Editing VRChat Inc. (section)

=== The Prototype: VRChatroom (2013) ===

VRChat Inc.'s story begins not with a company but with a Kickstarter campaign. In 2013, [[Graham Gaylor]] — then a Mathematics and Computer Science student at Vanderbilt University — backed the Oculus Rift developer kit campaign and received one of the first units. Recognizing that the nascent Oculus community on Reddit had no virtual space to actually meet, he built a prototype:

<blockquote>
"Graham saw a need for the Oculus community to be able to connect in the metaverse. He created the first prototype called VRChatroom and recruited the first testers from the community on Reddit."
<br/>— <i>GFR Fund, Company Highlight: VRChat</i>
</blockquote>

The prototype was rudimentary: a single room based on a Unity Asset Store cafe demo, with all users sharing one avatar named '''Karl'''. But it proved the concept.