philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Sequoia Capital puts millions of dollars into Gather, a virtual HQ platform

Wang says his goal for the startup, which he began with friends after
they all graduated from Carnegie Mellon, is simple: Focus on serving
its most consistent users, bring in customization elements to make
virtual spaces feel homey and hire a lot of engineers.

“We’re a much broader communication platform that is going to be used
across all things, but we are leaning heavily into the virtual HQ [use
case],” Wang said. The 37-person team has embedded features to promote
spontaneity, such as “shoulder taps” to prompt a co-worker to chat, or
pool tables where employees can circle around and start a virtual game
of pool.
The platform also uses spatial audio technology, which is popular in
video games, so that users can get the feel of running into each
other. The technology basically allows you to hear someone’s voice
louder when you are near them, and softer as you walk away. Wang says
that it built its own video-conferencing system from scratch because
other solutions didn’t work well with spatial technology.

One of the challenges of building a community platform is figuring out
monetization without extracting value. This is one of the reasons that
Wang, when I first talked to him in November, always wanted to avoid
venture capital money (because the incentives might rush the platform
into pursuing business models that weren’t user-friendly).

Months later, Wang said his mind changed when he met with Sequoia
Capital’s Shaun Maguire and saw an opportunity to scale the metaverse
with venture dollars.

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/11/sequoia-capital-puts-millions-of-dollars-into-gather-a-virtual-hq-platform/