Catan as a business tool: Reid Hoffman and the Teuber brothers on scaling a game empire

Executive overview

Most board games are zero-sum. Catan is not — it requires trading, alliance-building, and reading people, which mirrors the real dynamics of entrepreneurship better than almost any other game.

Reid Hoffman interviews Ben and Guido Teuber, sons of Catan inventor Klaus Teuber, who now run the global Catan business (45 million copies sold, 44 languages). The conversation covers why Catan reveals character, how the company navigated piracy and global expansion, and where the brand is heading.

The core insight: games expose how people actually behave under pressure — which is why Catan is a better hiring tool than a job interview.

Why Catan mirrors entrepreneurship

• The board randomises every game — no two plays are identical, mirroring unpredictable markets
• Players operate with partial information; adapting beats optimising for a fixed plan
• Winning requires trading with competitors — collaboration and competition coexist
• Social dynamics (block the leader, leverage trust, call out betrayal) play out in real time
• One hour of Catan reveals more about a person than hours of conversation
• Reid uses it as a C-suite interview tool for that reason

Cultural differences in play style

• Klaus Teuber saw Catan as "almost cooperative" — players build something even if they lose
• American players took a more combative approach; online comments told Klaus he'd misread his own game
• World championships draw 60 national champions with noticeably different play styles
• The Teubers brought the game to the US in 1997; explaining it verbally rarely worked — it had to be played

How the family business was built

• Klaus invented the prototype in 1993; the game launched in Germany in 1995
• Initial success shocked the publisher — they thought bulk orders were an April Fool's joke
• Guido moved to the US, managed international licensing; his background in international relations made publisher diplomacy feel natural
• Ben studied psychology and management; joined later, drawn by the intersection of both fields with running a games company
• Both describe the business as still feeling like a startup — new products every year, no acquisitions

Scaling challenges

• Piracy was the biggest threat: in 2017, one in every four or five copies on Amazon was counterfeit, mostly from China
• Ratings collapsed from near-perfect to a flood of one-stars before the source was identified
• It took two years to address; piracy remains an ongoing but manageable problem
• Organic growth created coordination challenges: 44 languages, local declensions of the word "Catan" (e.g., Czech: Catanu; French: Catane), and dozens of publishers needing alignment
• "Settlers of Catan" was shortened to "Catan" partly to reduce translation/declension complexity

Expansion and brand licensing

• Expansions include Seafarers, Cities and Knights, and branded editions (Star Trek, Game of Thrones)
• Every licensing decision is vetted for brand fit — the team has declined many high-profile IPs
• Game of Thrones passed the test only after finding a genuine Venn diagram overlap; soldiers-and-tanks concepts were rejected outright as contrary to Catan's philosophy
• The base game ("the red box") remains the most-used product
• Catan Connect (relaunched 2024) allows up to 1,000+ players on shared benches with a single dice roll; a world record attempt at 1,200 players is planned for Essen's Game Fair

New Energies: the climate edition

• Designed by Ben, inspired by a fan scenario submitted by an environmentalist from WorldWatch
• Eric Asadourian (WorldWatch) served as scientific advisor to ensure accuracy
• The game depicts realistic tradeoffs: a fossil-fuel-only strategy can win, but only if other players don't stop you
• Bill Gates was spotted playing it on LinkedIn
• Policymakers at climate conventions used it as an icebreaker; discussions about energy strategy emerged organically after play
• Educational without being prescriptive — Ben calls it "educational without the wagging finger"

Where Catan is going

• A 24-hour global live stream across 35 countries is planned, starting in the US and moving through Europe to Asia
• Catan Connect will expand the community-play format
• The core loop — harvest, trade, build — remains fixed; new formats explore the space around it
• The team views the brand as still early despite 30 years and 45 million copies sold