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David Baszucki, Co-Founder of Roblox — The Path to 150M+ Daily Users, Critical Business Decisions, Ketogenic Therapy for Brain Health, Daily Routines, The Roblox Economy, and More (#834)

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David Baszucki (@DavidBaszucki) is the co-founder and CEO of Roblox. TIME named Roblox one of the “100 Most Influential Companies,” and it has been recognized by Fast Company for innovation on their “Most Innovative Companies” and “Most Innovative Companies in Gaming” lists.

Previously, David founded Knowledge Revolution, where he and his brother Greg created Interactive Physics, a leader in educational physics and mechanical-design-simulation software.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by:

  • Qlosi prescription eye drop used to treat age-related blurry near vision (presbyopia) in adults
  • AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement
  • Wealthfront high-yield cash account
David Baszucki, Co-Founder of Roblox — The Path to 150M+ Daily Users, Critical Business Decisions, Ketogenic Therapy for Brain Health, Daily Routines, The Roblox Economy, and More

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Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform. Watch the interview on YouTube.

Transcripts

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

  • Connect with David Baszucki:

Roblox Profile | Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube

Featured David Baszucki Resources

Tools & Applications

Notable Roblox Games

Recommended Reading

Movies

Music

People

Health Concepts & Metabolic Resources

TIMESTAMPS

  • [00:00:00] Start.
  • [00:01:48] Kicking off with custom kettlebells.
  • [00:03:00] How David and I connected through Dominic D’Agostino and metabolic health research.
  • [00:04:30] Matthew Baszucki’s eight-year journey with bipolar disorder before keto breakthrough.
  • [00:08:14] Rescuing Matthew from the streets with a strategic hospital admission.
  • [00:18:18] Matthew’s disappearance from his mother’s perspective.
  • [00:19:37] Understanding how the ketogenic diet helps people with bipolar disorder.
  • [00:24:21] Meeting the challenges of ketogenic diet compliance.
  • [00:30:06] Measuring ketone levels.
  • [00:32:17] The clandestine Canadian CKM smuggling ring.
  • [00:33:07] The calm optimism, mental clarity, and reduced sleep requirements of ketosis.
  • [00:35:19] Breath hold experiments.
  • [00:37:44] Optimizing my sleep and minimizing my OCD on ketosis.
  • [00:40:18] How exogenous ketones improve verbal acuity of relatives with Alzheimer’s
  • [00:41:49] Lyme disease and ketosis.
  • [00:44:37] Talk therapy vs. mechanical therapy: Fixing the machinery first.
  • [00:45:47] Dangers of talk therapy without physiological foundation: Learned helplessness.
  • [00:46:49] Atmospheric Calm playlist: Ambient music for focus and productivity.
  • [00:49:16] How Roblox fits in with human connection evolution to the tune of 120 million daily users.
  • [00:52:50] Emergent games within the Roblox ecosystem.
  • [00:54:32] Roblox’s safety infrastructure: Built for all ages from day one.
  • [00:55:24] Future of 3D work: Virtual meetings replacing video calls, concerts, and political rallies.
  • [00:56:57] The inevitability of innovation.
  • [00:58:07] From early revenue challenges to a creator community earning over $1 billion a year.
  • [01:02:52] Taking economic inspiration from Adam Smith.
  • [01:03:54] Building the successful Robux system with a 20-person team in three months.
  • [01:10:17] How does Roblox guard against IP theft among its digital creators?
  • [01:14:32] Best company decisions made at Roblox thus far.
  • [01:19:35] Missteps and mistakes.
  • [01:21:07] When intuitive tech predictions pay off.
  • [01:25:49] David’s favorite niche Roblox games.
  • [01:28:41] Roblox kid safety: Filtered communication, parental controls, future AI age estimation, and clustering.
  • [01:32:02] Roblox AI infrastructure: Hundreds of models for safety, translation, 3D creation, and procedurally generated dreaming.
  • [01:33:33] Predictions: Sci-fi becoming reality, holodeck timeline, AI movies in 3-5 years, photorealistic virtual concerts.
  • [01:37:24] Product development and challenges of being a public company CEO.
  • [01:41:35] David’s self-care routine.
  • [01:45:20] Roblox wellness: CGMs for all employees, snack labeling system, employee transformations.
  • [01:47:11] Exploratory reading.
  • [01:49:32] “Feed Your Head”: David’s Jefferson Airplane-inspired billboard.
  • [01:50:24] Whole cream vs. half-and-half for coffee and other parting thoughts.

