lot of people are trying to change, and I'm excited to contribute to and tackle those."
Parnell is also about to become the subject of a book.
"Ahead of the Game: The Unlikely Rise of a Detroit Kid Who Changed the Esports Industry," a book on Parnell and the establishment of PlayVS, is slated to be released on Jan. 25.
The book, written by Inc. Magazine writer Kevin Ryan and published by HarperCollins Leadership, is not an autobiography, but is a reported biography based on interviews with more than 100 people, including Parnell's family and friends., along with Parnell
Ryan, Parnell said, expressed an interest in chronicling Parnell's life about four years ago, but Parnell said at the time, he wanted to maintain some privacy. The book has been in the works for a couple of years, Parnell said.
"Hopefully it's a great read that inspires some people, some kids, to build something," Parnell said.
Editor's Note: The version of this story that appears in the Sept. 20 print version of Crain's incorrectly described Parnell's role at Detroit Venture Partners. He is not an equity investor in the fund.
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