Snap vice president of hardware Mark Randall leaves company

Mark Randall, Snap’s vice president of hardware, has left the company. This news comes from Cheddar, which obtained a memo that was later confirmed by a Snap spokesperson.

Randall’s old team will now work under Jerry Hunter, Snap’s senior vice president of engineering.

Within the memo it indicates that Randall plans to further grow his own company.

According to the sources Cheddar spoke to, Randall’s departure was unrelated to the recent launch of the second-generation Spectacles. 

Snap released the new Spectacles in Canada on April 26th. The new Spectacles are water resistant and feature a more compact frame. They come in three different colours onyx, ruby and sapphire.

The wearable is available for $199.99 via the company’s website.

Randall worked as VP of hardware since 2017. Before that, Randall worked as the vice president of operations for a little more than a year.

You can read Randall’s memo to the Snap team below:

Hi team,

When Snap Lab was first established, it made sense for our group to be completely separate from the rest of Snap’s engineering organization. But from our customers’ perspective, these separations will become less and less distinct over time — as the pillars of Snapchat, Lens Studio, and Spectacles continue to converge. As a result, we’ve decided to realign the team as a distinct group under Snap’s SVP of Engineering, Jerry Hunter.

To best facilitate this transition, I also made the decision that now was the right time for me to leave Snap and focus on growing my own company. Sahil Sharma, VP Hardware Development, will serve as acting lead. The rest of our organizational structure remains the same, and Jerry, Sahil and I are all committed to making sure this is smooth and seamless for all of you.

We will be holding an All Hands tomorrow (7/10) at noon in the Grotto area of 606 (calendar invite to follow + questionnaire form), to share more and answer any questions that you may have.

While this may feel sudden, please know we have been carefully discussing these decisions at the senior leadership level for several months. I’m confident that this is the right next step — both for me and for this team. The potential here within this group is huge and the world will be so excited over the next decade to see all of your amazing creations. 🙂

For my own next steps, I’ll be focusing on growing my own company, where I’ll be advising young, private companies, participating in early-stage investing and working on other passion projects.

It has been an absolute privilege working alongside this team. I’ve learned an incredible amount, and it has been a truly awesome experience. Please feel free to contact me anytime and I will always be more than happy to assist any of you with anything I can.

Mark Randall

Source: Cheddar