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Mikhael Naayem

Co-founder, Dapper Labs

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Mikhael "Mik" Naayem is one of the founders of Dapper Labs, the company behind CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot. He worked as its chief business officer on partnerships and executive strategy, a role he described in a 2020 Flow blog interview. Earlier he founded Fuel Powered, a mobile-games live-operations platform acquired by Animoca Brands.

Mikhael hasn’t spoken on a TechTO, TechVancouver or TechWaterloo stage. This profile is here because Mikhael co-founded Dapper Labs, which appears in 2 talks in the archive.

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Quick answers

Did Mik Naayem co-found Dapper Labs?

Third-party coverage says yes. Not Boring's March 7, 2022 piece on Flow names the team running Dapper Labs as co-founders Roham Gharegozlou (CEO), Dieter "Dete" Shirley (CTO) and Mikhael "Mik" Naayem (CBO), and Tatler Asia's July 8, 2022 interview introduces him as chief business officer and co-founder. Dapper Labs' own about page, checked September 2026, credits only Gharegozlou and Shirley with founding the company in 2018 as a spin-out of Axiom Zen.

What is his role at Dapper Labs today?

That could not be verified from a current public page in September 2026. The most recent first-party description found is the Flow blog interview of July 17, 2020, in which he is Chief Business Officer at Dapper Labs working mainly on partnerships and contributing to strategy with the executive team. Dapper Labs' own about page, checked September 2026, does not name him.

What did he do before Dapper Labs?

He founded Fuel Powered in 2011, which pivoted into a live-operations platform for mobile games serving clients including SEGA, Bandai Namco and Miniclip, and was acquired by Animoca Brands in 2016, per the Flow blog interview of July 17, 2020. The same interview says he advised Roham Gharegozlou at Axiom Zen and sat on its board.

What is Dapper Labs known for?

It created CryptoKitties and later built and operated NBA Top Shot under licence from the NBA and the NBPA, as described in The Ringer's February 26, 2025 feature on the rise and fall of NBA Top Shot.

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Maintained by TechTO · facts sourced and dated · last reviewed Sep 17, 2026