Rahul Sood

Rahul Sood
Born May 29, 1973
Canada
Occupation Former GM of Microsoft Ventures now CEO of Unikrn

Rahul Sood was the founder of VoodooPC (est 1991), and became the outgoing Chief Technology Officer for the Hewlett Packard Global Voodoo Business Unit. In 2007 Business 2.0 magazine had claimed Sood to be 83rd out of 101 persons on their "Who matters now?" list.[1]

Sood has led the development of technologies such as fanless PC technology, liquid cooling and active liquid chilling and was the first to bring them to market in the high-performance computing gaming industry.[2]

Sood announced his resignation with HP in November 2010. In December 2010 he announced that he joined Microsoft as the GM for System Experience in the Interactive Entertainment Business. He then started the first incubation fund for Startups at Microsoft, the Bing Fund. This eventually turned into creation of Microsoft Ventures which Sood led up until November 2014 when he announced he was leaving Microsoft to startup another gaming related company Unikrn.

Biography

Early life and education

Sood claims to have taken an interest in computers at the age of 11, having disassembled and painted his first computer—an Apple IIc—before even turning it on.[3]

He graduated high school in 1991 and then enrolled in Mount Royal College. "Bored after high school" and uninspired by the computer science courses, he stopped attending college after the first week.[4]

VoodooPC

Rahul founded the company in 1991 in Calgary and in approximately 1992 purchased a "heritage home more than a century old."[2][4] In 1999 his brother Ravi Sood joined the company. By 2004, Rahul notes "there was a ceiling to [VoodooPC's] growth."[4]

HP

Sood joined HP as the CTO for the Global Gaming Business in 2006. From 2006 to 2010 the newly formed Voodoo HP Gaming team created some of the most interesting products that HP had ever released, including HP Blackbird, HP Firebird, and Voodoo ENVY which ultimately became HP ENVY. in November 2010 he announced his resignation on his blog entitled: This Too Shall Pass

Microsoft

On December 21, 2010, Sood announced on his blog that he joined Microsoft as the "GM For System Experience" in the Interactive Entertainment Group.

In March 2012 Sood moved to Microsoft Bing to help create a new initiative designed to help early stage startups. He launched the first angel investment fund in Microsoft's history, the Bing Fund. The then started Microsoft Ventures and led the global team until he announced his resignation in November of 2014.

Blog

Sood believes "corporate blogging [is] very important"[5] and has been noted to make bold statements on his own blog.[6]

Personal life

Sood lives in Seattle, Washington, USA and is an avid cyclist.[7] He is interested in "offer[ing] wider access to healthcare services" and would like to get involved in developing "tech toys for children with autism."

Other projects

Sood is a founding partner in a new Healthcare startup BrightSquid, according to his blog.

Published works

References

  1. ↑ Business 2.0 magazine. Who matters now? – Rahul Sood (83). Accessed September 14, 2007.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hewlett-Packard. Executive Biography: Rahul Sood
  3. ↑ Sood, Rahul. www.rahulsood.com accessed September 14, 2007.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Sood, Rahul. The History of Voodoo Chapter 1 Accessed September 14, 2007.
  5. ↑ Sood, Rahul. Where there's Smoke there's Fire… August 25, 2006. Accessed September 14, 2007.
  6. ↑ Kerrison, Steve. Rahul Sood: AMD-Dell deal 'imminent', February 13, 2006. Accessed September 14, 2007.
  7. ↑ Sood, Rahul. Take the road to success—on a bike May 22, 2007. Accessed September 14, 2007.

External links

Interviews