#154 - A Leap into the Future of Augmented Reality with Jen Richey

Get ready to be captivated as we navigate the riveting world of augmented reality with Jen Richey, a renowned professional athlete turned tech maven. The founder of Gravity Jack, a visionary technology company, Jen recounts her remarkable journey from the exhilarating world of skydiving to charting the course of augmented reality. She pulls back the curtain on Gravity Jack's trailblazing role in the industry, taking us through the company's genesis, its evolution, and its current collaborations with Fortune 500 giants.

During our enlightening discussion, Jen and I delve deep into the transformative potential of augmented reality and mobile technology's sweeping implications. From sharing the thrill of seeing an idea morph into reality, to discussing our experiences with Fortune 500 giants, we cover the spectrum. Jen emphasizes the importance of finding harmony between the digital and physical realms, and throws down the gauntlet, challenging us all to step out of our comfort zones and engage with new experiences.

As we round off our talk, we take a leap into the fascinating future of augmented reality, examining how it could enrich learning and expertise across diverse fields. From contemplating the potential of Apple Vision Pro to redefine the in-home experience, to predicting the rise of digital twin technology, we touch upon it all. Jen imparts how she effectively harnessed AR technology to catapult Gravity Jack to success and offers a sneak peek into the company's innovative offerings. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone intrigued by the intersection of technology and everyday life, and the role of augmented reality in sculpting the future.

To Learn more about Gravity Jack:
Website: https://www.gravityjack.com/
Start Up Engine: https://www.startengine.com/offering/gravityjack

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:00

Hey, what's going on? We got a special guest here today. We have Jen Richie. She's the mother of four, a professional athlete, an extreme athlete and a skydiver. Jennifer provides an understanding of augmented reality and mobile technology. She started a company called Gravity Jack in 2009 and has the claims to the first augmented reality patents. Jen, how are you doing right now?

Speaker 2: 1:25

Awesome, wonderful. Thank you, Jordan. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:29

Thank you for being on. I'm excited to have you on, because what's going on with augmented reality, is it's really interesting? Do you think it's going to take over the world, like are people never going to leave their homes again, or do you think they're? What do you think about this?

Speaker 2: 1:45

I mean, life in general should be balanced. There should be balance. Will there be people that never leave their home? Probably. I mean, I'd be lying right If I didn't say that we have people who work with us here at GJ. They work all day on the computer, they code, and then when they're off work they go and they game and they're in their computer and that's what they do, that's what they like to do and that's their choice. So do I think that they should be locked in a technological, digital ARGR world? Probably not. Do I think some will? Yeah, I do.

Speaker 1: 2:20

Yeah, and you bring up a good point. There's people already there today Like people are concerned about this, but there's already a lot of people there currently.

Speaker 2: 2:27

So, jen, they get the groceries online, food, everything.

Speaker 1: 2:32

I mean, I think, in my opinion, I feel like COVID expedited that, where people are like I don't want to go outside, I don't want to see people, I don't want to do that, and there's a lot of people who went to that. Hey, I'm just going to live my life and be my organism, but I think together we're stronger for sure. So, jen, for you, where did your journey start? Because you have a pretty interesting one.

Speaker 2: 2:55

And where did that all begin for you? With my journey with tech.

Speaker 1: 2:59

No, just your life. Where did it all begin? And then, how did you get into tech?

Speaker 2: 3:04

OK, so I was. I'm from Southern California originally and actually met you mentioned I skydive, so I was skydiving down in California and met my husband there. He lived in Washington state and was down visiting a friend and we met, we jumped, I moved. So then I moved up to Washington state and I was actually on my way to becoming an attorney. My dad's an attorney, my brother's an attorney, grandpa was from a line of attorneys, and when I moved to Washington I was in college when I shifted into the tech world and helped sound the Tometa software in 2002, which was more of a PC dev company, and I did a lot of finances behind the scenes stuff, and then 2007 went on to a different gaming.

Speaker 1: 3:51

Yeah, real quick. So how old were you when you're skydiving and you meet your husband as soon to be a husband or like down the line husband?

Speaker 2: 3:58

19. So as soon as I got, I started jumping the year before, as soon as I turned 18, I was new I wanted to be a jumper. I went and jumped and then saved up money to come back the next year to get my license.

Speaker 1: 4:12

And what do you enjoy about skydiving? What is so incredible about it? Because I, like there's the I fly areas which are really cool, like there's elements of flying. Yes, exactly, I've never done real skydiving, though yeah, it's so fun.

Speaker 2: 4:27

So when I first started, or knew I wanted to, I was like 11 years old and my grandpa, I went out to the field and Edwards Air Force Base my grandpa came down on a big round, hit the ground, like you would have thought, and I went running to him. I just found a picture about a year ago and I'm running out there and it was from that day on. I always knew it. So I tried to be a jumper at 15. Like if my parents would sign a waiver, could I? They wouldn't sideways cause 18.

Speaker 2: 4:50

There's just a freedom in it. There's just like just joy and a little bit of unpredictability. I'm not like the oh it's ground rush, I'm going to die. That's not never been me. It's more just like a fun. You have a short amount of time to do whatever you want to do, to play whatever you want to play, because you've got about a minute where you have to pull that, shoot and land and it's just. It's just the thrill of it. But I ride sport bikes and speed and a little bit of an adrenaline junkie I guess.

