Wisdom From The Women Leading The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries, With Jennifer Richey Of Gravity Jack

It is so critical to pull people as a good leader rather than push. We were implementing a new process at Gravity Jack and rather than drop the hammer and say ‘do it this way’ it was an explanation of the positive effects in the new processes. After, we would meet on it weekly the team started to see the fruit and were completely on board.

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, as a part of our interview series called “Women Leading The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jennifer Richey — Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Gravity Jack.

A technology futurist and entrepreneur, Jennifer Richey’s first foray into technology startups was as the CFO of Tometa Software, a custom software company that was acquired in 2007. From there, Jennifer went on to assume the same role at PlayXpert, an in-game community management company. In 2009, she helped spearhead the formation of Gravity Jack.

With extensive experience speaking to groups of all sizes and backgrounds — ranging from Fortune 500 executives to college students — Jennifer offers audiences an improved understanding of augmented reality and mobile technology. She is adept at sharing what investors, consumers and developers can expect as technology continues moving at lightning speed into the future.

Jennifer is a southern California native, transplanted to the great northwest. Along with being married to Gravity Jack co-founder Luke, she is a mother of four, a professional triathlete, extreme athlete and skydiver.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?

I grew up in southern CA with very loving and supportive parents and was not only the middle child, but the only girl as I had one older and one younger brother. Don’t get me wrong all families have their issues, but I always knew I was loved. My mom was a successful real estate agent and my dad was an attorney, and I had wanted to be an attorney from a very young age.

I was a little bit of an odd duck out as I’ve always been an adrenaline seeker. I liked to go fast (still do), snowboard, wakeboard and I became a skydiver as soon as I possibly could. I tried to get my skydive license at 15, but they made me wait until I was 18. It was shortly after that while I was in college on my way to law school when I met my husband at a skydiving dropzone in CA and then jumped into the tech world. We have four incredible children together and a new grand-baby. Our youngest son graduated high school this year and our youngest daughter is getting married this month so we’ll have a new son too!

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?

I listened to an interview style podcast with Richard Gordon last year that rocked my world at multiple levels. Richard was tracking major technical innovations across the world that had been given to people in their dreams. The dreams varied from medical concepts or devices to all kinds of technological advancements. Richard’s words convicted me in more ways than one — I realized that I was putting things in a box that I shouldn’t be! I experienced true breakthrough from watching that podcast! I reached out to Richard’s team and not only me, but my family was able to meet him in person too — a truly great human!!

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

It wasn’t a particular story per say, but an evolution as I mentioned earlier. I was actually in college on my way to law school when I met my husband on a skydiving dropzone who was in the tech space. We started a custom PC software company in 2002 where I played more of a CFO role, and then over time as I was entrenched in the tech world, I started to fall in love with it! Gravity Jack, our AR/VR company, was founded in 2009 and it has been an awesome roller coaster of new and exciting tech along with working with incredible people, companies and brands too. I have often said ‘there is never a dull moment at Gravity Jack’ as the technologies are constantly evolving and no two projects are the same!

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

I remember years back being at a fairly large conference in the Bay Area and there was a private cocktail party for a couple hundred C levels that I was invited to. Like any networking event I thought it would be a great time getting to know people in the same industry. As I was standing with another individual someone walked up and said, ‘you’re like a unicorn’ and when he saw I was confused he said, ‘look around there aren’t a lot of women here’. Up until that moment I hadn’t given it a thought or noticed, but he was right. I believe I was one of two women at that event!!

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 are so many aspects to business, but one that makes me laugh to this day was a meeting with five gentlemen with the Department of Defense that flew in to strategize a project we were starting together. We ordered lunch to continue to plan and work together and I ordered a spinach salad. About an hour after we all had eaten I stepped out to use the restroom and one of our team members stopped me when I smiled as I was walking by and said ‘you have a giant piece of lettuce in your front tooth’. When I checked in the mirror sure enough it was giant!! I went straight into that conference room full of men and said ‘Okay guys, if this is the start to a long relationship in working together you have to tell me when I have a giant piece of spinach in my teeth!!’ After we all got a good laugh they went on to say they weren’t sure how to let me know!! No more spinach salads during business meetings!

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?

It’s not just one person, but it would be my family. I was a stay at home mom with my kids when they were little, but as I started doing more and more in our companies they were always so supportive. My girls thought it was so cool that I was a Boss Lady and consistently encouraged me as a woman in tech, and my son got super excited about all the tech projects we worked on and that he got to test them. My husband and I have always worked extremely well together and that genuine support from him built strength and confidence in me for my career.

