Alban Denoyel’s Post

View profile for Alban Denoyel, graphic

Entrepreneur, creator & investor. Co-founder of Sketchfab (acquired by Epic Games).

Life update: today is my last day at Sketchfab & Epic Games 👋 💙   Building Sketchfab has been the adventure of a lifetime, for which I am forever grateful. The Sketchfab team is truly unique, a perfect mix of talent and kindness that I will miss. Special thanks to Cedric & Pierre-Antoine, who were great co-founders. I'm proud of what we accomplished, from a simple 3D viewer to a community of over 15M members today, and a product being integrated with the Fortnite ecosystem. Being part of Epic Games was quite inspiring as well, particularly working on projects at Fortnite scale, and I'm grateful for that opportunity. I'm super bullish on the outlooks for Epic, especially as they roll out Lego Fortnite, UEFN, Fab, collaborate with Disney and come back on mobile. I'm excited to remain a supporter & shareholder from the outside. Special thanks to Marc, Sébastien & Tim for welcoming me into the Epic world. On my end, I want to go back to zero and start something again. I'm exploring a number of spaces, including climate tech and health, with a focus on hardware. I imagine it must be hard but quite gratifying to build a brand around a physical product. I will also keep angel investing, my main thesis being to invest in founders I know well enough to trust their talent. And finally, I am happy to now have more time to dedicate to my family and to creative hobbies (woodworking, sewing... and scanning all of it of course 🙂 ). My main email from now on: alban at denoyel.com Ps: here is the farewell gift I got from the team yesterday, which I mounted next to my Epic 10 year plate. It features iconic Sketchfab models: Pony cartoon car https://skfb.ly/APwo Sketchfab 5 Million https://skfb.ly/6ZU9p Miss Seagull https://skfb.ly/TVqM Bob https://skfb.ly/6JrGp Bath time https://skfb.ly/6uFJO Boombox space cat https://skfb.ly/6RFKx Lovecraftian https://skfb.ly/6vSYr School boy https://skfb.ly/NpDQ Caterpillar dream https://skfb.ly/FLFY Young luke https://skfb.ly/6qpWX Worker https://skfb.ly/6BPP8 Series A gold bar https://skfb.ly/EGsI Founders 4D selfie https://skfb.ly/6AQuS Stickersd fiat 500 https://skfb.ly/6vvUG Nike blazer https://skfb.ly/6S9Bs

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I’ll say what you and everyone else already knows - you’re amazing. Building sketchfab was an insane accomplishment. It’s such an insanely valuable platform for the 3d community and really simplifies creation. And you as a human have been amazing. Sharing your scans, providing advice to others on the come up. So happy for you. Do some hobbies. Spend time with the family. Get some well deserved rest 👏👏👏

Clem Delangue 🤗

Co-founder & CEO at Hugging Face

9mo

what a journey, so inspiring for all of us!

Congratulations on building Sketchfab to from what it was to what it is today! It's been amazing watching you grow Sketchfab, the 3D community, and changing the role of 3D viewers. Back then, 3D viewers were just novelty experiments, but now they are embedded everywhere, allowing people to experience full-scale 3D experiences and environments. Glad to have worked together, and best of luck going forward! Make sure to cherish that family time :)

Fivos Doganis

XR Senior Research Engineer chez Dassault Systèmes

8mo

Congrats Alban Denoyel ! Your adventure is one of the best success-stories out there! Every time I introduce Sketchfab to newcomers they are impressed by the quality of the content and the responsiveness of the site. Most of them can't believe that it's a small French startup that created the "YouTube of 3D". Epic Games made a very clever move with this acquisition regarding 3D content creation and experience. I wish you all the best for your next projects. I will definitely keep my eyes peeled, as I am pretty sure that you'll blow our minds over and over again!

🧬 🤖 ⚙️ Alex Iskold

Founder | Investor | Partner 2048 Ventures

9mo

Call me Alban Denoyel :)

Diego Aguirre

Game Developer @ Globant

9mo

Hi Alban, wish you the very best in this new chapter, enjoy life and share those wood crafting you’ll made please!  you know, a few years ago you answer me a question related to scanning food. That answer changed the way I capture reality.  thank you for that support back then, and for the truly amazing platform you’ve left.  ground breaking tech as sketchefab, is something it was life changer back then in the spark ar studio.  so much easy to integrate assets in the AR projects. Without sketchfab probably the story would had been a lot different.  so, thank you, thank you, and kudos to the team who made it possible! 👏

Liam Boogar-Azoulay

Co-founder, ✨Waypoint AI: automate escalations from intake to resolution.

9mo

Excellent run, Alban. Can’t wait to see what you’ll do next. Rest up :)

Thanks to your efforts with Sketchfab, I and many other indies and freelancers like me have been better able to make modest incomes. I hope that your plans to "...also keep angel investing, my main thesis being to invest in founders I know well enough to trust their talent" will include looking out for and welcoming connections with hidden gems in marginalized talent, since those who are well known in the 3D industry are quite well funded as it is. Wishing you all the best in your future endeavors!

James George

Emmy-winning Computer Scientist, Artist and Entrepreneur. Principal Scientist, Architect @ Adobe. Formerly CEO & Co-Founder of Scatter, creators of Depthkit (acquired by Evercoast).

9mo

Huge news!! End of an era. Excited to follow along on what you do next. ❤️

Jonathan Benainous

Principal Environment Artist at Lightspeed L.A.

9mo

I already messaged you on FB, but congrats again Alban and thank you for everything! You and the team believed in me and my work and have been an immense support throughout the years. Thank you for all that you've done for the 3D community and the amazing achievement with Sketchfab. I wish you all the best in whatever comes next, and I'm sure it will be another success story! 👏🏼🚀 Take care, and I hope to see you around someday!

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