Orange County Q&A: Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey

Palmer Luckey may seem like a typical 22-year-old man. He lives with six roommates and dresses in cargo shorts, Hawaiian shirts and flip-flops most of the time. And he often drives a “sweet” 1986 GMC conversion van with red plush carpet.

He also happens to be a billionaire.

When he took a semester off from Cal State Long Beach in 2012, the Irvine resident founded Oculus VR, a technology company that invented the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset. Luckey launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the device, initially thinking of it as a do-it-yourself kit, and raised $2.4 million, or 974% of its original target.

In March 2014, Facebook purchased the device and company for $2.3 billion in cash and Facebook stock.

Luckey received Smithsonian Magazine’s American Ingenuity Award in the Youth category in 2014 and was one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 recepients in the same year.

The Oculus Rift is tentatively set for a 2016 release. Luckey said he is working on new developments that could not yet be revealed.

He recently talked about his success and how it’s affected his life.

Weekend: What sparked the idea of Oculus Rift?

Luckey: Gaming! As a PC gaming enthusiast, a significant chunk of my time and money was spent building and upgrading my rig, always in pursuit of a better gaming experience. At some point, I decided to take a look past my three 3D monitors and figure out what the absolute best theoretical gaming setup would be. As a sci-fi aficionado, the answer was clear: virtual reality [VR]. It was the only technology theoretically capable of tricking the brain into believing it was actually in a virtual space, so I went to my garage lab and started experimenting with what was possible. I quickly learned that VR technology as it currently existed was deeply flawed, and realized that modern components were capable of being used in much better ways. My experiments eventually led to what became the Oculus Rift.

Weekend: What motivated you to focus on and accomplish your goals?

Luckey: My motivations were largely selfish, especially at the start. I wanted to play games in the best way possible, a way that was better than anyone else would have access to. As time went on, it became clear that VR was actually feasible on a large scale at a low cost, and at a quality far beyond what I had been hoping for. That worked as a conduit for better motivation, wanting to change the world and make it a better place. That was solidified while I was working at the ICT Mixed Reality lab, where I got to see virtual reality used for treating veterans with PTSD [post traumatic stress disorder]. Focus comes a lot more easily when you desperately want the results of your own work — nobody else is going to do it for you.

Weekend: What has it been like dealing with success at such a young age? Has it changed your life at all?

Luckey: I bought a Tesla Model S and don’t worry about ordering appetizers when I go out to eat, but beyond that, not much has changed. Remember that Oculus has not yet shipped our consumer product. We have shipped several development kits, but there is a ton of work to be done, and now is not the time to be taking vacations or sipping fancy cocktails! Selling to another company is not success; selling to the public is. At some point, my life might change, but not in the near future. Bringing virtual reality to the masses is the most rewarding thing I can imagine doing with my time at the moment.

Weekend: Do you have any advice for young entrepreneurs?

Luckey: Don’t be afraid to convince yourself that your business is incredible, but don’t expect others to be convinced without solid data to back it up. Ideas can be a worth a lot, but they are usually not. Execution is everything. Be willing to keep working on your own until you have something that other people will understand and get excited about.

Most of this has already been said by other people who know a lot more about business than I do, but try to work on something you can see yourself working on for the rest of your life. A lot of people dream about hitting it big and retiring early on a big idea, but most of them are setting themselves up for disappointment when they find out the work never ends. I did not get into VR because I thought it was going to make a ton of money. I got into it because I can’t imagine something cooler to work on.