Speaker 1: 5:23

Well, it's incredible, it's cool, Cause most of the time, what I find is there's a lot of people that are so stuck in their roles, they're so stuck in their life, and most people don't have great hobbies like that. So what do you think would be a good value to them? Not saying everyone's got to go skydive tomorrow, but what do you think it is Like, what was the way for you to find your hobby? Cause I think it's super beneficial for people to have different areas of life, cause it allows it to be a lot more fulfilling.

Speaker 2: 5:53

So I'm a. I used to say try everything once and I changed that to try everything twice, Not everything, most things. So you try it the first time and it's like information overload and then the second time was like who?

Speaker 2: 6:05

what's really going on? What's happening Like a skydive or a bungee jump? I mean, statistically you're fine, you're more likely to get in a car wreck, drive and it'll work. Tomorrow Then you are having something happen in a skydive. So give it a go, why not? Why not? Try new things and if that's a little too much, take it down a notch. Go to the sand dunes, ride a dune buggy, you know, get out. That's why I love the Pacific Northwest. There's four seasons up here, very defined textbook seasons, and you never know what you're going to get Like. Right now it's a sunny day. Yesterday it was pouring rain and like 40 degrees, so this is a day that's like I better go for a run, or I'm going to go get my bike out and go for you know, go cycling or something. So it's very much like seize the moment when you can and if you're in a rut, gotta turn the trajectory, get out of it.

Speaker 1: 6:54

Yeah, no, that's a hundred percent. An incredible take away, because for anyone in the audience like we can be bogged down by life so much. But going outside and like doing something different can change everything for us.

Speaker 2: 7:06

It can change Everything yeah, and there's something that says physiologically too, what does it do? I mean shoot, even if it's just a new workout. Go to the gym, lift weights you've never lifted before, I don't know. I'm all about like variety, trying new things and, you know, not being full of fear.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Yeah, I love that and it also it stacks your experiences. So when you do that, people don't realize. But it's this thing called like a memory dividend, where you can connect with someone on a level, because they're like hey, I went skydiving. Well, I went kind of skydiving too, and we can connect on that moment. And now you're happy about that moment, that you did that experience and it's like oh, that's a cool thing, that's another way to connect, instead of just tell me about your stuff, tell me what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 7:53

And they're kind of like memory markers too. So, even taking our kids on a trip, like we went and renewed our vows, geez Louise, last year in Mexico. So you can go to Mexico, have a fun trip, hawaii, wherever, go on the beach every day and hang out, but your days sort of blur together a little bit, like you'll remember them. But I'm like, okay, I want to have like two to three excursions that you'll remember on that, like we did ATVs and the monkey sanctuary. So we're holding monkeys jumping on our head, we get on ATVs, it starts down pouring rain and we're mudwamping on these four wheelers to, you know, to the caves, and it's like you'll remember that you know what I mean. So a little more than just sitting on a beach plane in the waves.

Speaker 1: 8:39

I love that. That's awesome. That's awesome, yeah, cause it's so good, it's such a nice way to have an experience is like there's one to three different things where you're like yo, that was really unique. I can't do that on my regular day to day. That's awesome. So where did you get into tech? Where did you find that love for tech and experience? That Cause I know 2000, like still pretty early.

Speaker 2: 9:05

Super early, I know, dating myself. So 2002, we started a PC company and so we had devs all over the world. We framed an email that came from one and he said sorry on delay. Small revolution in country and we're like I thought it was an up front, he was okay, he was okay, but anyway. So we had the developers offshore but the project managers onshore. In 2007, that company got acquired by a gaming company and so I wasn't involved in the devs.

Speaker 1: 9:36

I'll go ahead. Yeah, before you jump into that, so that's 2002. That is way before remote work VA's. Totally, I feel like you are 10, 20 years ahead of everyone.

Speaker 2: 9:50

Yeah, we were like Western Unioning payments, like that's how you paid your coders and stuff. No joke, I was like this is how did you?

Speaker 1: 9:57

even find these people, cause I mean, I'm telling you like you are literally 20 years ahead of everyone. Cause, as this starts coming, I feel like 2022 is like oh, you don't have someone in the Philippines working with you. You don't have a team somewhere outsourced. You don't have people working with you. Cause it's just the company's just gotten much smaller, it's much more global, and there's PayPal and there's easy ways to pay.

Speaker 2: 10:19

Which is ironic because Gravity Jacket we were fed in 2009 and we do not outsource overseas. We never had.

Speaker 1: 10:24

Oh, you do.

Speaker 2: 10:26

It was kind of like a. We made it and it's based on a lot of the experience there, because sometimes we'd have a project and we'd have two or three teams running it Because you don't know them, you don't know their quality, and it's like, ooh, I need a backup for my client in case these guys over here have a revolution. So it had its own bit of headaches, but there was a well, I can't believe I'm even remembering that's a website called rentacoder, rentacodercom, and so that's where we would go. We would post a lot of different methods and techniques and ways and things to use, but that's one of the things that we would use to find people. And I did more of the finances behind the scenes on that part of the company which I was good at. Just because you're good at something, which this is like here's a little nugget for someone listening Just because you're really good at something doesn't mean it's fulfilling.

