SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders 656: How to Win VR Gaming Space, $500k Raised, Team of 12, First Release This Year with CEO Peter Kortenhoeven
Peter Kortenhoeven. He's a creative person with a great deal of experience in the gaming industry. He started after graduation at the Academy of Arts as an animator at Coded Illusions. He became a lead animator at Triumph Studios shortly afterwards. One of his key successes has been the successful Overlord series. As lead artist, he worked on many different, yet, unreleased games. From a need to gain more business experience, he decided to focus on applied games. He became an art director at Bright Alley and later on at Ranj. During his period within the serious gaming industry, Peter kept working on small game projects during his spare time. One of those projects, Pillow Willow, helped him start his first company, Pillow Willow VR Studios.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – The Story of Whole Disney
- What CEO do you follow? – N/A
- Favorite online tool? — Trello
- How many hours of sleep do you get? — 6
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Take it easy and make sure you focus on the right thing"
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 02:22 – Nathan introduces Peter to the show
- 03:43 – Pillow Willow works on two flavors of games
- 03:47 – First is non-violent dreamscapes which are completely filled with liveliness
- 04:11 – They also work on active, full-body, VR games which stimulate players to move actively within the games
- 04:38 – Pillow Willow hasn't released a game yet and is still working on 4 titles, at the same time
- 04:47 – The first game, Drako, will be released within June and is a dreamscape game
- 05:13 – Drako's demo will be released for HTC Gear and Oculus
- 05:39 – The goal is to have a multi-player option in the future
- 06:05 – Pillow Willow won Best Dutch VR Game at the Bright VR Awards, in 2016
- 06:17 – It was for a demo game
- 07:00 – Pillow Willow has a seat funder which is Lumo Labs
- 08:00 – Pillow Willow has currently raised $500M
- 08:07 – Pillow Willow was launched in March 2016
- 08:23 – Team size is 12
- 08:46 – Pillow Willow will charge for their games and will create high end content
- 09:20 – Mobile VR is the Samsung S series combined with the Gear VR
- 09:38 – You have to have the proper phone and headset to play the games
- 09:52 – Average number of people who have VR gear
- 10:13 – Pillow Willow's first game will be an hour long and priced at $499
- 11:10 – Pillow Willow will try to create those dreamscapes games in a virtual universe
- 11:40 – Nathan thinks of the dreamscapes games like Neopets
- 14:15 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- The VR space is a hot space at the moment and the games are getting more and more interesting.
- If you have a seat funder, your company can continue developing a product even without recurring revenue.
- Take it easy and make sure you focus on the RIGHT goal.
Resources Mentioned:
- The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
- Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
- Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
- Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
- Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
- Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
- Freshbooks – Nathan doesn't waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives