The Biggest Opportunities in Virtual Reality

Stop what you’re doing and start one of these companies.

I am fascinated by emerging technology — specifically technologies that I believe are 10X upgrades to today’s world. Bitcoin is upgrading finance, space exploration is upgrading human expansion, etc.

Most recently I have been fascinated by virtual reality.

Virtual reality is the most immersive medium to date, and I believe it is a 10X upgrade to how humans interact with data.

What do I mean when I say virtual reality is the most immersive medium to date? Check this out:

Story telling is all about immersion.

• Look at a photo and you imagine what it would be like to be there.
• Listen to a song and you empathize with how that artist was feeling.
• Read a book and you imagine what it would be like to be the hero.
• Watch a TV show or movie and you pretend you are part of that world.
• Put a virtual reality headset on and you actually feel like you have teleported to a different world. There is very little pretending, you are just…there.

The virtual reality industry is young.

Even though conceptually it’s been around for decades, virtual reality is still very young. There are a tremendous amount of opportunities for you to create world changing products using virtual reality. The space is wide open.

After spending a lot of time with the virtual reality community, exploring the different technologies, meeting with investors, and reading everything I could get my hands on, I have realized there are a few virtual reality products that personally I would love to see developed.

If you are working on one of these ideas, or are interested in working on one of these ideas, I would love to talk to you. I know investors interested in virtual reality startups and I would be more than happy to make introductions.

Virtual reality products I would love to see:

1. Virtual Reality Ad Network: Most media businesses are powered and supported by advertisements. No ad dollars = no content. The same will be true for virtual reality, so let’s make sure someone leads the industry in creating immersive ads that tug on our emotions and excite our subconscious. I want to drive the new Audie, I want to sky dive during a red bull commercial, I want to float on an ice cube as Pepsi gets poured in.
2. Enable non developers to create virtual worlds: Remember playing The Sims? Imagine if you could build your own house, or world, and then actually go explore it from the inside. I want to be god, and I don’t think I’m alone in this. We need products focused on enabling the mainstream to create worlds. The same way minecraft enabled a generation to have infinite legos, we need the same thing for virtual reality. I can’t wait for this to exist and to visit your dream world.
3. Regularly occurring 360* content: There are now cameras that can capture an environment from every angle. Up. Down. Left. Right. Sideways. Everywhere. No longer is the viewer forced to face is a specific direction, you can look anywhere. Imagine watching a movie where you can turn around at any time, or glance up to see what’s happening above you. It is going to take a while to figure out exactly how to best leverage this new experience, and so we need more people experimenting with it and creating 360* content. We need people who are ready to redefine storytelling.

I am so excited about the future.

I can’t wait to see where virtual reality takes us. It’s a whole new world out there, and we’re only just starting to build and understand it.

If you’d like to chat, about this or something else, leave a comment here or send me an email at matt@zapchain.com.