From job sites to game studios: Xander Agosta on grit, mentorship, and backing into a career in games

Welcome to Coffee.Press.Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against our Xsolla host and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one.In this episode, host Ed Lin sits down with Xander Agosta, Director of Marketing and Partnerships at Upptic, a growth marketing company working with the world's top games.Xander takes an easy round of Super Smash Bros. against Ed and earns himself an easy question, but his answer opens up a career path that wasn't easy at all. Raised in San Francisco and surrounded by the tech industry his whole life, Xander spent years feeling like an outsider looking in. A construction job, an unlikely mentor, and a leap of faith later, he found his way into web development, marketing, and eventually the games industry he'd wanted to be part of since childhood.What you'll hear:Why growing up next to Silicon Valley didn't make the tech industry feel any less intimidatingThe mentor who convinced Xander to bet on himselfHow a detour through construction became the unlikely start of a marketing careerXander's take on why persistence, not pedigree, is what gets you into the games industryLet's get into it.Coffee.Press.Play. is an ongoing mini-series, and more conversations with our GDC guests are on the way. Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch full episodes on our YouTube channel. Missed us at GDC 2026? Stay tuned to our LinkedIn page for announcements on where we'll be next. And catch up on recent episodes at xsolla.com/podcast.For more insights and resources, visit xsolla.com/podcast. Want to join the conversation? Follow and comment on our LinkedIn page at The Business of Games Podcast. That’s where we’ll be sharing updates, highlights, and continuing the discussion. And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, review, and share the podcast with friends who want to learn more about the business of games.