Catching Up with EKTO VR’s Brad Factor
Q: For those who don’t know EKTO VR, give us your 30 second elevator pitch…also give us a rough estimate of the number of times you’ve given this pitch since you first started honing and polishing pitches through ALG.
A: EKTO VR is transforming workforce training by simulating the world’s most complex and hazardous environments with wearable technology. EKTO ONE Simulator Boots enable industrial personnel to experience training environments of all shapes and sizes from any location, empowering workers to train for their jobs safely and efficiently.
This particular elevator pitch is just a few months old, so I’ve probably only used it tens of times, but I’ve likely given hundreds to thousands of elevator pitches since starting at AlphaLab Gear.
Q: Describe your team and tell us about the things that make you all so well suited for solving the problem of mobility in VR simulation.
A: Our current team consists of me (Founder and CEO), Bobby Li (Robotics Engineer), Tim Wang (Software Development intern), Steve Stein (Industry Consultant), Jenn Sydeski (Biz Ops Advisor), and a Technical Advisor who prefers to remain anonymous. Bobby, Tim, and I are all from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) with a strong collective background in robotics and VR. Prior to attending CMU, I worked at Honeywell Aerospace for eight years on the safety-critical flight control system of the Boeing 787 aircraft.
When you combine our robotics and VR background, my safety-critical design background, Steve’s 35+ years selling in the Chemical, Oil, and Gas industry, Jenn’s biz ops background in everything from food to biotech, our Technical Advisor’s background from CMU and UberATG, and being advised by Palmer Luckey (founder of Oculus), you have a particularly well-suited team for solving the problem of mobility in VR.
Q: Tell us about your renewed focus on industrial applications.
A: I think it’s worth mentioning that our original focus was on location-based entertainment, in particular VR arcades, which was very appealing from the perspective of working with small-to-medium sized businesses to reach consumers via a B2B2C (Business to Business to Consumer) model. But even pre-pandemic, we were noticing a chasm in scale from the individually owned VR arcades to the international chains and franchises, and then the pandemic started and shut down the VR arcades who had signed letters of intent for pilots. During the first few months of the pandemic, we explored all of the non-entertainment applications that we could conceive of, and later through CMU’s VentureBridge accelerator program we were able to perform intensive, global customer discovery while continuing product development.
All roads eventually pointed towards industrial training. These training scenarios are dangerous, complex, and involve expensive and massive equipment where downtime is impractical or impossible. VR headsets and purpose-built software provide a solid foundation for this type of training, especially for scenarios that fit within a classroom. But as you expand the scale of the scenario even slightly beyond the classroom walls, you need to use techniques for moving virtually without moving physically, and the immersion (the feeling of actually being there) breaks down, which adds friction and limits training effectiveness. This is the gap that we’re addressing with EKTO ONE Simulator Boots.
Q: We love your monthly updates / newsletter, especially the “Asks” section. It’s great that you’ve created a platform that highlights your progress and also prioritizes your most pressing needs. Tell us about the most unexpected or surprising response you’ve gotten to something you’ve asked for.
A: Thanks! Those updates are for a select audience, but we’ll be starting a public newsletter later this year. For now, people can reach out via our contact form here.
Our supporters have been great about reaching out if and when they can help with an ask. I think what is often unexpected and gratifying is how often our readers reply with words of excitement and encouragement. I particularly remember one investor reaching out, who despite the fact that we weren’t a fit for their firm’s investment thesis, offered very kind words of support on the team’s commitment to our vision, progress with modest financing and resources, and entrepreneurship.
Q: What are the most useful tools you’ve developed outside of product development areas?
A: We’ve developed a number of tools to support our product development and testing. Probably the most useful ones are our User Safety Rig and our Drive Module Test Rig.
Our User Safety Rig is equipment that helps us test prototype boot hardware and software on users in a safe, controlled fashion. It’s a fairly impressive (and somewhat ludicrous) contraption consisting of a trade show display truss, four retractable dog leashes, a fall harness, and a smattering of electronics. If something goes wrong during testing, we can hit an emergency stop button that will freeze the user in place and stop the boots, preventing injury, and giving us time to help our user back to a safe, comfortable position. This helps us responsibly push the envelope during testing so that we can be confident of a safe experience when EKTO ONE is deployed in the field.
Before we even get to that point, we need to test the subassemblies of each boot, especially the motorized portion called the Drive Module. The Drive Module Test Rig is a two axis gantry that allows us to replicate walking motions including varying how much force is applied to the Drive Module. We’ve used the Test Rig to tune control parameters, understand failure modes, and perform reliability testing.
Aside from tools supporting product development, our newest, most popular tool is actually our intern interview prep package! Intern candidates have found it really helpful to know what to expect during our interviews and we’ve had more productive conversations as a result.
Q: EKTO VR was part of creating so many amazing experiences with cohort members and IW staff trying early versions of your simulator boots and using VR. What are your favorite memories of Alphalab Gear?
A: Honestly, sharing VR and our simulator boots with everyone at AlphaLab Gear were some of our favorite memories too! Demo Day and Investor Day were definitely momentous, but among the understandably unceasing drive towards these milestones, some of the best moments were after hours when anyone who was still around could just hang out and chat. During scheduled time, participating in the Ethics MVP program, the improv workshop, and axe throwing rank pretty highly!
Q: We see that you have been attending trade shows, how has that been helpful?
A: That’s right! We exhibited at the Industrial XR Global Summit and the Augmented World Expo, and attended I/ITSEC. Initially, we weren’t planning to exhibit at all last year, but InnovateEnergy made a compelling offer for the Industrial XR Global Summit and our experience there convinced us to exhibit at the Augmented World Expo as well.
I would say there have been a lot of direct and indirect benefits. From our demos, we’ve generated keen interest from potential partners and customers in a variety of markets including industrial automation, midstream oil and gas, nuclear power, and DoD (Department of Defense) affiliated work. We’ve also gained a lot of global visibility, particularly through the press, which will help us build relationships and fundraise in the future.
The best benefit so far is that one of our trade show demos led to our first revenue! We were paid to spend two weeks on-site at a University-affiliated Research Center. During our time there, we trained VR content developers and operators on how to use the boots. We also held 53 demos for a combined 2.4 miles walked in the boots, collecting a ton of useful quantitative and qualitative data for us and the customer. Just as gratifying is the strong interest in converting this paid demo experience into a kit purchase.
Q: What’s something else you want to share with us?
A: EKTO VR is now hiring for full-time Electrical, Mechanical, and Software Engineering roles! You can check out the job postings at https://ektovr.com/careers.
Also, EKTO ONE will be part of an upcoming exhibit at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Ontario! It starts on May 24, 2022 and will run for 18 months.
Finally, we’re looking for additional applicants to our partner beta program! If you’re an industrial content or solution provider, or an end customer with a VR development team, who has an application that could benefit from our EKTO ONE Developer Kit, please reach out via https://ektovr.com/contact-map.
