Is Now the Time for VR?
A Brief History + Invest in Wist
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In 1987 the term “virtual reality” was born.
(And so were The Pitch co-founders.)
For decades prior to that headsets had been invented, but the technology always lagged behind the hardware.
In 1960 Morton Heilig filed a patent for the telesphere mask.
The Sword of Damocles hung from the ceiling and users strapped on the headset.
Then, in 2007, Apple released the iPhone.
The advancements made by Apple and others in display and computing technology paved the way for VR tech to catch up to its headset dreams.
In 2012, the Oculus Rift entered the scene raising $1 million in crowdfunding nearly overnight. Then, in 2014 Facebook bought it for $2 billion.
2016 saw AR introduced to a massive audience via Pokémon Go - the most downloaded app of the year.
Investments exploded. From 2017 to 2021 VCs invested nearly $15 billion in VR/AR.
Then in 2023, 36 years after the term “virtual reality” was coined, Apple announced the Vision Pro.
Is now the time for VR?
Has Apple opened the door to the next stage of virtual reality? They did it before.
With the launch of their new hardware I believe we will see the VR needle move clearly from early adopters to mainstream.
Think about the iPhone.
It was stupid expensive when it launched, but broke college kids like Josh Muccio still saved up to buy the first model. And I rolled my eyes at him.
Not long after, I and everyone else had one of those pricey smartphones.
It’s easy to imagine a similar path of consumer adoption with the Vision Pro.
And while Apple may lead the charge in making VR devices mainstream there is always a competitor. (Did you have fights with friends about Team Android vs Team Apple?)
That’s why I think Wist is worth betting on. With Andrew’s background at Samsung in AR/VR and the little bit of technology he’s built on his own…
It reminds me of that scene in Ironman where Obadiah yells, “Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave!”
That first prototype was rough - nothing like the fancy tech of future Ironman suits. But it was two guys in a cave working on it.
Wist has just been two guys in a cave up to this point.
Imagine the tech they can build with funding and a few key hires. (And we haven’t even talked about AI!)
Now might truly be the time for VR.
Andrew McHugh is shooting for the moon. And I am betting on him to build the fancy tech that gets us there.
Josh Muccio, Andrew McHugh, Lisa Muccio
Invest
If you want to invest in Wist they are raising $1.2 Million at a $10 Million post-money valuation cap. You can apply to the syndicate or invest via The Pitch Fund.
See more at WistLabs.com and join the waitlist to try the product.
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Extra! Extra!
I highly recommend this read from Charles Hudson: The Big Reset in Seed to Series A Graduation
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