Chroma, a startup working to build a new kind of audiovisual entertainment exclusively for mobile devices, now has the co-founder of Twitter on its board. The company announced today that Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter and Medium, who was an angel investor in his Chroma along with the founder of Pinterest, will join the board to oversee design, product development, filmmaking, scaling the brand, and more. announced that it will provide expertise in the field of
An early Google employee, Stone worked for the Blogger team before co-founding Twitter in 2006 after the Blogger team was acquired.
He remained on Twitter for years before the company was adopted by millions of users around the world. In 2011, when Twitter’s active user count reached his 100 million mark, the entrepreneur left the startup to pursue new projects at his incubator and investment firm, Obvious Corporation. rice field. The Obvious Corporation included Twitter co-founder Evan Williams and his former Twitter executive Jason Goldman. The venture is best known for its blogging platform Medium. But in 2013, Stone and others shifted their focus to individual startups. For Stone, that led to the creation of Jelly, his Q&A app and search engine that he later sold to Pinterest.
In 2017, Stone publicly announced that he would be returning to Twitter to lead strategic vision, brand and culture, where he will remain until 2021.
Over the years, he has helped companies such as Square, Pinterest, Slack, Nest, Intercom, Beyond Meat, and many others, and currently chairs their nominating and governance committees.
Stone said he was first drawn to Swedish audiovisual company Chroma by CEO and founder Andreas Pihlström, whom he met through an introduction from Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp. Pihlström previously worked as a creative director, design advisor, designer and prototizer at Pinterest, Beats Music and VSCO.
The two hit it off and started calling each month after Stone made an angel investment.
“It’s important to find people you like to work with and spend time with and exchange ideas with,” says Stone.
The Chroma team had a number of ideas, but ultimately came to the intersection of audio-visual technology and music and sound.
As Stone explains, the idea was to change the nature of music and sound, making it a more interactive and immersive experience. In practice, this involves tangible, dynamic visuals that create sound-driven digital spaces that users can explore and interact with for a variety of purposes.
The first product to test this concept was announced last year by partnering with music artist Arca to create an iOS app called Lux Aeterna. The app offers an audiovisual experience for exploring the music of Venezuelan producers, DJs, singers and songwriters in a “meditative digital space,” the company said. The user flies around the virtual world and interacts with her music and sounds as part of the journey.
However, this does not show the full potential of this technology. There are many possible use cases. Some of which are currently under investigation by Chroma. It shows that users can manipulate audio and sounds in many ways, including play, meditation, and relaxation. music production, etc. While the company plans to launch its products on his mobile device first, Stone said the tech could become even more interesting if Apple releases its own VR/AR headset. thinking about.
“I think when it becomes more ubiquitous, it will be very suitable for the Metaverse device. But you can also see it on Apple TV. Wherever there is,” he added. “mobile [first] Because that’s what everyone has. ”
Stockholm-based Chroma was founded in 2021 and last year joined venture capital firms Singular and Adjacent, Berlin-based angel syndicate SpotiAngels, and Stone and Pinterest co-founders Evan Sharp and Ben Silberman. Chroma previously raised €1.6 million in pre-seed funding for him.
As a board member, Stone expects to meet with startups several times a month in addition to the actual board meetings. He says that by making angel investments, he usually considers himself an advisor. Chroma did.
“These people are full of ideas. [at Chroma]It’s a small team and you don’t have to do a lot to get anything done,” Stone says. Right now, the focus is on adding a sensory experience to the sound.
“The big picture is kind of like this ‘play with sound’ idea. . . interactive. We’re altering the music of nature to make it richer in a 3D way, but visually… you can do something with it,” Stone hinted.
It’s not just a board position that Stone is grappling with. Entrepreneurs say they are “thinking” of something else for a few people and themselves. So far, the project has been self-funded and has not officially launched, so he hides details, but Stone says he has a particular interest in the emerging AI field, especially his states that it uses AI as a tool.
He said he wasn’t particularly interested in other new tech trends, such as web3 and some aspects of the metaverse.
” [web3] Culture doesn’t appeal to me. “There’s something different about that to me,” Stone explained, referring to the Metaverse, “I don’t want a dystopian future where kids are in the room with their scuba masks on all day. I don’t want it. It doesn’t look good to me,” he adds.
“Biz brings a wealth of experience in technology and design to our table. Combining excellence in the digital space with forward-thinking that shifts musical paradigms, we are paving the way for the future of sound together. ,” Pihlström said in a statement.
