Serj Goldman
Gamification product lead. 15 years in games, over a year in iGaming.
Mechanics that keep players
For 15 years I have built mobile games and the mechanics that keep players and make them pay: retention, monetization, conversion. For more than a year I did the same for casino brands at BrainRocket.
I started at a small startup where survival was the daily question. I still think in metrics and efficiency.
In short
- Looking for
- Head of Gamification, Head of Product, Product Manager, Product Director. iGaming first, then mobile F2P: product, producing, C-level.
- Format
- Full time or B2B contract (registered sole proprietor in Georgia). Tbilisi, remote, travel or relocation across Israel and Europe.
- Start
- Immediately
- Languages
- Russian, native. English, advanced. Hebrew, beginner.
In numbers
30% FTD conversion across different BrainRocket brands after my deposit-locked onboarding bonus. Before it, 11%.
- 15
years in games
- 8+
years managing and mentoring product managers
- 6
projects end-to-end in one year at BrainRocket
Where I answer for the outcome
My main area now is gamification and retention. The other seven are the base it stands on.
- Gamification and retentionQuests, leaderboards, wheels, daily calendars, progressions, deposit conversion
- Game productionFrom concept to live operations, with in-house teams and external studios
- Interactive storiesNarrative design and player choice in a mobile format
- Marketing and user acquisitionStrategy, media buying, analytics, team
- Creative productionAudience analysis, a working formula, hypothesis tests
- Building departments from scratchDevelopment, marketing, analytics: hiring, process, growth
- AI as a working toolAgents and automation in daily production, no magic
- Business and planningPitches, budgets, payback and company cashflow
My AI agent
A personal agent on my own server: Telegram as the interface, a knowledge base in git, scheduled jobs and background agents. I designed it myself and use it every day.
Track record
May 2025 to August 2026
Senior Product Manager / Producer
BrainRocket, iGaming
- Three internal products from scratch to release, FTUE and onboarding included.
- Casual games as a meta layer for the brands, built from scratch and adapted from external studios.
- Designed a deposit-locked onboarding bonus: FTD conversion went from 11% to 30% across company brands.
2011 to 2025
Chief Product Officer / General Producer, co-owner
Game Garden, mobile free-to-play
- Grew the studio’s projects from zero to millions in revenue.
- Owned the commercial side as a board member: product, monetization, marketing and UA.
- Built the marketing, analytics and creative production departments from scratch.
Industry
Expert and lecturer
HSE University, consulting
- Examination committee member, Video Game Design course at HSE University.
- Independent expert and consultant in game development and mobile marketing.
Fairy Farm, Fairy Kingdom
Produced as General Producer.
Criminal Stories, Love Choice (with MGVC / My.com), Florescence
Set the product direction, defined the target audience and setting, ran early market tests.
Off the clock I cook, take road trips around the country, write music and listen to a lot of neuroscience lectures.
The lectures go straight into how I design mechanics. And I am raising a dog.