Sources: VR startup Upload, formerly UploadVR, closes SF office, LA coworking space, lays off LA staff amid fundraising troubles after settled harassment suit
Upload, the VR startup which was rocked by a sexual harassment suit exactly one year ago, is shutting down both its San Francisco office … Tweets: @hmltn , @elizabethdscott , @lucasmtny , and @jenndefer Tweets: @hmltn : For clarity: I've been told I still have a job. I've only ever worked for this company from home. So right now, it is business as usual for me and the media team. http://twitter.com/... Elizabeth Scott / @elizabethdscott : Exactly one year later. #TimesUp #MeToo http://techcrunch.com/... Lucas Matney / @lucasmtny : Scoop: VR startup Upload shuts down its SF and LA offices as funding from Oculus founder runs out http://techcrunch.com/... Jenn Duong / @jenndefer : We have drawn the line in the sand and this is what happens. One year later. @elizabethdscott http://techcrunch.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Upload's collapse has been a year in the making. The company rebranded from UploadVR after a sexual harassment and wrongful termination suit it settled last September, and BuzzFeed's reporting on how women are treated across the VR industry kept the scandal attached to its name through the fundraising cycle.
The closures also land in a VR content market already pulling back: months earlier, Facebook shut the Oculus VR film studio and shifted to funding outside partners, signaling that even platform-backed original content was being cut. An independent community-and-media startup like Upload had less cushion when investors turned cautious.
First-order effects
- Upload's Los Angeles staff are laid off immediately, and both physical hubs — the San Francisco office and the LA coworking space that anchored its events business — go dark.
- The remote media team survives for now, per staff tweets, meaning Upload persists as a distributed publication without offices or local operations.
Second-order effects
- Investors weighing VR community and content startups now price in reputational liability alongside market risk — Upload's fundraising troubles show a settled suit still constrains capital a full year later.
- Other VR coworking and event spaces in SF and LA inherit the community functions Upload's spaces served, at a moment when independent venues are scarce.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, VR's independent media-and-community layer thins out while original content consolidates inside platform owners like Facebook/Oculus, leaving fewer checks on how the ecosystem's culture and coverage are shaped.
The trend: Independent VR content and community companies are folding as funding retreats toward platform-owned ecosystems, with post-#MeToo reputational damage accelerating the shakeout.