Microsoft Ventures Exec, Voodoo PC Founder Rahul Sood Leaves Microsoft To Start-Up Unikrn

Few names are as meaningful and recognizable in the gaming sector as Rahul Sood. From VoodooPC to HP to Razer and Microsoft, Sood has become a bit of an icon in each place that he has eventually wound up. Now, he's taking his talents from the incubator labs of Microsoft to something more uncertain: a new startup gaming company. Rahul is an entrepreneur at heart and came from startup roots with VoodooPC, pioneering in some respects, for the build-to-spec enthusiast PC industry that has flourished ever since.

In a goodbye post on Sood's blog, he commends Microsoft for a job well done, expressing his thanks for the time there and suggesting that he's leaving on very positive terms. Specifically, Sood last worked with Microsoft Ventures, which is providing funding to startups and M&A efforts that will help Microsoft remain nimble in the face of smaller, agile companies that seek to disrupt the big players and markets.


Sood suggests that his next step will be one with more risk, but perhaps a lot more fun. The new company is called Unikrn, which we can only suspect was derived from "unicorn." In other words, he's probably trying to conjure up something that most would pass off as impossible, or at the very least, improbable and rare. Presently, few details about the new company are being revealed, but he plans to exhibit more in the coming weeks and months. On his LinkedIn profile, he notes: "If you have experience in the gaming space and you’re a talented software developer or designer then feel free to hit me up. We’re building a team in the Seattle area."

From that, we suspect that this will not be another pure hardware play. He distinctly mentions software, and with today's focus on UI and experience, having great hardware is only half of the battle. Whatever emerges, we're sure it'll make waves in the space.