Makers of The Metaverse: Angelo Coletta of Zakeke On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

Luck: As always, a bit of luck plays a role in achieving success.

The Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Industries are so exciting. What is coming around the corner? How will these improve our lives? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? Aside from entertainment, how can VR or AR help work or other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewing Angelo Coletta.

Angelo is a serial entrepreneur and investor in AR/VR technologies. He is the founder and CEO of Zakeke — a platform revolutionizing e-commerce through visual technologies. Zakeke serves over 8,000 customers across more than 400 sectors in over 130 countries, collaborating with major brands like Valentino, HP, Etsy, Uber Eats, Zapier and Printful. He holds a cum laude degree in Economics and Commerce from the University of Bari and a Master in Innovation Management from the Iacocca Institute at Lehigh University, USA.

Angelo began his career in marketing consultancy, founding multiple companies and achieving multiple exits. He led BookingShow S.p.A. and 18months Srl to successful exits. His experience extends to leadership roles in various IT companies and as President of Innovup, supporting Italian startups and scaleups. Angelo’s insights into AI’s role in retail underscore his commitment to innovation and vision for Zakeke in visual commerce.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

A movie that I absolutely adored is Star Wars. What I really loved was the blend of a samurai mindset with technology. I adored that zen and samurai mentality which made concentration one of the elements of strength. And it’s a movie that greatly inspired me. “May the Force be with you” has been a catchphrase of mine for a very long time.

There are many books that have inspired me. Some are science fiction, like the Foundation series, with its beautiful galactic intrigues. Or another book that I really liked was “Guns, Germs, and Steel” which is the story of humanity and peoples, wars, and conquests, but seen from a totally different perspective, that of viruses. We don’t realize it, but many conquests of peoples over others have been accompanied by the spread of diseases which then allowed one people to undermine another.

There are many other readings, but these are certainly the most interesting.

Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in this industry? We’d love to hear it.

There isn’t a specific story. It’s not like I was inspired, like many entrepreneurs, by Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or other well-known names.

In fact, my story has been about seeing things done, about cultivating passion. For instance, the movie Cinema Paradiso tells of a child who, in love with cinema, dreams and accomplishes things. Let’s say that I have always been inspired by where I saw incredible passion, and incredible determination, leading to success.

For example, I found the story of Yunus extraordinary, an economist discussed in the book “The Banker to the Poor,” who invented microcredit. Just as I found the story of Gandhi exceptional.

In reality, I found myself doing business more inspired by characters like these than by great entrepreneurs. I was also simply inspired by characters like Caesar with his ability to be in battle.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?

A very amusing story is when I went to the notary to sell my company, which was involved in electronic ticketing for events, concerts, football teams, and so on.

I went there with my accountant at the time, who was also a friend of mine from university. We used to organize film festivals and nightclub parties together.

It was a lot of fun to make the return trip together with the checks we had received as payment for the company. Looking back, it seemed like a lot of money. Those tickets had brought us together 20 years ago, and they were now uniting us again. But 20 years ago, we didn’t have a penny, and the survival of each of us depended on those tickets.

This was a beautiful story because we found ourselves laughing for hours, thinking, “Ah, it’s incredible to think about where we started and where we’ve ended up together!”

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

There have been many mistakes along the way. Once, I bought software called Sibel for a call center. I paid a hefty sum for it, and it was precisely during that time when the first low-cost CRMs were emerging. Essentially, what I had paid 200,000 euros for two years earlier was available in the market for 10,000 euros two years later, and that was a beautiful mistake.

Another amusing mistake was when I started a company for ticketing in transportation, envisioning how the market could evolve by replicating cinema ticketing in the world of transportation. In reality, it was too early because that market only emerged 10 years later. So, I created a company with fantastic software, but the market didn’t exist yet and didn’t develop in the following two or three years, so I decided to close it.

That was another significant mistake. It was a good vision, but I was too ahead of the curve. And undoubtedly, I’m making many other mistakes to this day!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I absolutely agree. On the path to success, there are always people who lend a helping hand.

I have to thank Paolo Cicolella, who, when I was at University, gave me the opportunity to start organizing film festivals without asking for upfront costs, accepting the challenge. I did it for the university, and he allowed me to become an entertainment entrepreneur without needing the capital to start.

Then, when I entered my professional career, I had to give many thanks to two people named Piero Inglese and Pino Vernaglione. They had a lot of faith in me when I was very young. They invested in my first companies and stood by me during the initial challenges, and I owe them a great deal. Especially during the most complex phases, they were very close to me, guided me, and above all, helped me.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

I’m currently working on Zakeke, a project that inspires me greatly.

I’ll mention two ways in which it helps people:

• I believe that technology should be available to everyone. What I enjoy is giving both small and large businesses the opportunity to use the same technology. I aim to eliminate discrimination based on financial resources, allowing both small and large businesses to play the same game when it comes to enhancing the experiences for their customers. This, to me, is a driving force.
• The other important aspect is connected to my country and my origins. I was born in a small, not particularly affluent town in the south of Italy. The project I’m working on now allows a small group of people to have the same professional, challenging, and complex experience they could have by going to Silicon Valley, London, and so on, but without leaving their homes. So, for me, Zakeke is also about setting an example for others on how to create something significant without having to emigrate to other countries. I believe it’s something good to do, even if it’s only for a small community. Or at least, we’re trying to make it happen.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?