Speaker 1: 11:16

Yes.

Speaker 2: 11:17

And just because you're really good at, if you're really good at something and you're stuck there and it's not fulfilling, you don't have to stay there. That would be my thing, and it was a realization where I was like, just I didn't really like this, though, and so then, when we shifted into the gaming company and that was Gravity Jack, the idea of just to answer your question too you watch an idea of what somebody wants done or what we want to create for a client, and you get to watch it just evolve. Think building a house, really, when you go and you see like dirt and bushes and nasty, and then they break up and then they lay the foundation and then they throw up the framing, like. You get to watch this evolution and then the end result. So it's always fun for me and Gravity Jack, I became, I feel, like more of a translator, because I don't code.

Speaker 2: 12:09

I don't write the code. I don't know how to write the code, but I can tell you what's possible, what's not possible, best practices, what you should and shouldn't do things. You know different UI or UX, so that's user interface and user experience. I can show you good UX, good user experience and bad. You know when you're on an app and you're frustrated because you can't find what you're wanting, that's bad UX. They didn't think that through.

Speaker 1: 12:32

And that's the most impressive thing is cause most of the time, we just sit there as customers, and this is what I found a lot Like, even with me. I was doing it today with my fiance. I was talking about I had social media clips and I was like hey, does this thumbnail make you want to click the video? And she's like I don't even know what you're talking about. I just scroll and I'm like no, no, no. There's something that provokes you to click a video, like like. She's like no, no, no. I just scroll, I'm like no, no, no, like you never tap at some point you tap.

Speaker 1: 13:03

I'm like there's some point, but it's just that awareness and that heightened awareness that when you're so deep in the threads of it, and that's just like what you're saying, like I guarantee you, there's times when I log into a banking app like with millions of people, there's so many users and you're like why can't I do this simple task? Like why is this giving me a hard time? And it's just you never think that. It's like oh, the tabs can change this, but now there's just so much backend components to it that most people never see.

Speaker 2: 13:34

No, and I'm that person. I'm an exception to some of the rules. I've learned Like I'm a chronic unsubscriber, like my inbox. If I don't want that, nope, I unsubscribe. I take the time, click opt out, get out of my inbox, where most people just delete, delete, delete. So then they have to delete 50 emails every morning. I'm like new, but even like going to that banking app. I'm like that was really frustrating. So I'll go to their support and I'm like hi and I'll do it really kind and sweet. Just ran into this little hiccup. It's a little bit of a kind of a user experience flow. Would love to see something more along the lines of this.

Speaker 1: 14:09

So, yeah, so with Gravity, jack, how did you guys start implementing these ideas and look into augmented reality? Because, like you said before, it was way before the time and I get that you're doing projects with Fortune 500 companies, but this is a fascinating concept. Like in our pre-call, I was like who is Jen? Like what is Jen and her husband doing? They were so ahead of their time.

Speaker 2: 14:38

Yeah, well, kind of like you were saying, even doing you know offshore stuff back in Tometa days in 2005 and 2007 and whatever. So when apps the smartphone came out, app Store came out like 2008. Ok, and so Luke and I are talking and he starts talking to me about smartphones and he's like these things are not the end game, these things are going away. Well, we don't want to look at screens, we don't need all these big and I mean, you know computers were bigger back then. He's like we don't need all these screens. He's like eventually we're just going to look up, we're going to throw something on our face, look up, and we'll just be typing on our kitchen counter and you'll see a screen and I'm like what? Unpack that for me, unpack that. He starts unpacking it.

Speaker 2: 15:22

And over the years prior he would come up with ideas, tech ideas, and he'd tell me about them and I just kind of wrote them off. And then he would open up some tech magazine and he'd like remember that thing I was telling you about? Look right there. I said that a year ago or two years ago and I'm like, oh, so there was a consistent pattern of him just having that gift of seeing where tech's going to go. You know like I can see the trajectory of where it's going to go. His timing is always off 100% of the time because for him it's like it makes sense so it should be done in like two years. But there's so many factors between hardware and users getting on board and platforms, money, all kinds of stuff, anyway. So he's talking about AR and I was like, again, I have the legal background and the passion and understanding from a legal perspective and I'm like, ok, we need to look into this. Like there's nothing, we need to look into patenting this thing If this is the trajectory of where these things are going.

Speaker 1: 16:19

What is augmented reality? Just before we go any further.

Speaker 2: 16:23

Yeah, so simplest definition. For me, augmented reality is putting digital content into your real world through a viewing device. So a viewing device can be a headset, it can be a mobile phone, I mean, it could be this computer, right? So?

Speaker 1: 16:38

if you.

Speaker 2: 16:38

And if we're sitting here having this video call and antlers pop up on my head, the antlers aren't really here, they're digital assets being put into the real world, because this is my scene right here and now. That's augmented reality. So if I take my phone and I want to see what does the couch look like in my living room and I tap the screen on my couch and place it, I can spin it around, change the textures and, ooh, I want to buy that. That's augmented reality.

