Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus Virtual Reality (VR), just sold his startup to Facebook for $2 billion in cash and stocks.
To pursue a business venture around the VR headset he designed called the Oculus Rift, he 21-year-old dropped out of California State University, Long Beach. He was an aspiring tech journalist as well as a big PC gamer who was “always spending way too much money trying to get the best gaming experience,” according to an interview with USA Today. His product has garnered accolades including a Crunchie award for best hardware startup.
Luckey and his CEO, raised $2.4 million on Kickstarter to promote the Oculus Rift as the next generation video game console, according to a report by CSULB’s campus newspaper The Daily 49er.
“When Facebook first approached us about partnering, I was skeptical. As I learned more about the company and its vision and spoke with Mark [Zuckerburg], the partnership not only made sense, but became the clear and obvious path to delivering virtual reality to everyone,” Luckey said on his Facebook. “Facebook was founded with the vision of making the world a more connected place. Virtual reality is a medium that allows us to share experiences with others in ways that were never before possible.”
Here is a video of a 90-year-old woman using Oculus VR. Her reaction? “Oh, this is something else! Holy cow!”
Tiffany L. Rider 