Immersive Empowerment
(Photo courtesy of Bad VR, and used with permission.) Bad VR is in the empowerment business. And at the helm is Suzanne Borders, CEO and co-founder. What her L.A.-based startup does, specifically, is translate data into easily-understandable virtual-reality and augmented reality experiences. They're the world's first immersive data visualization platform. In other words, if you have a lot of charts and graphs, they'll create a visual representation. This platform puts you inside the data--where you're seeing all the facts at once, and quickly finding the information that's relevant to your needs. Bad VR's first product, an app called SeeSignal, allows users to see the strength of their wi-fi, cellular phone or Bluetooth networks. And they have a new product which they're just about to release. (We'll tell you more about that, as soon as we can!). Suzanne, or Suzie as she prefers to be called, talked about the experience of founding Bad VR in 2017, some of her favorite resources for developing immersive technology, and what's next! On this edition of Over Coffee®, you will hear: How Suzie first became interested in virtual and augmented reality; How her own first VR experience captured her imagination; The steps to her journey, in creating Bad VR; What Suzie found particularly "scary" as she began to create her startup; A specific, plain-English definition of what Bad VR does; How their AR application, SeeSignal, works; Some of the possible uses of Bad VR, in going from abstract ideas to specific visualizations; Creative lessons from Suzie's experiences, in designing immersive media; How a real-life event helped Suzie plan a visualization model; The resources Suzie has found most helpful, as both an artist and an entrepreneur; Suzie's future plans for Bad VR, and what she needs to make them a reality; Why her creative team (including future hires!) is unique in the tech industry; Suzie's recommendation for staying on top of developments in the rapidly-developing field of immersive technology; The reason behind her company's name!