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Ross Finman is the CEO of Augmodo, a company utilizing AI and AR to revolutionize grocery store experiences and economics starting with the personal shoppers who fulfill online grocery purchases.Previously Ross spent 4 ½ years at Niantic. There he founded the AR mapping and Visual Positioning System (VPS) effort before becoming the AR Strategy Lead and then the general manager for the AR Headset group.He joined Niantic through the acquisition of his first startup, Escher Reality, which became the foundation for Niantic's AR Platform, now called Lightship.He started Escher Reality as he was finishing his Ph.D. in Robotics from MIT, after previously completing his undergrad in computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon.In this conversation, the second of two parts, Ross digs into his current startup, Augmodo.We discuss:- the problem they are solving,- the importance and approach to customer discovery,- how AR and AI work together to form a solution,- why now is the right timing and this the right opportunity, and- some recent progress and announcements.Ross goes on to share additional lessons learned and advice for deep tech startup founders.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com. Please consider contributing to my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/theARshow.Links From The Episode- Article: [Innovating Category Management – Groceryshop 2023](https://retailwire.com/blog/innovating-category-management-groceryshop-2023/) by Georges Mirza for RetailWire- Article: [Pokémon GO creator Niantic buys Escher Reality AR startup](https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/01/niantic-buy-escher-reality-ar-startup/) by Lucas Matney for TechCrunch…and related [Niantic blog post](https://nianticlabs.com/news/escherreality).- Article: [BMW introduces Smartglasses for Motorcycling](https://mixed-news.com/en/bmw-connectedride-smartglasses-announced/) Benjamin Danneberg for Mixed News- Video: [Star Wars: Jedi Challenges Review - Lenovo Mirage AR Mobile Headset](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-hsJ0xeaT4) by TWiT Tech Podcast Network- Patent: [Augmented Reality Hat](https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2022219603A1/en) by Ross Finman, Michael Miller, and Maryam Sabour- YouTube Channel: [Perun](https://www.youtube.com/@PerunAU)—an Australian covering the military industrial complex and national military investment strategy.- [Episode Transcript - Part 1](https://otter.ai/u/5KVmmaOHVjMliriCJLzbsA1Tj8E)- [Episode Transcript - Part 2](https://otter.ai/u/m50rbDodqw1gwz1NHJgMytTr9vw)Please consider contributing to my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/theARshow.
Ross Finman is the CEO of Augmodo, a company utilizing AI and AR to revolutionize grocery store experiences and economics starting with the personal shoppers who fulfill online grocery purchases.Previously Ross spent 4 ½ years at Niantic. There he founded the AR mapping and Visual Positioning System (VPS) effort before becoming the AR Strategy Lead and then the general manager for the AR Headset group.He joined Niantic through the acquisition of his first startup, Escher Reality, which became the foundation for Niantic's AR Platform, now called Lightship.He started Escher Reality as he was finishing his Ph.D. in Robotics from MIT, after previously completing his undergrad in computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon.In this conversation, the first of two parts, Ross describes his perspective on the AR market opportunity. Specifically, we get into his journey at Escher Reality: how it started, a couple of key moments during the company's early days, the sale process to Niantic, and some lesson learned along the way.He discusses some reflections on his time at Niantic, including the open mindset they had about developing new hardware. And he shares his current perspective on where AR has the most immediate potential.We come back in part 2 with a discussion about his current startup, Augmodo.Links From The Episode- Article: [Innovating Category Management – Groceryshop 2023](https://retailwire.com/blog/innovating-category-management-groceryshop-2023/) by Georges Mirza for RetailWire- Article: [Pokémon GO creator Niantic buys Escher Reality AR startup](https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/01/niantic-buy-escher-reality-ar-startup/) by Lucas Matney for TechCrunch…and related [Niantic blog post](https://nianticlabs.com/news/escherreality).- Article: [BMW introduces Smartglasses for Motorcycling](https://mixed-news.com/en/bmw-connectedride-smartglasses-announced/) Benjamin Danneberg for Mixed News- Video: [Star Wars: Jedi Challenges Review - Lenovo Mirage AR Mobile Headset](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-hsJ0xeaT4) by TWiT Tech Podcast Network- Patent: [Augmented Reality Hat](https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2022219603A1/en) by Ross Finman, Michael Miller, and Maryam Sabour- YouTube Channel: [Perun](https://www.youtube.com/@PerunAU)—an Australian covering the military industrial complex and national military investment strategy.- [Episode Transcript](https://otter.ai/u/5KVmmaOHVjMliriCJLzbsA1Tj8E)Please consider contributing to my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/theARshow.
