Justin Waldron (June 18, 1988) 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 and mobile gaming industries, responsible for creating many of the microtransaction and viral marketing business models which are now ubiquitous. Within four years of its founding, Zynga grew to $1 billion in annual revenue, faster than any other internet company. In 2011 Zynga held the largest IPO since Google, with a valuation of over $10 billion. Waldron left Zynga in October 2013 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.
Video Justin Waldron
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. His early software projects included hacking AOL, a favorite childhood pastime shared by other notable technology company founders such as Mark Zuckerberg. Waldron also reverse engineered the disassembled MIPS machine code of PlayStation 2 games in his spare time to add his own features.
In high school, 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.
Maps Justin Waldron
Career
Zynga
In 2007, Justin dropped out of The University of Connecticut and co-founded Zynga at 19 years old. 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. He lived in Tokyo during Zynga's expansion to Japan.
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.
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.
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
Source of article : Wikipedia
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