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Twitter Makes Key Hire In Virtual Reality Push

By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
October 18, 2016, 3:58 PM ET
Twitter's IPO Filing Implies $12.8 Billion Value Amid Growth
Bloomberg — Getty Images

Update, October 19, 2016: One day after news of hiring was reported, Gopman posted on Facebook that he has been let go from Twitter, claiming that a lengthy story about his past published by tech news site TechCrunch was the reason. Twitter declined to comment on the matter.

Amid questions about its future as an independent company, Twitter is beefing up its small virtual reality team.

The social media company recently hired Greg Gopman, best known as the founder of hackathon event organizer AngelHack, as VR Program Manager, as Variety first reported and Gopman’s Twitter and LinkedIn profiles now confirm. Twitter may be adding 360-video capabilities to its products in the coming months, according to the report.

Prior to joining Twitter, Gopman spent 10 months at UploadVR, virtual reality-focused news site, events producer, and co-working space. There, Gopman helped organize new events and partnered with media outlets in China and the U.S., according to his LinkedIn profile.

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In June, Twitter announced it had hired former Apple designer Alessandro Sabatelli to head up its efforts in virtual and augmented reality. Sabatelli works as part of Twitter’s Cortex team, made up of researchers, engineers, and scientists who focus on machine learning and artificial intelligence.

From 2011 to late 2013, Gopman ran AngelHack, which organized hackathon events, often in partnership with large companies. He stepped down a few months before a lawsuit from his co-founder over the alleged misuse of company funds. Gopman also made headlines the previous year after he published an inflammatory post on Facebook complaining about the “crazy, homeless, drug dealers, dropouts, and trash” that “overrun” San Francisco. He later apologized for the post and attempted to clean up his image by working on several homelessness projects in San Francisco.

Fortune has contacted Twitter and will update this story if we hear more.

About the Author
By Kia Kokalitcheva
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