Ozzie began his career at
Data General Corporation, where he worked for
Jonathan Sachs. After leaving Data General, he worked at
Software Arts for
Dan Bricklin and
Bob Frankston, the creators of
VisiCalc, on that product and
TK Solver. He was then recruited by Sachs and
Mitch Kapor to work for Lotus Development to develop what became
Lotus Symphony. Ozzie left
Lotus Development in 1984 and founded
Iris Associates to create the product later sold by Lotus as
Lotus Notes, based in part on his experiences using the PLATO Notes group messaging system.
Iris Associates was acquired by Lotus in 1994, and Lotus itself was acquired by
IBM in 1995. Ozzie worked for Lotus and IBM for several years before leaving in 1997, to form
Groove Networks. Groove was acquired by
Microsoft in 2005, where Ozzie became one of three
Chief Technical Officers. On June 15, 2006, Ozzie took over the role of
Chief Software Architect from
Bill Gates. In October 2009, he also created
FUSE Labs (Future Social Experiences) within this advanced development unit, focusing on innovation in social experiences for mobile and web. On October 18, 2010, Ozzie officially announced his plans to step down from his role at Microsoft. In 2011, he helped create the non-profit
Safecast. In January 2012, Ozzie started Talko Inc., a company that delivered mobile apps and services for business team communications primarily focused on those roles in which voice is essential. Talko was launched in September 2014. Ozzie has said that the name "Talko" was meant as an homage to
Talkomatic, a popular group chat program he experienced while working on the
PLATO System in the 1970s. Ray sold the company to Microsoft in December 2015, with the intent to bring Talko's novel voice and productivity features to Microsoft's Skype. In 2013, Ozzie joined the board of directors at
Hewlett-Packard, and continues to serve as a director of
Hewlett Packard Enterprise. He joined the board of Safecast in 2017. In April 2020, Ray Ozzie raised $11 million for his new venture, Blues Wireless, an IoT company. By July 2021, Ozzie had raised $22 million from investors. ==Awards and honors==