FanPlay: How Pritesh Kumar is Building the Future of Fan-Influencer Interaction through Real Money Gaming

January 15, 2026 11 min read

Influencers have the reach, and fans have the passion. But for too long, the connection between the two has been a one-way street of likes and comments. Pritesh Kumar, Founder of FanPlay, is turning this passive relationship into an interactive arena. By leveraging real-money gaming as a monetization tool for influencers and an engagement platform for fans, FanPlay (a Y Combinator backed startup) is redefining the attention economy. This is the story of how an IIT Delhi graduate is building a product that lets fans play with their favorite idols while winning real rewards.

Pritesh Kumar’s journey is a masterclass in identifying "under-monetized" assets. A graduate of IIT Delhi with a career that includes building products for Hike Messenger, Pritesh has always been at the intersection of social networking and massive-scale technology. In 2020, he launched FanPlay to solve a specific pain point: the "Influencer Monetization Gap." His vision was so compelling that it secured a spot in the prestigious Y Combinator Winter 2021 batch, marking FanPlay as one of the few Indian gaming startups to reach the global stage.

Monetizing the Attention Economy

Influencers often have millions of followers but struggle to monetize beyond brand deals. Pritesh’s core insight was that fans don't just want to watch; they want to participate. "Entrepreneurship is about solving a problem for society and getting compensated for it. We are solving for the missing layer of influencer economy: interactive participation."

The Problem: The Passive Influence Trap

For most influencers in India, monetization is a fickle beast. Brand sponsorships are inconsistent, and traditional merchandise often lacks the scale or engagement needed to sustain a career. On the flip side, fans spend hours consuming content but have no way to "engage" with the influencer in a meaningful, rewarding way. The real-money gaming sector in India was booming, but it was largely clinical—focused on cards or fantasy sports—lacking the "human element" of celebrity influence.

"I saw the huge gap," Pritesh explains. "Influencers have reach but no tools to let their fans play with them. We wanted to build a platform that says: 'If you love this influencer, come play a game with them, win real money, and feel part of their journey.'"

The Solution: The FanPlay Interactive Arena

FanPlay acts as a bridge, allowing influencers to host live, skill-based games for their community. The platform handles the technology, the payment gateways, and the real-money distribution, while the influencer brings the personality and the audience.

The Y Combinator (YC) Experience

The Application: Focusing on the core "influencer-led" insight rather than just another gaming app.
The Interview: A high-pressure, 10-minute deep-dive with YC partners that tests the scalability of the idea.
The Program: Three months of intense focus on growth, unit economics, and "talking to users."
Demo Day: Pitching to the world's top investors to secure the capital needed for massive scale.
Post-YC: Leveraging the global network to build a product that can stand the test of time.

"Success isn't just about the fastest growth; it's about building a product that people actually need. Talk to your customers, listen to their complaints, and if you solve for those, the revenue will follow." — Pritesh Kumar

The Founder’s Journey: From Hike to YC

Pritesh is refreshingly honest about the reality of building a startup. He shares how his time at Hike taught him the importance of "engineering for scale"—building systems that don't break when a million users join simultaneously. He also touches on the importance of family support, noting that while the founder makes the decisions, the family makes the sacrifices. For Pritesh, entrepreneurship is a "lonely journey" that requires a strong partner and a clear vision to survive the lows.

"Don't build in a vacuum," he advises. "Talk to 100 customers before you write 100 lines of code. The biggest mistake founders make is building a 'perfect' product that nobody wants. Your customers are your best advisors."

FanPlay Impact & Scale

Y Combinator W21: One of the few Indian gaming startups to join the world's top accelerator.
IIT Delhi Roots: Leveraging a high-performance engineering background to build a robust gaming engine.
Influencer Powered: Focused on the $100B+ global creator economy.
Real Money & Skill Based: Ensuring a fair, legally compliant environment for competitive gaming.

Lessons in Leadership: Agility and Ownership

Pritesh emphasizes the importance of a strong "Core Team" of the first 5-10 people. He believes these early hires shouldn't just be employees; they should be owners who care about the problem as much as the founder does. He also discusses the concept of "Agility"—the ability to realize when a model isn't working and having the courage to change it. (This agility eventually led Pritesh to later pivot his efforts toward **FunctionUp**, solving the education-to-employment gap in India).

"Make ownership the core of your culture," he says. "If your engineering head doesn't care about the user's experience, the best code in the world won't save you. You need people who are excited to solve the problem, not just finish the ticket."

Founder's Lesson: The Customer is the Mentor

Pritesh’s most important learning is simple: "The most important information about your company is in your customer's head. If you aren't talking to them every day, you aren't running a company; you're running an experiment."

The Future: Interactive Entertainment

Pritesh’s vision for FanPlay (and his subsequent ventures) is a world where entertainment is truly two-way. He sees a future where the line between "creator" and "consumer" is blurred, and technology serves as the facilitator for meaningful, rewarding interactions. Whether it's through gaming or skill-building, Pritesh remains committed to the idea that Indian engineering can build products that are the best in the world. For him, the goal is simple: building something that makes a genuine difference in how society functions.

FanPlay is proving that the next generation of social platforms won't just be about "sharing"—they will be about "playing." By giving influencers and fans a common ground to interact and win, Pritesh Kumar and his team are ensuring that for the future of the creator economy, the game is finally fair.

Editor's Note (2026): Since this interview, Pritesh Kumar and the FanPlay team leveraged their YC experience and technical expertise to launch FunctionUp, a leading skill-tech platform that has successfully placed thousands of software engineers in top global tech firms. This transition is a hallmark of the "Founder Agility" Pritesh discusses in this episode.

About the Guest

Pritesh Kumar is the Founder of FanPlay. An alumnus of IIT Delhi and a veteran of Hike Messenger, Pritesh is a product visionary who specializes in building massive-scale social and gaming platforms. Under his leadership, FanPlay secured a spot in Y Combinator (YC W21), becoming a pioneer in influencer-led real-money gaming. He is a recognized thought leader in the Indian startup ecosystem, particularly in the areas of product-market fit, user engagement, and scaling tech teams. He is also the co-founder of FunctionUp, a premier placement-led bootcamp for developers.

FanPlay (a YC W21 company) is a real-money gaming platform designed for the creator economy. By allowing influencers to host interactive, skill-based games for their fans, the company provides a new monetization stream for creators while giving fans a chance to engage with their idols and win real money in a secure, transparent environment.