Almost a decade ago, Second Life had a million active users by 2013 in their online virtual worlds. There were numerous copy cats that were using Avatars and virtual rooms designed to let the introverts and immensely shy employees experience rituals like the water cooler talk.
I heard about Second Life from friends who thought it represented the future of VR. There were a few other services around at that time, which allowed you to walk into virtual offices, knock the door of a fellow employee and even have the water cooler talk, all in a virtual world. For the most part, I dismissed it as the day-dreams of millennials.
Fast forward to 2021, Covid-19 has turned everything upside down. Working from our home offices with endless back-to-back web based meetings on Zoom, Teams, WebEx, Meet or even Chime has made many of us a dull Jack. This is probably why Sequoia invested $26 Million in Gather. Looks very, very similar to some of the services I mentioned from a decade ago, but maybe it will be successful this time around. Good luck, Gather