Mike Wiemer is the CTO and co-founder of Mojo Vision, a company enabling invisible computing with their AR contact lenses. Mike is a brilliant and accomplished technologist who is unafraid of tackling hard problems…and he and his team have solved many on their way to successfully demonstrating their wearable contact lens—working inside somebody’s eye—earlier this summer.Prior to Mojo Vision, Mike was the co-founder and President of SolarJunction, a company that developed innovative, multi-junction solar cells that set the record for conversion efficiency, twice. Previously, Mike spent 8 years at Stanford, working his way through a Bachelors, Masters, and a Ph.D. with an emphasis on semiconductor physics and optics.In this conversation, Mike shares some insights from his experience at Solar Junction, and how he came to discover the opportunity for smart contact lenses. He breaks down the set of very hard problems to solve in making these AR contact lenses, and the success Mojo Vision has had in clearing those hurdles, as well as the recent milestone of creating a prototype that people can now wear. He talks about the challenges of Mojo Vision specifically and AR more generally. Foremost among those challenges is the solution isn’t about a single technological innovation, but the integration of several integrations into a cohesive system. He goes on to share a broader perspective of the opportunity he sees for smart contact lenses and AR glasses.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com, and become a patron at patreon.com/theARshow.

Dave Haynes is a founding partner at FOV Ventures, an investment firm backing the founders who are building the Metaverse. FOV Ventures is a new fund with a focus on European-based startups at the pre-seed and seed stage.Dave previously led HTC’s $100 million Vive X fund in EMEA and was part of the investment team at Seedcamp (Fund III). Prior to investing, Dave founded two startups in the music industry and was part of the founding team of SoundCloud.In this conversation, Dave talks about his front-row seat to the evolution of the digital music industry and the parallels to the current AR/VR ecosystem. He describes his new fund, areas of investment focus, and how they think about current investment market conditions. He also talks about the risk of market timing as it relates to AR: [quote]Dave goes on to share some advice for pre-seed startups as well as his perspective on the evolution of the market and the risks ahead.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com. Please consider contributing to my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/theARshow.

Jonathan Rodriguez Cefalu is the co-founder and CEO of Preamble, a company on a mission to provide ethical guardrails for AI systems by creating an AI-as-a-Service with a focus on ethics and safety. Jon earned a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University, where he discovered a passion for the coming age of VR and AR technologies. He went on to co-found Vergence Labs, which had ambitious plans to create the AR glasses of the future. Evan Spiegel shared that vision and brought Vergence Labs into Snap as its first acquisition. Jon’s work became the foundation for Spectacles, and he went on to be the Project Lead for the first version of Spectacles and the most recent version with a display.In this conversation, Jon shares his perspective on the history, hurdles, and future of AR glasses. He also discusses his perspective on the risks and challenges of creating and engaging with AI systems, which among other risks, increases the likelihood of misinformation and manipulation.He goes on to describe the path he and his team are taking at Preamble to create ethical guardrails for these systems.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Neil Sarkar is the CEO and co-founder of AdHawk Microsystems, a company creating the first camera-free eye tracking solution that offers unprecedented speed, data quality and power efficiency.Prior to AdHawk, Neil was a co-founder at ICSPI, which develops scanning probe instruments on a CMOS-MEMS technology platform. They are commercializing the world's first Single-Chip Atomic Force Microscope.Previously Neil attended the University of Waterloo, where he earned a Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate in Electrical and Computer Engineering.In this conversation, we discuss Micro Electrical Mechanical (or MEMs) technology and its applications. Neil shares his path to founding AdHawk and his experience bringing AdHawk’s innovations to market. We go on to discuss how AdHawk is trying to positively impact people’s lives, what’s special about their approach, and how you can get your hands on their tech in the near future.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Alon Grinshpoon is the Co-founder and CEO of echo3D, a 3D-ready cloud platform that helps manage & deliver 3D, AR, and VR content to apps & devices everywhere. echo3D recently closed a $4M round of funding to feed continued growth after seeing a tremendous amount of momentum over the past year.Alon started his career in the Isrealli Intelligence Service, working on encryption and cloud technologies. After earning a B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University, he spent several years as a software engineer working on improving the performance of cloud-based and client-server computer systems.Alon went on to receive his M.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University with a focus on computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality, and human-computer interaction.In this conversation, we discuss how Alon’s background made him a good fit for solving the unique set of challenges for developing an AWS or Akamai for 3D. Alon is a passionate entrepreneur with great advice for early-stage startups, and we talk about his perspective on the concept of founder-market fit. [quote]Alon goes on to discuss founder-investor fit, and the importance of pragmatically de-risking a startup as you go along. He also shares his funding and growth journey through the RLab and Techstars accelerators, and subsequent rounds of VC funding.