Founder Bios
Jon Snoddy spent fifteen years as the head of Walt Disney Imagineering’s Research & Development, Technology, and AI studios, where he led a cross-disciplinary mix of artists, scientists, technologists, and engineers, working to invent the next generation of entertainment experiences. Currently the co-founder and CEO of Operative Games, the AI-driven company at the cutting edge of interactive storytelling, Jon has a long history of innovation and top-tier organizational development.
Jon has built world-renowned teams in the US, Europe, and Asia working in Software, Materials Science, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Next Generation Storytelling, Interactive Character Experiences, and Optics. His teams have developed AI-controlled characters who converse, tell stories, and compose & perform music. He holds over 40 patents in a broad range of areas including AI, gameplay systems, and ride systems.
Starting his career as a recording engineer for NPR in Washington, Jon went on to help launch the THX system at Lucasfilm before joining Disney. At Disney, he led ride system development for the Indiana Jones™ Adventure and founded the Disney VR Studio. Jon later left Disney to become a serial entrepreneur, starting multiple companies specializing in interactive, video game, and social media experiences. During this time, he launched Game Works LLC with DreamWorks, Sega, and Universal Studios, led redevelopment projects like Centum City in Pusan, Kr., developed movie theater games with TimePlay Entertainment, and personalized video sharing with Bigstage Entertainment.
After selling BigStage, Jon returned to Walt Disney Imagineering as a Senior Vice President in Research & Development and took over leadership of the group a year later, bringing an AI focus to next-generation robotics, displays, ride systems, animation, and storytelling.
Outside of work he is an avid sailor and is always in the middle of some large fabrication project.
Jon has over 30 years of experience building world-class companies in software and consumer digital media. Jon is currently co-founder and COO of Operative Games, the AI-driven interactive storytelling company that puts players at the center of the action and leverages its proprietary technology to create rich ongoing relationships with compelling characters. In addition to Operative Games, Jon keeps a finger on the pulse of the early-stage investment community as a Venture Partner at Black Diamond Ventures.
Jon previously served as Co-founder and CEO of Pandora Media, the largest online radio product in the world with over 150M registered users in the U.S. (NYSE: P). He is also a co-founder and board member at Thrively, a strength-based online platform to help children discover positive self-identity and agency in life. Thrively is currently being used in over 130,000 classrooms nationwide. He is the former COO and a member of the founding team at UberMedia, Idealab’s prominent Internet start-up, which he led through eight M&A transactions and helped build into the world’s leading independent developer of mobile social apps before the company was acquired by Near (NASDAQ: NIR) in 2021. Before that, he was Co-founder and COO for Big Stage Entertainment, Inc., an advanced avatar platform company recognized by Forbes in 2009 as one of America’s 20 Most Promising Companies, and sold to Image Metrix (IMGX:OTC) in 2010.
Jon’s first entrepreneurial venture was as a Co-founder of Stanford Technology Group in 1993, an innovator in the relational OLAP market, funded by Sequoia and Hummer Winblad, and acquired by Informix Corporation in 1995. Jon currently sits on the board of Nolan Bushnell’s new company, ExoDexa, using advanced gaming to transform the way we educate our children. Jon holds a B.A. from Stanford University.