Speaker 1: 17:06

Yeah. So the reason I bring that up is for the audience. We're seeing this, starting probably the past year. Like I've started to notice that there's the Oculus by Meta, so it's like a headset that you can wear and it kind of interchanges. There's in the Amazon app. You can see clothes on, you can see the rug in your floor and like it's interesting because you sit there and you go, wow, tech's here, tech's really here. But this has been going on for years.

Speaker 2: 17:36

Yeah, so in 2010,. So we got to start getting the pattern from 2009, 2010. And we were at an angel investor meeting and there's I don't know 150 people. And when you're speaking, you're doing speaking events. You want to pulse your audience, especially with tech. Because that's why, when I say I'm the interpreter, I don't know if they know nothing about it or if they're super savvy you're kind of going in blind. And so I go in and I was like, okay, how many people here have heard of augmented reality? Not one hand.

Speaker 1: 18:08

And I'm like and these are the people on the cutting edge.

Speaker 2: 18:12

Well, I wouldn't say that. No, they were angel investors. You know, I don't say that in negative connotation.

Speaker 2: 18:17

They just invest in early things. It could be real estate, it could be all over the all over the month, but they're investors. So you, you'd think they'd be in a little, a little bit. I thought I see a couple hands, no, and so I was like, oh, you know, all right, and this is 2009, 2010. How many people have a smartphone? I'm thinking at least 90% of the hands no, it was like really, 25% of the hands went up and I was like, oh gosh, break it down. And it was good though.

Speaker 2: 18:49

So how this talk, you know, did it on? One of the head angels comes up after and he's like this was so, so exciting, so fun, you know, for this, for the future, because they're looking at are we, am I going to invest in the now, is this thing in this company? Because there's multiple companies that came up and spoke and they said this just isn't something that's going to hit in our lifetime. So we're going to have to pass, you know. And I'm like, really, a few years later, saw him at some other event, he did come up because a little bit more of AR was out there and he's like, okay, okay, I was, I was wrong, it's not, it's going to happen in our lifetime, kind of thing, and I was like thank you. Thank you for acknowledging that.

Speaker 1: 19:29

That's one of the coolest things and that's the hardest thing about that. I see a lot of is each time inside of new transformations, new ideas. Whether it's bringing credit cards to restaurants, whether it's trying to bring in NFTs, whether it's entering the crypto, everyone is always bandwagon and hopping on the next big wave. Quote unquote you guys have been here for 10 plus years. It's a very different perspective.

Speaker 2: 20:02

It is. We were in Singapore a few weeks back and this was like I don't know for me. I was just like, oh, this is awesome Because so we're in Singapore. Long story short, luke had given a business card to somebody for him to email him something. So he gives it to his assistant, who actually happens to be his son, and I mean he looks like he's like I don't know mid 20s, early 30s, something like that.

Speaker 2: 20:24

And the next morning at the breakfast at this event and it's not a tech event, by the way at all, this is even cooler he comes up and he's like you guys are gravity jack. And we're like, yeah, you know, thinking he's going to talk about the email or whatever. And he goes I've been following you guys for 13 years, oh, wow. And we're like what? And we get this every once in a while like a different call Usually they're tech conferences, though like, oh, that's me, here's my business card. And they're like, oh, gravity jack, I've been following you. And he said I've been following you guys for 13 years. And we're like no, really. And he's like yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:55

When I first started hearing about augmented reality, I went on the USPTO, the US Patent and Trademark Office website and started running searches and New York guys, his name was up because we're so early and then other patents have to reference us as prior art because we were there before them and it's all these things. He's like, yeah, I've been following you and I was like, oh, that's. He's like what's going on in the company and we had mentioned, oh well, we're doing this. We just had our first public offering and as a crowdfunding, he goes, oh, reg see, yeah. And we're like, yeah, which is a regulation crowdfunding? And I go, yeah, we're on this platform called start. And he finishes start intocom.

Speaker 2: 21:29

I'm like, who are you? So he is an SEC or a securities attorney. Oh, wow, so that's kind of his passion, his wheelhouse, that he follows things and people, companies he's interested in or, excuse me, more things or technologies he's interested in. He'll follow the players in the patent space. But I was like that was cool. Didn't that meet somebody across the world who's been following you know, who knows? A knows who we are and B had been kind of following where we're going. That's pretty cool.

Speaker 1: 21:57

I mean and that's the amazing thing that I want everyone to take away that not, hey, you have to augmented reality, but if you do something in your own lane, it carries so much further and it allows you to be an authentic version of yourself. And people are striving to get near authentic because there's still a lot of inauthentic in the world right now.

Speaker 2: 22:18

I'm sure I agree with that. I love that. I always say sometimes I'm like I'm transparent to a fault. I got to say something like, oh, that just came out. Let me sugarcoat it a little bit.

Speaker 1: 22:31

So for you, what was it like working with your husband? Because I had worked consulting. There's five pillars it's mental health, physical health, community service, philanthropy, spirituality and relationships, and most of the time, people are not working with their significant other, especially in a startup land, in a new venture. So how did you guys think about that? Because that is a challenge that a lot of people face.

Speaker 2: 23:00

And if you have many, many times over the years we've gotten shocked faces like, no, you do not work together and we're like, yeah, in the same company, we're like in the same office.