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

What a fabulous question!! We are working on a very exciting new project here at Gravity Jack called The WarTribe of Binyamin. This is a mobile augmented reality game with incredible lore, game mechanics and all new ways for AR to be used by players worldwide! WarTribe heavily encourages players across the globe to unite together in this game as they fight an evil AI (Artificial Intelligence). The transformative capabilities of the game go beyond just revolutionary tech — it is designed to address poverty on a global scale!! In the game there will be a variety of different quests, and some of the quests will appear for people only within a geo-fenced region that speaks an unreached language (top players like ChatGPT and Google Translate only support up to 100 trade languages spoken by only half the world, leaving over 7,100 languages unreached). Within those areas (a lot of which have weaker economies) users will see language translation quests where they can translate a variety of texts to their native tongue and earn in app currency. Based on layers of verification, the more accurate their translations the more they will earn in game, and they will be able to extract out their earnings into their real-world currency!!! This new method of revenue will bring transformative change to their everyday lives!!!!!

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?

Ohhhhhh there is so much to be excited about in this industry, but if you’re going to make me pick three, they would be 1. It’s Transformative 2. Brings Immersion 3. Enhancement.

1 — Personal computers transformed how people did all kinds of everyday tasks both in business and personal life. We were able to go to MapQuest and print out directions to places we were going, book travel, do research, send emails and more. Then along came smartphones where the whole world was in the palm of our hands, and social media allowed for that world to get even smaller. It was a new way to communicate, to commerce, etc. AR/VR is that next transformative technological advancement where it will change the way we do things in our workplace, at home, while we are traveling. The development of hardware like the Apple Vision Pro means we will start to expect AR/VR everywhere just as we expect access to things on our smartphones.

2 — We live in a big, beautiful world, but we won’t get to see all of it in our lifetime, but with AR/VR we become immersed into places we would’ve never experienced otherwise! I can go see what the inside of the pyramids in Egypt look like with Virtual Reality now from the comfort of my home! So much of the world becomes available to us, not just through pictures or videos but through a fully immersed experience. Travel aside we can see the inside of factories, offices, hotels/resorts, the inner workings of an engine and more. 2D pictures will be like the old film strip movie projectors over time!

3 — When we are looking at the scene around us, AR allows for enhancements of what we are looking at. Once AR glasses become smaller in size and something we’d be willing and wanting to wear we will have the world around us digitally enhanced. We’ll be able to see all kinds of digital things in our physical spaces, from digital artwork and AR TVs on our walls at home, to our computer monitors being fully in AR, digital AR signage while walking around the city and so much more! Packages will come alive, printed materials will have digital layers of added content and the shopping experience will be forever changed! Everyday people will be able to act as SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) in a variety of verticals by performing seemingly complex tasks via AR themselves. It will be a whole new world!

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?

I’m not typically a really stressful person or one that spends a lot of energy on the ‘what ifs’ in life as it could just drive you crazy, but since you’re asking, one area that makes me take pause, and I suppose this doesn’t just apply to AR/VR/MR, but technology as a whole, is staying real. As we continue to create more in depth immersive digital experiences and ways for people to use technology to view a variety of things my concern would be that they don’t spend enough time in the real physical world. People already spend so much time on their phones they forget to step outside for a walk, a bike ride, dinner at a restaurant instead of take-out. They’ve done movies on people actually spending more time with a headset on than they do without and I hope it never comes to that!

A second concern would be the lack of continuity in the industry as it scales. As an example, as new digital user manuals come out where we can repair our own dishwasher by putting on a headset. We want to make sure that there is a consistency with manufacturers providing content in a way that can be used across devices.

The third concern is how long it’s taking companies and brands to initiate major change in their organizations by using AR/VR. It really is time to start forward thinking about how they can radically change all of their learning and training methods to not just include, but lead (where they can) with AR/VR. They need to be proactive about adopting these technologies, not reactive.

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?

I was a speaker at the Professional Businesswomen of California Conference going over AR/VR holistically and why it should be embraced. I said that there is a wide variety of ways it could be functionally used in the workplace and at the end of my talk I challenged the entire audience live. I said that there are ways AR or VR could be integrated into any vertical and in any role, and asked the ladies if they didn’t know how AR/VR could be used in their role to raise their hands and I explained options how. After answering quite a few hands that shot up I also put my email on the screen and let them know they could email me directly and I’d love to tell them the number of ways the technology could be integrated into what they do. I still believe that and would welcome any reader to reach out to me if they don’t see how AR/VR could be used in their workplace!

