Jason McDowall: Investor | Advocate | Entrepreneur
100 episodes
11 months ago
Driving from the flats of Beverly Hills up into the hills themselves feels like I’m entering into a different world. Here the picturesque, tree-line streets filled with beautiful homes give way to narrow, winding roads that snake their way to the tops of hillsides. In these hills, each home looks like an architectural marvel, delicately perched at the very edge of a steep slope, with expansive views of Los Angeles.
It was in one of these homes where I met with key members of the Snap marketing team to preview Snap's latest efforts to build AR glasses, the 5th generation Spectacles.
In this episode, I share my impressions of the device and my perspective on its place in the larger narrative of AR Glasses.
To help set the stage, I had a chance to catch up with Sophia Dominguez, the Director of the AR Platform, at Snap.
Prior to her four and a half years at Snap, Sophia started the widely followed “All Things VR” newsletter and joined Rothenberg Ventures as an Entrepreneur in Residence before co-founding her first company, SVRF. There she created the first API and SDKs for searching and rendering 3D face filters. They powered over 280M AR experiences, and she successfully sold the company to Poplar before joining Snap.
Sophia began her career by attending NYU with a focus on how technology impacts human interaction. She then organized one of the world’s first wearable technology conferences, before working in product and operations for a startup focused on visual messaging.
You may remember Sophia from my interview with her published in the summer of 2023. Check out that two-part episode for her wonderful backstory and broader perspective on the market.
Here we keep things very focused on the 5th generation Snap Spectacles.
Callout: Developers in the U.S. can join the Spectacles Developer Program for $99 per month with a one year commitment by visiting www.spectacles.com/lens-studio.
All content for AR Show with Jason McDowall is the property of Jason McDowall: Investor | Advocate | Entrepreneur and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Driving from the flats of Beverly Hills up into the hills themselves feels like I’m entering into a different world. Here the picturesque, tree-line streets filled with beautiful homes give way to narrow, winding roads that snake their way to the tops of hillsides. In these hills, each home looks like an architectural marvel, delicately perched at the very edge of a steep slope, with expansive views of Los Angeles.
It was in one of these homes where I met with key members of the Snap marketing team to preview Snap's latest efforts to build AR glasses, the 5th generation Spectacles.
In this episode, I share my impressions of the device and my perspective on its place in the larger narrative of AR Glasses.
To help set the stage, I had a chance to catch up with Sophia Dominguez, the Director of the AR Platform, at Snap.
Prior to her four and a half years at Snap, Sophia started the widely followed “All Things VR” newsletter and joined Rothenberg Ventures as an Entrepreneur in Residence before co-founding her first company, SVRF. There she created the first API and SDKs for searching and rendering 3D face filters. They powered over 280M AR experiences, and she successfully sold the company to Poplar before joining Snap.
Sophia began her career by attending NYU with a focus on how technology impacts human interaction. She then organized one of the world’s first wearable technology conferences, before working in product and operations for a startup focused on visual messaging.
You may remember Sophia from my interview with her published in the summer of 2023. Check out that two-part episode for her wonderful backstory and broader perspective on the market.
Here we keep things very focused on the 5th generation Snap Spectacles.
Callout: Developers in the U.S. can join the Spectacles Developer Program for $99 per month with a one year commitment by visiting www.spectacles.com/lens-studio.
Michael Hoffman (IQXR) on Solving the Hard Problems for Enterprises
AR Show with Jason McDowall
1 hour 26 minutes 26 seconds
1 year ago
Michael Hoffman (IQXR) on Solving the Hard Problems for Enterprises
Michael Hoffman, or “Hoff” as most know him, is the co-founder and CEO at IQXR, a company solving the hardest problems facing global-scale, enterprise XR deployments, and doing so with an open source approach.
Previously Michael spent nearly a decade working with the Microsoft Hololens team. He was a Principal Engineering Lead at Microsoft for a couple of years, left to be the founding partner of Object theTheory, where he and his team worked with enterprises to leverage AR and VR technologies, often in combination with IoT and AI/Machine Learning. And then he went back to Microsoft for a couple of years to lead the development of the Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK) project.
Earlier in his career, Michael worked in software engineering roles at Google, Nike, and several startups.
In this conversation, Hoff describes how 3D visualization, with AR and VR technologies, changes our comprehension of digital information, contributes to the value of having your hands free to interact with the world, and enables better efficiency and better insights.
Within the enterprise setting, Hoff notes it’s relatively easy to get to a pilot and prove value, but it’s really difficult to deliver that value at scale.
We go on to talk about making AR/VR solutions viable within an enterprise setting at scale, including challenges around visual and audio haptics, working both online and offline, and other key bits of plumbing, as well as the misconceptions that many enterprises have about the technology.
We also discuss:- the rationale and corporate strategy for building open source solutions, - the role of AI in accelerating software and content development,- the art of the AI prompt, and- how Apple Vision Pro accelerates the market.
Hoff wraps up by discussing neurodivergence and his own growing awareness and acceptance of the challenges and benefits of neurodivergence for both his children and himself.
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
- Press Release: [Microsoft Talent Joins The Mesmerise Group to Drive Growth of Immersive Technology Solutions for the Enterprise](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microsoft-talent-joins-the-mesmerise-group-to-drive-growth-of-immersive-technology-solutions-for-the-enterprise-301856247.html)
- Article: [What is ikigai and how can it change my life?](https://www.betterup.com/blog/what-is-ikigai) by Elizabeth Perry for BetterUp
- Book: [Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life](https://amzn.to/48pf15s) by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles
- Book: [The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers](https://amzn.to/2ZpiQ8m) by Ben Horowitz
- Book: [Ready Player One](https://amzn.to/2X9Eu2t) by Ernest Cline
AR Show with Jason McDowall
Driving from the flats of Beverly Hills up into the hills themselves feels like I’m entering into a different world. Here the picturesque, tree-line streets filled with beautiful homes give way to narrow, winding roads that snake their way to the tops of hillsides. In these hills, each home looks like an architectural marvel, delicately perched at the very edge of a steep slope, with expansive views of Los Angeles.
It was in one of these homes where I met with key members of the Snap marketing team to preview Snap's latest efforts to build AR glasses, the 5th generation Spectacles.
In this episode, I share my impressions of the device and my perspective on its place in the larger narrative of AR Glasses.
To help set the stage, I had a chance to catch up with Sophia Dominguez, the Director of the AR Platform, at Snap.
Prior to her four and a half years at Snap, Sophia started the widely followed “All Things VR” newsletter and joined Rothenberg Ventures as an Entrepreneur in Residence before co-founding her first company, SVRF. There she created the first API and SDKs for searching and rendering 3D face filters. They powered over 280M AR experiences, and she successfully sold the company to Poplar before joining Snap.
Sophia began her career by attending NYU with a focus on how technology impacts human interaction. She then organized one of the world’s first wearable technology conferences, before working in product and operations for a startup focused on visual messaging.
You may remember Sophia from my interview with her published in the summer of 2023. Check out that two-part episode for her wonderful backstory and broader perspective on the market.
Here we keep things very focused on the 5th generation Snap Spectacles.
Callout: Developers in the U.S. can join the Spectacles Developer Program for $99 per month with a one year commitment by visiting www.spectacles.com/lens-studio.