Speaker 1: 23:12

I love it in the same office. Lots of couple things.

Speaker 2: 23:16

I mean you learn to navigate. Communication, obviously, is key. What's interesting is we, not just the companies have evolved, obviously, your marriage and your relationship evolved and also our roles have evolved. So there's in the beginning, there's you know, there's you. You've got your strengths and weaknesses and it's important to lean on the other person where you're weak and appreciate where they're strong. Right, because you can resent where they're strong too, and it's key that that's not what you do Like this is your help me, your, your partner in life, that's your help me.

Speaker 2: 23:50

They're there to help, lift you up, to encourage you, to be there when you need them, when they're strong in your relationship, but also in business, right. So when you have good working relationships outside of marriage, they're there, helping each other and saying hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about this? Leading where they're supposed to lead and follow where they're supposed to follow. Frankly, you know, even as a CEO of a corporation, you, you follow some of your under management, right, that's the area that they're running. So you, you, you kind of. They may not be your boss, but in that realm they know more than you and and appreciating that in a positive way. So I think with Luke and I it's been a lot of that, where knowing, hey, this is my area, that I am leading, and not just respecting that but encouraging that and vice versa with the other part.

Speaker 1: 24:38

Well, I think that's just so healthy in every relationship, cause you have to realize you can't have two A play like you're going to have two A players, but in two different areas. Like one person might excel at cooking, one person might excel at eating. That's probably the reason it's simple. It's simple but it's true. Like you don't want, no one likes when they're the cook and then the other person comes in and they're like let me show you how wrong you're doing this. That is making it even.

Speaker 2: 25:05

But to your point, if I cook a really good meal, I don't want someone to just eat it. If I'm being honest, I would really like some feedback Like, oh, this is so. Like I say, this is like you were like so good. Now, at the same time, I'll say, let me know if I is this a make a dinner, like like, oh, this is good, but let's not put it on the docket.

Speaker 1: 25:27

That actually is so important because I didn't even think about that. But, like, I usually cover breakfast, so I'm making breakfast and I'll do like little iterations where it's like hey, we might have toasted it a little longer, we might have done that, and I go give me real feedback. And when someone says it's good, I go that's not real feedback. I'm like Madison, we need better. We need five to seven responses about how you're feeling flavor, cause I go dude, don't give me good. Good is equivalent to fine and fine is terrible.

Speaker 2: 25:59

Yeah, well, I told him early on and that's why I said transparent to it. Even like fitness stuff, it'll be like well to each other. It'll be like I want like a little bit bigger shoulders, and he'll go make it happen. And he's like you make your backside a little bigger. I'm like I got you, like you work it and you modify it, but you have to have a good heart about it. You know what I mean. So with the food, if it's like that's a little over toasted, cool, next time I won't toast it as much, because I want it to be the best it can be. And it's not like you over toasted it. It doesn't say it.

Speaker 1: 26:32

Well, it's the communication of not not that I'm better than you or anyone thinks there's anyone's better, but it's more of a happy communication of like, hey, we're looking at getting better, here's how we're going to get better.

Speaker 2: 26:43

Yeah, and I think that's really. I always say that there's always room for improvement.

Speaker 1: 26:47

Yes.

Speaker 2: 26:48

And I don't mean that a judgy way it's just fine, or true, right, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 26:58

So tell us a little bit about what's it been like working with these Fortune 500 companies. What have you guys been doing at Gravity Jack? What is something where people might understand it, where they've seen it? How does that work?

Speaker 2: 27:15

One of the things I say to my team and my clients there's never a dull moment at Gravity Jack, because you're always working with different clients. You're working with different technological platforms, different devices, different timelines, different executions. Really every project is so unique and so different and navigating. Working with clients Like T-Mobile we've done quite a few projects with them. Amazing people Love them. They have great concepts. There's a lot of cooks in the T-Mobile kitchen and I don't mean that in a negative way, it just is. They have to go through their things.

Speaker 2: 27:50

A lot of approvals, a lot of approvals, and they have to meet with this. Okay, yes, we got approval from this and they go to the next team. The first project you do with a company or group, you really learn how to dance, which helps. Our projects are always amazing to work on. But you do notice a noticeable change in the second.

Speaker 2: 28:10

Oscar Meyer was a project we worked on. We flew out to Chicago, it doesn't matter Wherever, it was somewhere in Midwest this is a while ago. They did almost Shark Tank style. They brought in these companies. They were like here's our problems, because this is for the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile. We can't take people on rides in the Wiener Mobile because of legal reasons, so people can't see inside of it. We people can't drive it, literally, of course. Obviously they can't drive it. They want people to want to see it at their events.

Speaker 2: 28:41

It's all these different problems and so companies came with different reasons. We came out or different solutions. We came let's do an app, let's do a mobile app. They can do all these things. We put the people into VR so they can look around on their mobile phone and see what it looks like to be in the vehicle, blah, blah, blah. So we win the whole Shark Tank thing the next year. So the first year we figured out how to work together. The next year they were like okay, we got 100 and whatever 1000 in our budget. What do you guys think we should do this year? Which was like nice, you know, like you built that trust, you built that communication, that relationship, and they're like all right, you lead this charge. I mean, they were heavily involved in the collaboration, but it was cool to come at it from that perspective.

