Facebook VP Cory Ondrejka is leaving the social network giant at the end of this year to start a new company, he just announced (fittingly) in a public Facebook update. Cory, as longtime NWN readers know, is the co-creator of the pioneering virtual world Second Life (he was Linden Lab's first CTO), and more recently, led Facebook's acquisition and launch of Oculus Rift. To judge by Cory's words, the departure is on very good terms with Facebook:
December 22nd will be my last day at Facebook. From high-performance javascript through mobile to virtual reality, I could never have predicted a journey quite like this one. I will miss working with everyone, but I am excited about building my next company from scratch. More on that in a few weeks... No one has a greater opportunity and capability to continue connecting the world than Facebook. Thank you, Mark [Zuckerberg], not just for being the best boss I’ve ever had or giving me the opportunity to change the world. Thank you for being someone I learned from every single day.
(Emphasis mine, because it bears emphasizing.) What kind of company is Cory starting next? I asked him a couple times, but (unsurprisingly), he offered no reply. (Dude was once an officer on a nuclear sub, he knows how to keep secrets.) However, his announcement offers a tiny glimpse of a hint:
It is a small valley, so I’m sure I’ll be seeing many of you again soon.
While Oculus VR is now owned by Facebook, a wide array of virtual reality startups have emerged since that acquisition. And Cory was a lead investor and adviser in Cloud Party, an innovative, web-based virtual world that was recently acquired by Yahoo! So I would not be surprised if Cory, who once wandered the world of Second Life as the Flying Spaghetti Monster, may soon wander into the world of VR once again.
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Let the speculation, prognostication, rumination, and bloviation begin!
Posted by: Iggy | Wednesday, December 17, 2014 at 03:43 PM