Jeffrey Howard
Chapman University concluded its presidential inauguration festivities with an inspiring and thought-provoking conversation between President Matt Parlow and tech entrepreneur and inventor Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril Industries and creator of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. The discussion, which was centered on innovation, leadership, and the future of technology, gave students and guests a candid look into Luckey’s journey from a curious teenager to one of the most influential figures in modern tech.
When asked by President Parlow about the origins of his passion for engineering, Luckey reflected on his early fascination with science fiction and problem-solving. “There are a lot of things you read about, and then you realize that they are totally possible, but nobody has done the work to actually make it real,” he said. “There’s fantasy and there’s what you see in science fiction. Fantasy is something that is never going to happen, no matter what you do. There is a lot of science fiction that can happen if someone puts their mind to making it happen.”
Luckey emphasized that his path wasn’t linear and that belief in his ideas often came before anyone else could see their potential. He emphasized how his peers were the true measure of the ideas he wanted to develop. “I had been showing my prototypes to friends for years,” he said. “I am obsessed with the technology for the sake of the technology. You need to find somebody who doesn’t actually care about how it works, and they just care about what the experience is like. It was when my friends, who were willing to be honest with me and had no reason to lie to me, said, ‘Actually, this is cool.’ That is when I knew I had something,” referring to the Oculus prototype.
President Parlow then asked about the lessons learned from building Oculus, the company that transformed virtual reality. Luckey described the scrappy beginnings: “I bootstrapped it when it was just me, and then I hired my friend, Chris Dycus, and we were living in a condemned motel together working on this. And then we launched a Kickstarter project.”
That risk eventually led to a multibillion-dollar acquisition by Facebook, but Luckey noted that the money wasn’t the point; it was about solving challenges.
Only in his early 30s, Luckey – who is originally from Southern California and has put down corporate roots in Orange County – has already made a significant impact on modern technology and continues to use innovation to help address intractable societal problems ranging from global conflict to energy. In his current venture, he also makes a point of supporting military veterans and leveraging their skills and insights.
Through humor, humility, and hard-won insight, Palmer Luckey left Chapman’s audience with a message that resonated deeply: believe in your vision, stay persistent, and never stop building what others think is impossible.