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

Oh my goodness, it feels like there are endless ways that these technologies can improve our lives directly and indirectly. Collaboration and remote work with training and onboarding as well as virtual meetings; companies can leverage AR for remote maintenance, assembly and troubleshooting and the collaboration spaces with AR and VR can become so much more immersive. Education and training with simulations and interactive educational experiences will be transformative! Healthcare, therapy and rehabilitation will be taken to all new levels with cognitive rehab, exposure therapy, physical therapy and more with AR or VR. Those are more functional areas, but entertainment, art and tourism will be improved greatly by leveraging AR in a physical location and VR by taking a user to a never-before-seen place.

Let’s zoom out a bit and talk in broader terms. Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? If not, what specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?

I think the collaboration of men and women in any industry is really powerful, because we were designed to balance one another. Women are clearly the minority in the STEM world, and it would be wonderful to see more women in the coming years because the female mind is such a force to be reckoned with! Not to mention women often have different interests and desires, I think Jordan Peterson talks about the interesting effect that occurs when countries try to even the career playing field…you end up with a greater divide than before, with women opting for classically “feminine” careers rather than “masculine” careers like engineering more often. Some fields have a tendency to draw more men than women and vice versa so I think it’s key to encourage STEM for all and then hire based on skill level not just gender.

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

Hahahaha this is an interesting one as a lot of the stereotypes are real!! There are some myths that I think are worth mentioning though. The tech world is full of introverts, but it isn’t only for introverts; we’ve had a lot of developers over the years and yes there are incredible extrovert developers too. Another myth is that you must have a computer science degree, and again we have had some brilliant minds that didn’t have a degree because they taught themselves faster than any university could. I’d say another big myth or assumption is that the tech world is all about coding- I myself don’t know how to code, but I can tell you what is and isn’t doable across many platforms and I can give estimates on timelines and costs to our clients too. For those that thought it was all coding in the tech industry there is so much more: design, data analysis, project management, video production and editing, cybersecurity and more!

What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience as a Woman in Tech” and why?

One of my life mantras is ‘there’s always room for improvement’ so I know my list of lessons will continue to grow.

1. It is so critical to pull people as a good leader rather than push. We were implementing a new process at Gravity Jack and rather than drop the hammer and say ‘do it this way’ it was an explanation of the positive effects in the new processes. After, we would meet on it weekly the team started to see the fruit and were completely on board.
2. It is important to let go over the reigns and let your team directors run in their lane. I used to (and sometimes still do) struggle with letting go of areas to people in leadership positions. It starts with the ‘I can do it faster’, ‘they won’t be as detailed,’ etc. but the reality is we have to give people the opportunity to succeed.
3. Over processing is a real thing!! Processes are critical to a company’s success, but we also have to be on guard for over-processing things that lead to inefficiencies. We had started to implement processes internally for projects, but it reached a point where things were taking far too long to complete when there were some that were simply unnecessary. We re-evaluated as a team, cut out the unnecessary ones and efficiency was back on track!!
4. There really are people who struggle with women in general and especially in leadership. I sort of shrugged off the idea that people would have women problems because I couldn’t personally grasp the idea of putting people in a box over gender, race, etc. but the struggle is real. There was an employee years back that consistently felt confrontational about things with me over and over and in fact it was someone else at the company who pointed it out to me. I think discussing potential issues with people directly is crucial, so I scheduled a meeting with him and brought up the various situations that had occurred and he apologized and said he struggles with women and has for quite some time for historical personal reasons. My lesson here was the reality that there are people who have issues with women in the workplace for no other reason than the fact that they are a woman.
5. Some people need more words than others. My natural nature in business is more of a realist and to the point. I would have a hard time when some people desired a lot more words than I would give and I had to make that shift so they felt valued. Rather than respond with a ‘thanks’ I’d shift to ‘thank you for the time and thought you put into this email!’ and of course it was much appreciated. It wasn’t that I didn’t think those things in my heart, but people and especially employees need to hear those positive things that you think about them!

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. :-)

The first thing that comes to mind is what my mom would always say as a kid ‘It’s the Golden Rule; do to others what you would have them do to you!’ It’s like the pay it forward that was happening for a while at coffee shops and drive-thrus across the country. Could you imagine if people were to go one whole day actually treating ALL PEOPLE in ways that they would want someone to treat them. In business, in the home, online, on calls…the way that would bless everyone involved would be a beautiful movement!!!

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 :-)

I’d love to have lunch with Candace Owens — there are so many polarizing opinions on her and yet in a short time she has made big waves.

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