VoodooPC founder Rahul Sood resigns from Microsoft to start his own company

Rahul Sood, the high-profile founder of VoodooPC and more recently the general manager of Microsoft Ventures, has resigned to start his own company dubbed Unikrn.

Sood founded VoodooPC as a boutique seller of custom-made gaming computers. The company established itself as an elite brand, and it was able to sell its hand-painted PCs for thousands of dollars. He sold that company to Hewlett-Packard, which then expanded its gamer PC lineup.

In 2011, Sood joined Microsoft to become general manager of Microsoft Ventures, which now has seven accelerators around the world. Sood said he is leaving Microsoft to create a startup, Unikrn, in the Seattle area.

Here’s Sood’s letter below:

Hi everyone, this morning I sent my letter of resignation to Microsoft. It’s bittersweet since I have been a partner of Microsoft’s since I was 17, and to get the opportunity to come full circle and work here was a dream come true.

In January of 2011 my family and I moved from Calgary to Seattle to join Microsoft with the mission to create or be part of something amazing. I wanted to be a part of a team that would help change people’s lives, little did I realize how quickly that mission would come true.

My first year was an experience, navigating the halls, multiple managers and re-orgs, it was hard but always interesting. In that time I was fortunate enough to meet some good people and those meetings led to the creation of first incubation fund for startups (the Bing Fund). Eventually that led to getting together with a few more folks from across the company to create and lead Microsoft Ventures.

Microsoft Ventures is helping start-ups solve many problems around the world. We operate 7 amazing accelerators in Bangalore, Beijing, Berlin, London, Paris, Redmond, and Tel-Aviv. We are encouraging diversity, we inspire students to consider entrepreneurship, we are helping to build and evolve start-up ecosystems, and we’ve been covered favorably by the press over and over again globally. I can’t tell you how proud I am of the progress we’ve made — it’s simply inspiring.

Microsoft is an amazing place to work, it’s the one place where you can take on any challenge and thrive, we have a living founder who has dedicated his life to making the world a better place, and the people are just so damn smart. I am so thankful for this memorable life changing experience. I’m now ready to take my next step. Now that Microsoft Ventures is up and running and in a good place I think it’s about damn time for me to jump out and risk everything again.

I basically created my dream job and now I’m leaving it – this is the kind of crazy shit entrepreneurs do (or at least I keep telling myself that!). My gaming past continues to drive unrest inside me, starting with Voodoo, and then advising various companies including Razer and Vrvana, and now…

I’m on a mission to create a unicorn, therefore I’ll be leaving Microsoft to create Unikrn (details forthcoming) … I may be distracted for a little while but you may contact us at Unikrn’s website, or find me on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. We are looking for some good talent in the Seattle area.

I made some lifelong friends at Microsoft, I am forever indebted to you. Thank you all for the fun times, and thank you for believing. This is just the beginning for Microsoft Ventures, your future is very bright. Best wishes to all of you.