DAVID BASZUCKI QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“[Our son with bipolar] tried a ketogenic diet, and literally within three weeks or four weeks, we saw progress that we had never seen with any drug or medication. Mind blown, really, and a miracle.”

— David Baszucki

“One other way to predict the future, I think, is many things are just inevitable. There are enough smart people around that the wheel was inevitable.”

— David Baszucki

“Roblox was always what is called a user-generated content platform, which means creators are making stuff, people are learning STEM, people are getting excited. Even the ego burst of having three friends play a game can really motivate a young person to get into computer science.”

— David Baszucki

“If you’re having a mental health crisis, work on your body and your machinery, maybe, before you work on the talk therapy. Get the strategic things right first.”

— David Baszucki

“If we were to tabulate the number of new entrants into computer science or graphic arts or economics that had been inspired by Roblox, it probably is in the millions, given just that experience that people have had on our platform.”

— David Baszucki

“What’s interesting is I’ve never really ever liked any business books ever. … The books I was obsessed with in my youth were the books about Magellan and Captain Cook and Mutiny on the Bounty and Joshua Slocum and just all of these crazy explorers, Amundsen and Scott and all of that stuff.”

— David Baszucki

This episode is brought to you by Qlosi, an FDA-approved, prescription eye drop designed to improve your near vision and help you see things up close more clearly. With once- or twice-daily dosing, packaged in single dose vials, Qlosi fits into your routine and is ready when you need it. In clinical studies, people could read letters in the eye chart equivalent to reading menus, recipes, and phone screens with fast acting, near vision improvement often starting in just 20 minutes. Most side effects in studies were mild and short-lived, including eye discomfort and headaches. Give your readers a break and ask your eye doctor if Qlosi is right for you. Visit Qlosi.com/Tim to find an eye doctor, along with full prescribing information.

This episode is brought to you by AG1! I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. And right now, when you first subscribe to AG1, you’ll get an AG1 Welcome Kit, a bottle of Vitamin D3+K2, a Morning Person hat, AND you’ll get to try each new flavor of AG1 and their new sleep supplement, AGZ. That’s $126 in free gifts for new subscribers! Visit DrinkAG1.com/Tim to claim this special offer today

This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront! Wealthfront is a financial services platform that offers services to help you save and invest your money. Right now, you can earn a 3.50% base APY—that’s the Annual Percentage Yield—with the Wealthfront Cash Account from its network of program banks. That’s nearly nine times more interest than an average savings account at a bank, according to FDIC.gov as of 09/26/2025 (Wealthfront’s 3.50% APY vs. 0.40% average savings rate). Right now, for a limited time, Wealthfront is offering new clients an additional 0.65% boost over the base rate for three months, meaning you can get 4.15% APY, limited to $150,000 in deposits. Terms & Conditions apply. Visit Wealthfront.com/Tim to get started.

The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The 3.50% Base APY on cash deposits is as of November 7, 2025, is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum. If you are eligible for the overall boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, your boosted rate is also subject to change if the base rate decreases during the three-month promotional period. Tim Ferriss, who is not a client, receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Brokerage LLC for advertising and holds a non-controlling equity interest in the corporate parent of Wealthfront Brokerage LLC. This ad may not reflect the experience of other Cash Account clients, and similar outcomes are not guaranteed. See full disclosures here.

Want to hear another episode exploring the groundbreaking power of metabolic psychiatry? Listen to my conversation with Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Chris Palmer, in which we discussed his pioneering work using ketogenic diets to treat psychiatric disorders, the brain energy theory of mental illness, extraordinary case studies of recovery from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, how mitochondrial function affects mental health, and much more.

The post David Baszucki, Co-Founder of Roblox — The Path to 150M+ Daily Users, Critical Business Decisions, Ketogenic Therapy for Brain Health, Daily Routines, The Roblox Economy, and More (#834) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

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