A successful pitch deck is an informative presentation that includes all relevant details and critical metrics that SaaS investors want to see. And you should use that space wisely to get your message across.But there's no one-size-fits-all pitch deck template. You need to tell your company's unique story.In this episode of The Role Forward podcast, our host Joe Michalowski is joined by John Luttig, a Principal at Founders Fund and Mosaic Co-Founder and COO, Joe Garafalo. They chat about the building blocks of a SaaS pitch deck, the CAC Payback Period metric, and how to address investors' most significant concerns in your pitch. You'll also hear about why Founders Fund chose invest in the strategic finance space by leading Mosaic's, just announced, Series B round. Guest-at-a-Glance
Diana is starting a new (stealth) company. Previously she was the founder and CTO of Escher Reality, a YC startup acquired by Niantic. At Niantic, she was the head of the AR platform and led all AR initiatives in engineering and product. In the past, she built and led data science teams to bring research projects into production for "OnCue", a cloud television platform spun off from Intel and acquired by Verizon Labs. -------------------------- >>TIME FRAME
Ross Finman is the AR Strategy Lead at Niantic, the company behind Pokemon GO and Harry Potter Wizards Unite.You may have noticed the press over the last few months that Niantic is making a heavy push to support and expand the AR ecosystem through the development of their Real World Platform (planet-scale, augmented reality platform for current and future generations of AR hardware), as well as the establishment of their Niantic Creator Program and Beyond Reality Fund. Plus they recently announced a collaboration with Qualcomm to accelerate AR software and hardware.As the AR Strategy Lead, Ross is a key driver of these efforts. He joined Niantic through the acquisition of his AR technology company, Escher Reality, which he founded while pursuing his PhD in Robotics at MIT.On the whole, Ross is an entrepreneur with over a decade of experience at the intersection of the digital and physical worlds through Augmented Reality and Robotics.Ross and I spoke on stage at the 2019 VRAR Global Summit in Vancouver. This episode includes our on-stage conversation as well as about 19 minutes of additional Q&A we did back stage.Regular listeners might remember Ross and I did something similar at AWE back in May, and here we continue that conversation.I ask why Pokemon GO should be considered a harbinger of what’s to come, and not an outlier of AR success. We also explore what’s needed to make AR-based experiences an everyday habit, and why developers should trust Niantic enough to build their business on their platform.Ross goes on to give his perspective on the challenges of creating an AR-first mobile app.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.
Diana Hu cofounded Escher Reality, which went through the Summer 2017 batch of YC. They were acquired by Niantic and she is now the head of their AR platform.She's on Twitter @sdianahu.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/***Topics00:00 - Intro00:40 - Getting into AR2:55 - Her first exposure to AR4:40 - AR's future role in media7:45 - Deciding where to go with the product 9:55 - Innovations that enabled AR14:25 - Building a product in a new market17:25 - Raising money for a new market21:40 - Advice for founders after an acquisition 26:40 - Immigrating to the US31:10 - Advice for Immigrant founders33:49 - Advice for founders in/after YC
Ross Finman is the AR Strategy Lead at Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go and Harry Potter Wizards Unite. Niantic is building a state-of-the-art, planet-scale augmented reality platform for current and future generations of AR hardware.Ross joined Niantic through the acquisition of his AR technology company, Escher Reality. He started Escher Reality while pursuing his PhD in Robotics at MIT.On the whole, Ross describes himself as an entrepreneur with over a decade of experience at the intersection of the digital and physical worlds through Augmented Reality and Robotics.Ross and I spoke on stage at the 2019 Augmented World Expo in late May. This episode contains about 23 minutes of additional Q&A from both before and after the formal on-stage session that isn’t available in the official AWE video of the conversation.In this conversation, Ross shares how he grew up on a Llama farm in Idaho, and how that influenced his pursuit of robotics at Carnegie Mellon and MIT.He describes his transition to augmented reality, and an important learning about the underlying technology. He goes on to talk about Niantic’s ambitions in AR as well as some of the impacts on the real world. Ross also shares his perspective on handheld AR versus head-worn smartglasses.We even field a question from author Kevin Kelly about the coming intersection of Robotics and AR. Ross concludes with a few lessons learned from his startup experience at Escher Reality.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.