Speaker 1: 29:22

Because it's more of a people, and this happens with everything. People like working with people that are easy, that make things suitable. So then the next year it's like, hey, we don't have to do, we don't have to double vet you, we don't have to double do anything Like you did what you said and more, let's do it again. But people have to realize this with everything. Why have you gone to the same dentist for 20 years? Why have you gone to the doctor? Like it's because you're just comfortable and it's just like, hey, this is who I know, I don't want to meet a new person, I don't want to deal with this again.

Speaker 2: 29:55

One of the corporations I can't remember which one, but they laughed. There's definitely a different dynamic because we just can move fast, we can turn feedback around fast, we can turn our asset, all kinds of stuff, and they're like you guys, we're like a cruise ship. When we have to turn, you could just like a speedboat just cruising by and we're like, well, just whatever you can send our way so that we could cruise fast with like some things they would normally do internally. They're like it'll take us longer to do this, even simple things here you guys handle it. But it's over the years met some really great people in the Fortune 500, down to smaller companies, and it's just really just an enjoyable. It's one of my favorite things about my job getting to interface with the clients, finding out what their problems are and being a genuine part of their solution.

Speaker 1: 30:49

From a technical perspective, yeah, no, I love that, I love that. So where do you think augmented reality is going in the next? Like five, 10 years.

Speaker 2: 30:58

Yeah, well, kind of back what you were saying before, where it took a lot of people a while. Like you feel like it just this last year AR has been coming With software. In general, you're handicapped by hardware. Okay, because there's things that you can do, like your imagination can go wild on what we can do on a computer. Well, I need a super computer to be able to render those things, to do it, okay okay, I was a little confused for a second.

Speaker 2: 31:22

Yeah, you're limited by the compute power of the devices In our world of augmented reality. You're limited by some of the sensors or the cameras how fast it can display things In early days of augmented reality. Now you place your couch down and it snaps and it's there. Early days of AR, the asset would like jiggle Often, like you'd have to hold your phone so steady or else the thing would jiggle. So a lot of that kind of stuff because now it uses sensors and things to detect the plane. So as things start to evolve, to answer your question, I think wearables is going to be well two pronged One. People are starting to really understand not just the funky, fun part of AR but actually the fundamental ways it can change how we do things in life, like start thinking, learning, training, repairs.

Speaker 2: 32:13

My ice makers broke in my kitchen refrigerator. I don't want to call a repairman and pay $155 for him to come out and fix my ice maker If I could hold up my phone and it says it detects. My refrigerator tells me to open the freezer, to pull out this particular filter thing, to walk around to the back and adjust a hose, Like it's literally step by step overlaid right on top to where all of us, all of I don't want to say we're average, but in regards to knowing how to repair an ice maker, I'm an average person.

Speaker 1: 32:48

For sure that it.

Speaker 2: 32:49

Augmented reality allows us to then become subject matter experts.

Speaker 1: 32:53

And that's really interesting because I thought about that solution right now and I would usually go, and it wasn't even until years ago. But YouTube, most people go to YouTube and then you got to find the guy with the exact model of the exact thing and it's like it's not always the same. So if you could have like a plumber on demand or like a thing helping you that says, hey, like this is your fridge, like this is how you do it, that's really cool.

Speaker 2: 33:18

Well, like assembling something like whatever, you're having a baby and you need to assemble a crib. Yeah, you got a PDF with pictures. But sometimes you're like if I could just hold this up and it's like grab that there, put that there, you know, like think minority report, like it's just gonna have information hovering in front of you. But back to your question of where's it gonna be in five to 10 years. People now are most people like I would say everyone knows what they are, as though because I still get probably two to three calls a month that I have to really explain the difference, which is awesome, that's okay, I love it. I tell my team don't get jaded just because you know tech. Don't get pretend like everybody does yeah exactly.

Speaker 2: 33:58

You know like it's and it's fun that you're getting to teach them this new thing. So people are starting to not just understand it, see it out in the wild, understand that it's needed. The LiDAR that's come out on these things, the sensor depth dimension sensors that have come out in the last couple of years, leaps and bounds for augmented reality, and now Apple Vision Pro coming out with a headset. So I think that it's going to be. We'll watch the headset market really evolve, specifically around AR, and I think Apple's doing a really good job of their trajectory and their intention. So the Apple Vision Pro is really more focused on your in-home experience. You'll notice that. So, if they haven't fully announced it, this is Jen, this is what I'm. This is based on things and reasons. They're going to enhance your in-home experience because you're not going to wear a set of goggles because they kind of look like goggles. Some AR headsets look cool like your glasses, like once we get to glasses like you are wearing, I'm going to wear those around town. I'm going to go to the moment, go to a restaurant Like they're cool, looking comfortable. Smaller glasses Like the Apple Vision Pro look like they're ski goggles. You're not going to go downtown, walk around and ski goggles, but Apple Vision Pro is going to augment your space. I'm going to be able to have put them on here. I'm working at my office. I can have monitors, computer monitors, over here. This is my personal stuff on my calendar. Whatever I'm working on keyboards here, I can have art on my walls, recipes and stuff for cooking, things like that. So it's going to change the way that we interact in our homes digitally with AR and then, as the headsets evolve, we'll take that outside into the wild.

