Here’s Where I’ve Been…Hidden Layers.
So I’ve been pretty weak on posting the blog over the past couple of months, but I have an excuse: I’ve been bootstrapping my early-stage startup, Loud Labs, with 3 amazing cofounders from Meta and Amazon. All 4 of us came together around a shared passion for mixed reality experiences, mobile AR, geolocation and AI. We’re all obsessed with creating location-anchored, real-world experiences meant for the right person, in the right place, at the right time. Our first and only product is a platform we’re calling Hidden Layers.
Who is Loud Labs?
Loud Labs is a startup comprised of 4 senior tech industry vets from “big tech” companies, who also happen to be best friends. Loud develops geolocation-centric experiences that are anchored in real world places. Our products encourage people to get out from behind the computer and participate in the life going on around them, without giving up the best of technology. We allow users to have personalized, contextual experiences meant specifically for them — in that place — at that time.
We’re brand-new and 100% focused on building out a working MVP for Hidden Layers. Oh, and the Hidden Layers app experience is ‘hosted’ by an AI. Let’s call her Clippy. Clippy is the real-time ‘voice’ of the experience. It knows to alert you of content, deals, offers, games, giveaways, pop up events that apply to you, NOW.
Iterative: Ex-Meta Founders Supporting Founders
We started tinkering with the Hidden Layers concept during Covid, but we were having trouble finding our true product market fit. I was showing the pitch deck around and tinkering around on concepts. Everything changed when we applied for a brand-new startup incubator launched by Richard Chen called Iterative VC, an incubator, resources, and potential for angel funding specifically for ex-Meta founders. 3 of the 4 of our team are from Meta, and we applied and held our breath.
3–4 weeks ago, we got the call that we were IN. 12 weeks of resources, education, collaboration, working space, resources, and a demo day on December 2nd. We were about to be shot out of a rocket.
We’re only 3 weeks into the cycle, but we’ve already had tons of breakthroughs and learned from some big names in tech.
I’ll tell you guys more as we grow and change. I’m being brave by putting all of this out there, knowing we’re iterating and changing every day. Give me feedback and please be relatively kind ;)
Here’s a few more slides from our Hidden Layers deck, so you can get a better feel.
About Hidden Layers
Hi, we’re Loud Labs. Here’s something we’re building called Hidden Layers.
What does it do?
What do you mean by “discovery engine for life”?
Donald Rumsfeld has a great quote about “unknown unknowns.”:
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones.
We’ve solved for this online by allowing weighted algorithms to measure countless edges (like timing, relationship, content, preferences) to help us discover new content and recommend content that it knows I will like. Think about how you found the last new song you love by an artist you don’t know? Probably Spotify. Or started following a new influencer teaching a hobby you love. Probably TikTok’s For You feed.
This is crucial, so I’ll lay it out again…the way we discover new content, people, shows, recipes, workouts, fashion, events, jobs online is through discovery and recommendation algorithms or engines. Without this contextual discovery engine, we are stuck in our echo chambers forever. Because how can you find something you don’t know exists?
But where is the discovery engine for our IRL lives? We have none.
Try this. Step outside and walk down a busy street WITHOUT taking your phone. Or decide where to go for dinner without consulting google or yelp. We get stuck because we can’t know what we don’t know. Recommendation engines have gotten so advanced for our digital lives. Yet in our IRL lives, we are still 100% analog. This is where Hidden Layers comes in.
How It Works
Think of Hidden Layers as a tech stack, with the base layer always being the user’s geolocation. Once the user is within the geofenced area, it becomes a matter of permissions, interest, and authorizations.
At the very top, you’ll see ML. For now, we are tapping into a conversational AI, who acts as your ‘host’ throughout your Hidden Layers session. If and when the user meets all of the required parameters AND they have pre-authorized permissions for location and haptics/alerts, the user should pocket their device and get back to the real world and people around them.
Someone asked me recently: So you’re building a mobile app that you want people to toy with LESS??
Pretty much. We’re fierce about our mission to flip the way we deal with our tech today. Instead of the FOMO-inducing searching and checking and sending and scanning we’re always doing, we come to trust that we can refocus our attention on the life happening now, knowing Hidden Layers will reliably tell me what I want before I know I want it.
As a test, I asked ChatGPT to explain Hidden Layers so that anyone can understand it easily. After a couple refinements, I got a good one:
Hidden Layers is your real-world discovery engine. Imagine walking into a café and your phone buzzes to let you know they serve that matcha latte you’ve been craving — all without scrolling through Yelp or scanning a QR code. Or picture this: a subtle haptic buzz from your watch alerts you that someone you’ve mutually matched with on a dating app is in the same restaurant. Hidden Layers PROACTIVELY lets each user know about contextual, personalized content, event, people or tools that are physically nearby.
So if we all take a walk down University Ave in Palo Alto as Hidden Layers users, I will be alerted that there’s some hidden tech history content outside the original Facebook office. I opted into a tech tour before we went. But you get a message as you pass the Keen store, reminding you that you have a 10% off coupon that expires tomorrow…want to use now?
Everyone’s Hidden Layers experience can be different, as Hidden Layers are triggered by triangulating:
- WHERE you are. Hidden Layers always start with exact user geolocation. Everything you find or experience is anchored to real world location points or geofenced areas.
- WHEN it is. While some Hidden Layers content may be evergreen (like an audio file describing the history of the town), most Hidden Layers have a start and end date. The user has to be in the right place at the right time.
- WHO you are. Login will be through Facebook, LinkedIn, Google. If the user has granted Hidden Layers permission to view Facebook interests or demographic data, then the user can be alerted when we see stores, attractions, or even other people that fit that user’s specific interests.
- WHAT you have. Once you’ve verified who you are, we then take into consideration what you have. At an NFL game, that might be a season’s ticket. At SXSW maybe what you have is the platinum-level badge. At a Taylor Swift show, maybe you have a VIP badge.
The above parameters will combine to let Hidden Layers know when you are a ‘qualified audience’ for a Hidden Layers in your current geolocation. By pre-setting and pre-authenticating users…and allowing Hidden Layers your exact location, we outline the types of Hidden Layers you should know about.
Give me examples.
Okay so what are some examples of how it can be used? Hidden Layers is the overall platform and logic, but we plan to iterate with clients and partners on all kinds of exciting specific use cases. Here are some examples (we have a list 10x this long):
A little scattered, but once you start thinking of these Hidden Layers, it gets hard to stop (if you think of more, tell me!). The concept is that we could help clients and partners whitelabel various templates like these, really making it their own without design needs.
Buy why?
Our mission? To get the world to put their devices AWAY as we walk around and participate in our IRL lives. Web2 will come to be known as the social media ‘phone zombies’ days, when the world walked around heads down, staring at little black boxes, ignoring the world around.
Let’s define web3 as the time when we all finally LOOKED UP.
Let me know what you think. And here’s a few more.