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Susan Cummings is the Managing Director of Tiny Rebel Games and a founder of Fictioneers. Susan and her team were awarded a major UK grant for Augmented Reality storytelling, which led to "Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up." This effort was followed by the release this summer of "Wallace & Gromit: Fix Up the City", an ambitious city-scale AR game that takes place in San Francisco, Bristol, and Cardiff. Including her work at Tiny Rebel, Susan has spent more than 20 years in game development and publishing. She was a key player at the origins of Rockstar games and held vital roles as the VP of Publishing and VP of Business Development at 2K games and parent, Take Two Interactive.In this conversation, Susan shares insight into the origins of Grand Theft Auto and some other big deals and projects in the early days of console and PC games. She goes on to talk about the challenges in telling compelling stories with AR.We also talk about some of the lessons learned in making compelling and accessible city-scale AR-based games for mobile and the challenges of “immersion” in see-through AR glasses.(A quick note of disclosure: I’m an investor in Fantsmo, one of the partners Susan mentions when describing her efforts at Fictioneers.)You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Paul Travers is the Founder and CEO of Vuzix, a leading supplier of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality technologies and products for the consumer and enterprise markets. Prior to Vuzix, Paul was an engineer at Eastman Kodak, innovating the future of digital cameras. He went on to become a serial entrepreneur, having started multiple hardware technology companies, including in sound cards for PCs and USB connectivity products.Vuzix was formed more than 20 years ago, and through it, Paul has seen spatial computing technology evolve from the early days of VR in the mid-1990s to the highly capable AR smart glasses of today.In this conversation, Paul describes the Vuzix hardware lineup, including the Blade and the M-series. We discuss how they’re being used, where they shine, and what’s special about the upcoming Shield device. The Shield will be one of the first devices with a µLED display, and emphasizes “wearability” over field of view or functionality. [quote]We go on to discuss why wearability is so important and how much field of view is big enough to satisfy a large number of use cases. We also discuss the importance of µLED technology and how to solve for prescription at scale. Paul also describes how he wants to support OEMs in the consumer market and provides an overview of how Vuzix will invest the 100+ million dollars they have recently raised.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Nils Pihl is the CEO and co-founder of Auki Labs, a company solving the limitations of GPS to accurately position virtual content, particularly for shared experiences. Nils and the team at Auki are building advanced, peer-to-peer positioning protocols and AR cloud infrastructure to enable a new era of spatial computing.Nils is also the CEO of Matterless Studios, a venture-backed startup creating AI companions and pets made for the augmented reality metaverse.Prior to founding Auki Labs, Nils was a behavioral engineer who studied Meme Theory and was a practitioner of Memetic Engineering. He’s also a serial entrepreneur bringing forward some key lessons learned into his current endeavors.In this conversation, Nils shares his perspective on AR as a natural and inevitable extension of human language, arguing that all language is meant to augment and enhance our shared experience of reality.We go on to discuss Meme Theory, how it applies to AR, and explore Auki Labs’ unique positioning technology. Nils also shares some of the lessons learned from earlier startup experiences.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Tomas Sluka is the CEO and co-founder of CREAL, a Swiss technology startup that developed and commercializes a radically new type of display that brings natural focal depth to a truly 3D visual experience within Augmented Reality. The inspiration for CREAL originated with the first commercial VR and AR headsets back in 2014. Like many others, Tomas suffered from very strong eye-strain and lack of immersion. He realized that the problem came from nonexistent focal depth in the 3D imagery. Since then, he and his growing team have been working to solve these problems and dramatically improve the visual experience.Prior to founding CREAL, Tomas worked as a research engineer at CERN’s particle detectors and as a researcher at EPFL on the development of electronic nano-devices. He earned a PhD in Mechatronics, is a co-/author of over 50 scientific publications—multiple in top-ranking journals—as well as 10 patent applications, and is a regular speaker at prestigious conferences.In this conversation, we talk about the visual discomfort many of us feel, called vergence accommodation conflict, in today’s AR and VR devices. Tomas describes how our eyes work and the difference between natural 3D and the stereo 3D we get in today’s devices. We discuss light fields, how CREAL is able to achieve them, and the implication on the display technology. We go on to discuss early applications of the technology, the path to lightfield AR glasses, and Tomas’s journey as a founder.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Kai Ströder is the co-founder and CEO of tooz, a company on a mission to develop cost-effective smartglasses for consumers.Early in his career, Kai was a research fellow at the University of Stuttgart, where he also earned a Ph.D. in Strategic Management. Over the next decade, he worked across various groups at Carl Zeiss, the world’s leading, high-end optics company.Among other projects, Kai has been responsible for activities in the field of augmented reality and data glasses. In 2018, he transferred the "Carl Zeiss Smart Optics" group, founded in 2015, to the joint venture "tooz technologies" initiated together with Deutsche Telekom. The tooz team, based in Germany, develops technologies and production processes for complete smart glass solutions geared toward the end consumer market.In this conversation, Kai shares the origin story for tooz within Carl Zeiss, and one key attribute of their approach that sets them apart from many competitors: namely, an uncompromising focus on manufacturability at scale.We go on to discuss some of the tradeoffs between diffractive waveguides, birdbath optics, and tooz’s curved waveguides. Kai describes some innovative aspects of the design, their target use cases, and their very thoughtful go-to-market plan that focuses on the size of the glasses, affordability, and the ease of purchasing from your optometrist.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.