Speaker 2: 35:41

Out there. Interesting, but think like digital twin. That's where it's going to be going. The world will be. You walk around a city. You're going to have a digital twin overlaid on top. So I look at a building and I can get digital content on it. If I want, I can adjust the dial. How much content do I want? Do I not really want much?

Speaker 1: 36:00

Well, I mean that would be so cool, because I feel like every time I go to a rooftop you're seeing the skyline and you're like what building is that? What building is that? Everyone who's an exact expert is walk the city a million times and then they can tell you that's that building, that's that one. But if you can look, that would be really cool, and then you can get history on it too.

Speaker 2: 36:19

What other companies have been in that building. That's that turning up the dial Like it starts out, what building is that? And then it can give you information. It can tell you what companies are in that building now.

Speaker 1: 36:27

That's fascinating when it was built.

Speaker 2: 36:29

Yeah, I mean it's going to get there. It's not an if, this is truly a conversation of when we think it might get there.

Speaker 1: 36:37

Yeah, I mean, if you're listening to this and getting excited, you're probably like how can I get involved? How do you take advantage of that? So what are the revenue streams? Of gravity, jack slash, how can people get kind of involved in this, because there's not too many AR idea, like I guess you could buy Apple stock, I guess you can buy Facebook, like I don't know.

Speaker 2: 37:00

So we just launched our first public offering I want to say six weeks, maybe four weeks, don't quote me on time, I've been blurred together recently but just recently launched a public stock offering. So it is an SEC regulated public stock offerings, kind of like a tier below an IPO on the stock exchange because it's a crowdfunding. So it's called a reg CF or regulation CF crowdfunding and that is on start enginecom. So you can go to start engine search for gravity Jack and we will pop up there and you can literally become a shareholder in gravity. Now when you go there, gravity has three revenue stream kind of areas of the company.

Speaker 2: 37:40

We have our traditional AR VR agency. We've been doing for 14 years. We do have our patent licensing, so we have a team of attorneys running that vein. I mean there's flip bars licensing our tech Eighth wall, which is a web AR company owned by Niantic. L'oreal makeup company is licensing and tons of makeup companies have letters and we're in talks with them right now. So there's that revenue. And then we are actually the use of funds for this raise is for an augmented reality mobile game that we will be developing called war tribe, and so that's that going after the game is developed, you know, post raising the funds. Obviously we create this game and that's where where the funds are. But you go there you can become a shareholder of gravity Jack. Definitely check out the video that's on there to give a little bit more insight, not just in our history but also with kind of the future, of where the company and it's Not just shares in like the game we are, it is shares in all of gravity Jack.

Speaker 1: 38:40

Wow, and so when we were doing the pre called, the thing I found most interesting is the vast amount of volume that you have through the patent company because, yeah, like I don't think people understand it. So basically anyone who's using AR, gravity Jack, they have to license through gravity Jack. Or it's not, or there's going to be some, isn't that the case?

Speaker 2: 39:04

right or something like that, Probably have to be going to litigation soon. I really wouldn't rather not just own it. You know like, hey, you were there first, you patented it first, here's the money for the licensing, and move on. But there are companies attempting to, you know they don't want to pay.

Speaker 1: 39:22

But either way, that's a great profitability way of yeah, it's a great income stream because it's like, hey, we already have the tech will yeah and it's only going to be growing. Yeah, absolutely. And then tell us more about this game. What is this game?

Speaker 2: 39:37

Oh, so much to it. So it's a mobile augmented reality game iOS and Android. It will have Apple vision pro elements inside of it.

Speaker 2: 39:46

But like just for enhanced gameplay, though you don't have to have the game or the Apple vision pro to play the game. Now, the difference between our game versus something like Pokemon go which is great, I mean, they did a good job there's a you don't have to have the air element to play Pokemon go. It's like if you want to turn it on, you can, and that's fine. That's their strategy. There are there are pieces in this game. You have to interact with the air in order to have the gameplay.

Speaker 2: 40:13

So the lore of it is there are two artificial intelligence. You have the evil AI, isazel, and the good AI called Yaman, and Isazel is trying to destroy all of humanity, doesn't like us, wants to take us all out, and he's in the year 2133. And he's trying to destroy us now. I mean it's. So there's this like apocalyptic 2133 type world where there's not many of us left, but the ominous saying fight now, right in the year 2023, fight in the year 2024, join together all of humanity to fight him. So there's there's a lot of cross border encouragement, especially with the timing of it too, and all this, all the fighting that's happening globally. It's like the governments are fighting, but not all the people are bad.

Speaker 2: 41:00

Yeah you know like there's good people in every single country on this planet, and what does it look like for us to be on the same team? Let's fight together. This thing is trying to kill us in the future. We got to fight him, and so there's all kinds of quests that will be happening in game that will encourage people to be physically together. Some of the quests like you join together physically to accomplish something, or they could just be different types of technological quests and when you have teammates in other countries, you actually get enhanced gameplay. Oh, my team members in South America, whatever Hong Kong, canada because my team members are in those countries, they can send me weapons or clues or hints or things like that. Yeah, so you don't want to. Just, it's not about just having your little niche here. You want your teammates to be global and there's going to be like augmented reality portals coming out of the sky. You hold up your device to your arm and you'll get a message like a almost like a hologram princess Leia that's telling you your quest. So you have to engage with those AR pieces. You can't know your quest unless you take your message from the holographic risk. So it's going to be. Yeah, it's going to be so fun, so awesome and the users will be able to like. They could put in for a quest request, like, oh, this quest, and then it can get voted on.

Speaker 2: 42:23

And then there's an element in more poverty ridden countries. So this is also a way for uplifting people, uplifting humanity, uplifting people out of poverty. So if you're in Africa in a small village side note, debatably between 85 and 94, it's almost steady to read. Let's go with the low number 85% penetration rate of the world. So 85% of the world has access to a smartphone. Wow, tiny little villages in the middle of nowhere. They've got mobile devices with connectivity. Now it might be a family of 10 and they only have one device, but they have a device. We've talked to multiple people who go into these types of villages and they're like oh, that's real, they'll be in their gaming, like in a lean-to house thing. In those types of countries, some of the quests will be translation quests. So it'll pop up a quest where they can translate some of the text and earn in-game currency that they can extract out in their real-world currency, hence uplifting them in a new way for them to earn revenue in those countries.

Speaker 1: 43:33

That's incredible.

Speaker 2: 43:35

Yeah, that's awesome. It's pretty substantial. So GravityJock will get an NLP, so Natural Language Processing Translation Engine, in exchange for giving them that revenue that they can extract out. They're basically getting paid. It's like a new career in these poverty-ridden countries, which I do think you'll see more of. We may be the first to start doing this, but I think that there's going to be more coming.

Speaker 1: 43:58

I heard a little bit about this, where people were gaming and making money in different areas. I don't. It's interesting. It's very exciting and new. How do you think you found yourself on the cutting edge? I understand that your husband is really part of that, but if people are looking to learn more, what do you think is the best way for them to go about this? Learning more about AR and GravityJock in general?

Speaker 2: 44:25

Diving in online, start doing your research. I mean, it's even like and not being afraid. This goes back to the skydiving, or trying new things, or just because you're good at something, but if you're not being fulfilled, don't be afraid to step out and dive in and learn and find that other thing that might be more fulfilling, in that I didn't see myself as a tech person back when I was going On my way to law school. That wasn't, but just not shutting doors. When a door opens, start diving in. I will say, though learn about artificial intelligence, learn about augmented reality, virtual reality. Some people, especially in the AI realm, are like, ah, it's evil, it's bad, and I'm like, ah, it's a tool. It's a tool. It's not inherently good or evil, but educate yourself on what it is so that you don't have concern or worry or fear that you know and understand something.

Speaker 1: 45:20

And also, to that point, I think a lot of it can alleviate a lot of things going on in your day-to-day that you might not enjoy. So like, for example, for myself. I run this podcast. My descriptions were, in my opinion, were not great. Descriptions were not great for podcasts. Buzzsprout, the hosting platform. I have came out with an AI tool for like 20 bucks a month and they make the descriptions super detailed. I go thank you, and they offer me options. They give different options too. I go this is great, this is great, thank you. So one of that being is that if you can find ways to integrate this, it can alleviate a lot of stress in your day-to-day and maybe make you a lot more efficient and let you focus on things you actually enjoy. I just gave you an out thing with the podcasting, but there's these everywhere and people are finding them in all different areas, so don't be afraid to look. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 46:23

Yeah, and asked I was spoken to California Women in Business Conference if you're pre-COVID Big conference, way bigger than I thought it was going to be and I was in one of the rooms and it was about augmented reality, the type of type, what it is, vr, how it can be used.

Speaker 2: 46:40

And I challenged them. At the end of the talk I said a lot of them were like in banking and real estate and I can't remember the main niches, but I said every single one of you, in your role, in your company, in your organization, in your group, there is an augmented reality strategy or integration that could enhance what you're doing, that could benefit your clients in some way that will level something up. Maybe it's an event, it's whatever all these things. And I just challenged them. I said I had every single one of you. Here's my email, I put my email, here's my cell number, call me, text me. And there was hundreds of people in there. I was like I can tell you ways that AR can be used in your industry, in your vertical and in your role, and I would love to be able to do that with you. And I got quite a few emails and there wasn't one that I couldn't find that wouldn't augmented reality, wouldn't offer an enhancement in some capacity 100%.

Speaker 1: 47:33

So, Jen, you've been amazing. Where can people hear more about you? Go to the Start Engine. What are the links? What are the things? I'm going to put it all in the show notes, but just share where people can look.

Speaker 2: 47:45

Yeah, so gravityjackcom, and that's just gravityjackcom. Start Engine is the platform If you're wanting to watch those videos. Learn about the offering, and that's startenginecom. Forward slash offering, forward slash, gravityjack, and it'll take you right to us. They do have a search bar, though, so if you search at startenginecom, you'll find us right there.

Speaker 1: 48:08

Awesome. I'll put all the links in the show note. Thank you, thank you.