Justin Waldron
| Justin Waldron | |
|---|---|
Justin Waldron speaking in Helsinki, Finland
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| Born | June 18, 1988 Watertown, Connecticut |
| Residence | San Francisco |
| Nationality | United States |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, Investor |
| Known for | Co-Founder, Zynga Angel Investor |
Justin Waldron (June 18, 1988)[1] is an American internet entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Zynga, which makes online social and mobile games. Zynga is considered to be the pioneer of the social gaming industry,[2] which is expected to reach $5.5 billion by 2015. Within four years of its founding, Zynga had grown to a $1 billion company and in 2011 held the largest IPO since Google.[3] Waldron left Zynga in October 2013[4] and is currently an active angel investor and advisor in various other technology companies.
Zynga's top games include: CityVille, FarmVille, The Pioneer Trail, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars, Empires & Allies, and Adventure World.[5]
Contents
Early years
Waldron was born and raised in Watertown, Connecticut. He began programming his first video games and websites at 11 years old, shortly after receiving his first computer.[6] His early software projects included hacking AOL,[6] a favorite childhood pastime shared by other notable technology company founders such as Mark Zuckerberg.[7] Waldron also reverse engineered the disassembled MIPs machine code of PlayStation 2 games in his spare time to add his own features.[6]
In highschool, Waldron cracked Burger King's coupon code algorithm and launched a website to programmatically create unlimited free sandwich coupon codes for visitors. It became so popular that it resulted in a cease and desist notice from Burger King.[8]
Career
Zynga
In 2007, Justin dropped out of The University of Connecticut and co-founded Zynga at 19 years old.[9] He created Zynga's first title, Zynga Poker, and later led product development and strategy across many teams throughout the company. Waldron also worked on special projects with Zynga's other founders.[10] He lived in Tokyo during Zynga's expansion to Japan.[11]
Other company involvement
Waldron has made early-stage investments, advised, or served on the board of directors for companies such as Sprig, YourMechanic, Gigster, Kik Messenger, Sidecar, and others.[12]
Waldron is a mentor at the Thiel Foundation, using his experience as a college dropout to help young entrepreneurs in the Thiel Fellowship's 20 under 20 program.[13]
Personal life
Waldron currently resides in San Francisco.
External links
- Justin Waldron - AngelList Profile
- Justin Waldron - Crunchbase Profile
- Zynga Corporate Site
- Zynga.org Site
References
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