After spending his entire adult life in the game industry, veteran dev and exec David Perry appears to be taking a break to try something new: being CEO and cofounder of Instagram influencer meetup app maker GoVyrl.
This is significant because Perry has been working in games since he began coding his own in the ’80s, going on to found Shiny Entertainment and cofound game streaming service Gaikai.
According to his LinkedIn page (helpfully highlighted by PocketGamer) Perry kept his role as CEO of Gaikai after Sony acquired the company in 2012, serving in that position for nearly five years before departing this month to help launch GoVyrl.
The company pitches itself as a go-between, brokering communication and collaboration between people who have a significant following on Instagram (currently, the company sets its bar for entry at 5,000 followers) and companies who would like to get their brands in front of said following.
GoVyrl’s app, Vyrl, is designed to link up with a user’s Instagram account, verify whether they qualify for participation, and then present them with a curated list of potential collaborators in a Tinder-esque “swipe right to signify interest, swipe left to dismiss” fashion.