Why I Uprooted My Life For Virtual Reality

Over a year and a half ago, I sold off all my furniture, gave away a ton of stuff to good friends, packed the remainders in a handful of FedEx boxes and moved from San Francisco to Orange County to join NextVR as one of its early employees (#4).

At the time, the responses from my friends and family were entirely supportive because they could see the enthusiasm in my eyes?—?but generally included an air of skepticism or confusion, “Virtual Reality? What’s that for? Something, something Facebook?”

My parents were certainly happy that I was moving back closer to home. They live in Irvine and NextVR is in Laguna Beach. But I could see where worry or apprehension showed through the cracks when they learned of the hours I was working or the response they got from family and friends when they told them that their daughter was working on a startup doing something with goggles that take you into other worlds. (Recently, I traveled to China and learned that the Cantonese words for Virtual Reality directly translate to “Magic Lens”?—?how awesome is that?!)

Fast forward to today —

From that first time I reached out in delight while enjoying a Coldplay concert on stage to today, just months before the tsunami of consumer virtual reality devices releases (Oculus Rift, Playstation VR, HTC Vive, etc)..I have never been more excited about a technology, team, and product I am helping to build.

Virtual reality is the last medium. This is a technology and medium that is one of the most intimate ways to share and experience the world through. It is today’s method of teleportation. NextVR is somewhere that my skills and interests in technology, startups, and humans challenge me to grow more than I could imagine.

Speaking to 500+ virtual reality pioneers at the 2nd annual Proto Awards

I was terrified of public speaking and honestly, am still prone to mad butterflies before audiences today.

However, that doesn’t stop me. Next month on December 3rd, I am returning to speak at the TVOT Show in NYC and will announce several other panels soon.

For context on where we were in the timeline of Virtual Reality in July 2014:

• Google Cardboard had just debuted at Google I/O
• Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus for $2 billion just closed
• Samsung Gear VR, powered by Oculus, wasn’t yet announced, this happened during my 1st couple months at NextVR at IFA 2014
• Pretty much all virtual reality news happenings were found on Road to VR and smaller blogs on r/oculus
• Mainstream news mentions of virtual reality were rare (now VR makes headlines daily)

NextVR and the industry as a whole has come a long way. But this is only the beginning.

NextVR Co-founders David Cole and DJ Roller, Executive Chairman Brad Allen with Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey, VP of Mobile Max Cohen, CTO John Carmack (IFA 2014)

Some people thought we were crazy. Now look at where virtual reality is in November 2015:

• The New York Times delivered 1.2 million Google Cardboard viewers to home-delivery subscriber this month
• NextVR’s $30.5 million funding is the largest Series A round of any virtual reality company yet, and that includes Oculus
• Magic Leap raised the largest Series B funding with $542 million (and is rumored to be raising $1B in funding now)
• The consumer version of Samsung Gear VR is taking pre-orders now and delivering by November 20th, 2015
• Top brands and Hollywood studios involved with virtual reality: Netflix, GoPro, Fox Studios, Universal, CNN, ABC, Marriott, DreamWorks, and many more
• Recent virtual reality headlines were made across The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Times, TechCrunch, The Verge, VentureBeat, Fortune and many more

In the past few months we’ve completed live multi-camera broadcasts in virtual reality with the NBA, FOX Sports, CNN, TNT, and more.

NextVR SVP Corporate Strategy David Cramer, Executive Chairman Brad Allen, and I on the court after the first public NBA VR live stream (Oct 2015)

NextVR Raises $30.5 Million in Series A Funding to Expand Platform for Live Virtual Reality Broadcasts

Investors in our Series A round include top brands in entertainment and sports such as Time Warner, Comcast Ventures, Dick Clark Productions, and others. NextVR’s funding announcement was covered in The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and Variety. You can read the full press release here.

The Wall Street Journal: Thursday, November 12, 2015

Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey and I at Oculus Connect 2

I’m incredibly proud of our team at NextVR and want to thank our investors, friends, and supporters.

The industry as a whole has come a long way.

And this is only the beginning of the beginning.

We are hiring at NextVR!

Apply on our Careers page or LinkedIn.

Excited about the future of entertainment and Virtual Reality but don’t see an available position? Tell us about who you are and why you’re interested in working with NextVR. I’m always happy to discuss virtual reality and answer questions about NextVR?—?reach out to me on Twitter.

Snapped at a Women in VR event. What are you excited about VR for?

Follow me here on LinkedIn or on Medium and Twitter, I will be sharing more of my thoughts on Virtual Reality regularly.

I am the Virtual Reality Evangelist at NextVR. I spend a ton of time flying around the world to personally give business leaders their first virtual reality experience. I champion for the best human experience in virtual reality and NextVR technology. Hired as the 4th employee at NextVR, I work at the intersection of marketing, business development, and product.

Originally published on Medium.

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