Niniane Wang

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Niniane Wang is an American software engineer and technology executive. In her early career at Google, Wang co-created Google Desktop and created Google Lively. She was previously vice president of engineering of Niantic after her company Evertoon was acquired by Niantic in 2017.

Early life and career[edit]

Wang went to school in New Mexico and Nevada. At fifteen years old, she attended the California Institute of Technology,[1] where she received a bachelor's degree. While studying for a master's degree in computer science at the University of Washington,[2] she worked as an engineering team leader on Microsoft's Flight Simulator.[3][4]

Career[edit]

Google[edit]

Wang worked at Google for five years starting in 2003.[1] There she was an engineering manager of products such as Gmail and co-founded Google Desktop, winning a Google Founders' Award for the latter.[5][4] In a 2008 post on Google's official blog, Wang announced Google Lively, a web-based virtual world officially part of Google Labs. Wang explained that she developed Lively as a "20% Project", referring to Google's practice of allocating a portion of its employees' paid work time towards personal projects.[6] Google planned to make Lively into a platform for developers to create games, but ultimately discontinued the service after five months in December 2008.[7]

Minted[edit]

For four years after she left Google, Wang was chief technology officer of Minted, an online marketplace that crowdsources designs for paper products such as stationery and wall art.[1][3] During this time, in 2010, Wang and Yishan Wong founded the Sunfire Offices coworking space in Mountain View, California.[8]

Evertoon and Niantic[edit]

Wang founded the company Evertoon in 2016. Evertoon's mobile app allowed users to produce short animated films. Evertoon raised $1.7 million in venture capital financing and released its app in November 2016.[1][9]

In June 2017, Wang was one of six women who accused venture capitalist Justin Caldbeck of sexual harassment.[10][11][12] Initially denying the allegations, Caldbeck resigned from his position at Binary Capital four days later.[13][14]

In November 2017, American software developer Niantic acquired Evertoon and hired its team of five employees. The Evertoon app was shut down later that month.[15][16] After the acquisition, Wang became Niantic's vice president of engineering, where she oversaw products including Ingress and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.[5]

Basis Set Ventures[edit]

Wang currently serves as the chief technology officer of Basis Set Ventures, a venture capital fund.[17]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Zarya, Valentina (March 3, 2016). "How This Ex-Googler Plans to Turn You into a Movie Director". Fortune. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  2. ^ "America's Top 50 Women In Tech". Forbes. December 12, 2018. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Hastings, Allie (August 4, 2012). "The 8 women following Marissa Mayer to major CEO-dom". The Next Web. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Bort, Julie (August 24, 2012). "Beyond Marissa Mayer: 25 Powerful Women Engineers In Tech". Business Insider. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  5. ^ a b Levy, Nat (October 12, 2018). "How Pokémon Go evolved to remain popular after the initial craze cooled". GeekWire. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  6. ^ Stone, Brad (July 9, 2008). "Google Introduces a Cartoonlike Method for Talking in Chat Rooms". The New York Times. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  7. ^ Martin, Matt (November 20, 2008). "Google pulls plug on Lively". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  8. ^ Tsotsis, Alexia (August 28, 2010). "Ex-Googler and Ex-Facebooker Start Invite-Only Workspace Sunfire Offices". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  9. ^ Lynley, Matthew (March 3, 2016). "Evertoon wants you to build funny 3D cartoon videos on your phone". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  10. ^ Entis, Laura (July 18, 2017). "Niniane Wang: Exposing VC Justin Caldbeck Took '100 Hours of Work'". Fortune. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  11. ^ Guynn, Jessica; Swartz, Jon (June 29, 2017). "Sexual harassment scandal shakes insular, influential venture capital world". USA Today. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  12. ^ Lazzaro, Sage (June 23, 2017). "6 Women Accuse Prominent Tech VC Justin Caldbeck of Sexual Assault and Harassment". Observer. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  13. ^ Sydell, Laura (December 13, 2017). "How A Female Engineer Built A Public Case Against A Sexual Harasser In Silicon Valley". NPR. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  14. ^ Primack, Dan (June 26, 2017). "Binary Capital partner quits (update: so does Caldbeck)". Axios. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  15. ^ Perez, Sarah (November 3, 2017). "Niantic acqui-hires Evertoon to add a social network to Pokémon Go and other apps". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  16. ^ Roof, Katie (January 16, 2019). "'Pokémon Go' Maker Niantic Eyes Acquisitions After Fundraising". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  17. ^ Shieber, Jonathan (April 22, 2021). "At Basis Set Ventures, merging venture capital and software development yields a $165 million new fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
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