Philip Rosedale, the founder of Second Life, has launched a new startup called High Fidelity. High Fidelity has raised $2.4 million out of a $3.4 million planned round according to an SEC filing. The filing lists Philip Rosedale, Freddy Heiberger, and Ryan Karpf.
Heiberger and Karpf both worked with Rosedale at Second Life’s parent company Linden Lab. They are also co-founders of Rosedale’s last startup company Coffee and Power. So what will High Fidelity do?
The High Fidelity website says: “How can we reduce latency among people interacting online? Networks are pretty fast these days, and we’re generally satisfied with the speed of light. And still, real-time online interaction continues to often feel like a bad hangover.”
This is an indication that the company aims to improve online communication. There is also a job posting on the website that says that the company is “prototyping the technology and user experience of a next-generation virtual reality system.”
Rosedale’s previous startup Coffee and Power is an online marketplace where users can buy and sell small jobs. The startup used their own virtual currency and payments. It also had live communications and a rating/review system. Coffee and Power opened up a co-working space in San Francisco where users could meet in a safe place to work together and conduct various services. Coffee and Power raised $1 million in funding from Jeff Bezos, Greylock Partners, Mitch Kapor, Catamount Ventures, and Kevin Rose.
So what else do we know about High Fidelity? We know that they often times wear lab coats to work in order to look smart.