YC Partner Jared Friedman joins founders Lillian Chou (COO, Second Measure), Diana Hu (CTO, Escher Reality), Calvin French-Owen (CTO, Segment) and Ralph Gootee (CTO, PlanGrid), to talk about what can go right and wrong building technology.Video Link
ABOUT THE EPISODE SIGGRAPH 2018 Virtual, Augmented & Mixed Reality Chair Pol Jeremias-Vila (Pixar Animation Studios) sits down with Niantic, Inc.’s Diana Hu (lead, augmented reality engineering) and Niniane Wang (senior director, engineering) to discuss their Immersive Pavilion project — which will be showcased in Vancouver — and the Niantic development process, spanning everything from Pokémon GO to Codename: Neon. The two also share the respective career journeys that led them to where they are today and sparked their interest in augmented reality. A bit of a preview: Diana was previously the co-founder and CTO of Escher Reality, a startup that was acquired by Niantic and builds the backend for augmented reality applications. She holds eight patents in AR, computer vision, and machine learning. As for Niniane, in addition to the project discussed, she is responsible for the Harry Potter augmented reality game, Ingress, and more. She, too, came to Niantic via acquisition, of Evertoon, and has worked for many other cutting-edge companies, including Minted, Google, and Microsoft, since graduating with her bachelor’s degree at just 18! As a past conference presenter in 2003 and 2004, Niniane feels grateful to SIGGRAPH for showing her the breadth of what can be achieved with computer graphics. We hope you enjoy their stories! || MUSIC Podcast theme, "SIGGRAPH," composed by Julius Dobos. || LINKS *Episode* https://s2018.siggraph.org/conference/conference-overview/virtual-augmented-mixed-reality/ | https://www.nianticlabs.com/ | https://youtu.be/dO1NpT2SSX4 | *Social Media* http://blog.siggraph.org/ | https://www.facebook.com/SIGGRAPHConferences | https://twitter.com/siggraph | https://www.youtube.com/user/ACMSIGGRAPH | https://www.instagram.com/acmsiggraph/ | https://www.linkedin.com/company/acm-siggraph/ | "siggraph" on Snapchat *Conference Website* http://s2018.siggraph.org/
In this second episode of our Augmented Reality podcast, Regan and Rich talk about the changing technology landscape of AR, what these changes mean to those who design and develop AR solutions, and what they mean to organisations looking to bring AR into their business. We talk SLAM, AR Kit, AR Core, Unity, vertical plane recognition, spatial computing and more. Get in touch with us at hollaback@grizzlydigital.com Links to articles and news we talk about in the show are listed below: Google debuts Article 3d model viewer for Web: https://www.androidauthority.com/google-augmented-reality-web-article-831862/ Niantic acquire Escher Reality: https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/01/niantic-buy-escher-reality-ar-startup/ Intels New AR Glasses: http://variety.com/2018/digital/news/intel-ar-glasses-1202687323/ Snapchat releases web tools to create custom AR lenses: https://next.reality.news/news/snapchat-unveils-web-based-tool-for-creating-custom-ar-lenses-filters-0182732/ Google brings AR into Motion Stills app: https://www.roadtovr.com/google-brings-ar-mode-motion-stills-android-app/`
After another week packed with new content, information, and speculation, the GWeA crew welcomes special guest, Joe Ard to the show! Joe is co-host of the Pokémon GO Podcast, and we had a blast talking with him! Make sure to check out and follow everything that his team is involved with! The week started with a fantastic new trailer, narrated by Stephen Fry, which takes an almost documentary style approach to the world of Pokémon GO. Niantic drops some unlockable avatar items in the shop which may split the community. Data Miner Chrales finds new info on Deoxys and Castform! New 60 Second Trailer - https://goo.gl/K8WN3S Deoxys and Castform mining - https://goo.gl/MC6TjT Niantic acquires Escher Reality - https://goo.gl/fKQSoE New wave of EX Raid Passes went out last week - https://goo.gl/kUuwcf Pokémon GO Podcast - https://goo.gl/NhujUw Joe Ard - https://twitter.com/Joseph_Ard Email us! LuredUp@gmail.com https://www.gottawatchemall.com https://www.facebook.com/gottawatchemall/ https://twitter.com/GottaWatchEmAll https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKF_I5camyHMg-4Hi-7QqdA https://www.instagram.com/gottawatchemall/ http://gottawatchemallpodcast.tumblr.com/ https://plus.google.com/u/1/b/115738176821732158959/115738176821732158959/posts https://gottawatchemall.slack.com (Patreon Only) http://gottawatchemall.libsyn.com/podcast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-zero/id1120887936?i=1000370004356&mt=2 http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/gotta-watchem-all?refid=stpr https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I5hdkinbvlhxvuuz5w3gez6p3ey Ken – https://twitter.com/ProudGamerTweet Adam - https://twitter.com/phoenixback4fir Melissa - https://twitter.com/supersweetMiss Logo by Seth Hay - http://www.sethhay.com Intro Song - "Civic Duty" by Chipocrite Outro Song - "Little Computer People" by Chipocrite http://www.chipocrite.com/ iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/bn/artist/chipocrite/id412533781 Facebook - https://twitter.com/chipocrite Twitter - https://twitter.com/chipocrit