The three things that fascinate me the most about these technologies are:

• Through AR and MR, the interaction with products and the perception of products will completely change, shifting the place and location where people will build their product engagement experiences;
• The combination of AR and VR will create a Mixed Reality (MR) where imagination can take shape. The fantasies in a consumer’s mind can quickly come to life through changes in background, skybox, and all the dynamic experiences that we often imagine, but can now make real through these technologies;
• It will be very interesting when AI, which is becoming more widespread, allows for even more direct changes in the scenarios in which an object is visualized and perceived, aligning even further what’s in our minds with what we see.

I’m also fascinated by the sociological impact of how human relationships and human-object relationships will change in the coming years.

What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?

As with all technologies, there will be both positive and negative aspects.

If we talk about shopping, these technologies enable experiences that previously required physical presence to be done from home.

With VR, we can explore places that would be impossible to visit: another planet, outer space, or even the inside of the human body. I see a lot of educational potential and many useful applications for teaching and learning.

At the same time, I also see risks in the sense that there may be less physical mobility and potentially more disconnection from face-to-face social interaction. This will have an immense impact on society.

These impacts will need to be studied to understand the right balance and the appropriate role for these technologies in our lives to bring more benefits than disadvantages. But, of course, as with all innovations, it will be the way we choose to use them that will determine whether they bring benefits to our lives.

I think the entertainment aspects of VR, AR and MR are apparent. Can you share with our readers how these industries can help us at work?

These technologies can help in many ways.

Certainly, in the realm of shopping, they will provide a different experience, allowing us to see the product on our desk, place it in various contexts, try it out, and do many things that were possible in physical stores and are now available online through these technologies.

These technologies can also assist us in education and maintenance. For example, the concept of virtual digital twins will enable us to work on machines by first addressing their digital counterparts.

I believe that medicine, education, and certainly the shopping experience (related to sensory experience) are the areas that will receive the most significant boost from these technologies.

Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?

I don’t believe in the word “improve.” I think these technologies won’t necessarily improve our lives; they will simply become part of our lives.

In essence, I believe that reality is what all our senses transform into perception. Therefore, gradually, VR and AR will become indistinguishable from reality in our brains; they will become part of our reality.

What is true and what is not will start to become a much more fluid concept from this perspective.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?

One of the myths I’d like to dispel in our industry is the idea that the world changes quickly, or rather, that technologies can be adopted overnight.

In reality, technological cycles, despite their rapid impact (the spread of the wheel in ancient civilizations was slower than the spread of the internet, and even viruses spread more slowly before globalization compared to the rapid spread of COVID-19), have a slower cycle.

Innovations often follow a cycle that includes an initial launch followed by adoption. This adoption phase reveals some problems that are partly corrected, leading to another subsequent cycle. Therefore, one of the myths to dispel is that technological cycles are longer than what the media often portrays. Media frequently create situations of anxiety, as if technology could immediately replace everything that existed before.

Many times, it’s believed that everything that existed before an innovation was entirely wrong. This is another major myth to dispel. Everything that existed before remains valuable and doesn’t lose its worth with innovation.

Human society has been shaped by thousands of technological innovations over the centuries, many of which we now take for granted. We take airplanes for granted, but think about the revolution of flight. At the time, it was a tremendous and essential breakthrough, much like the new technologies we are now experiencing and experimenting with.

We are constantly undergoing changes. Therefore, another myth to dispel is the continuous anxiety associated with innovations and change. In my opinion, we simply need to embrace innovation as something new to study and incorporate into our life processes.

What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”

Success in this field requires the following:

1. Vision: You need a long-term vision because you must imagine a world that doesn’t exist yet.
2. Creativity: It’s essential to be able to envision a different world, something that doesn’t exist. You must also strive to remain creative when thinking about where the impacts will be most significant and imagine something that is functional for these impacts.
3. Careful Navigation and Adaptability: It’s important to have insights related to what’s happening in the present. Like all emerging technological worlds, some insights are correct, while others are wrong. Often, people believe that something will develop in a certain direction, but sometimes these insights are mistaken, and there can be significant curves in the road that need to be navigated. Therefore, careful navigation is crucial, always balancing between human enthusiasm and an understanding of reality.
4. Clarity: It’s important to have clarity to distinguish between what excites us about a technology and what the market truly needs. Clear investment in the part that serves the market while setting aside the emotional aspect is crucial.
5. Luck: As always, a bit of luck plays a role in achieving success.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

What I consider crucial today is redefining society to avoid extreme wealth concentration. Excellence should encourage those who possess it to share a portion of their success with others less fortunate.

I believe in directing efforts toward creating a less economically polarized world that respects the environment. Excessive wealth often leads to greed, which, in turn, harms the environment.

In this better world, talent should be rewarded, but not solely with money. Wealth should empower individuals to make a positive impact on society.

I advocate for the development of alternative social metrics beyond financial success. Money remains important for business but should not be the sole measure of morality. I encourage influential figures to contribute to a better world rather than exploiting it.

We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

Yes, Warren Buffett. I’m fascinated by a man who has amassed such an extraordinary track record of successful bets over a long period of time, while witnessing numerous revolutions.

Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success in your great work!