The Metaverse

Serial Entrepreneur – EP55

[00:00:00] 

Welcome to the Serial Entrepreneur Club. 

 If we can learn from the mistakes and from the ways that others have launched their businesses, I believe we can become better entrepreneurs. We can increase our chance of success with that startup. Today we are going into the metaverse. I don’t know, are we going to talk about what it is?

Are we going to talk about, is it in a chasm? If you follow this show a few weeks ago, we had Geoffrey Moore and we talked about the technology adoption cycle, and we tried to understand w where are we at with respect to technology and the metaverse? Is that something that the early majority or the vast population is adopting, or are we still in a chasm?

What kind of businesses. Run on the metaverse. Or if you have a business, can you use the metaverse to help your business? Are there [00:01:00] opportunities for entrepreneurs, startup investors in the metaverse as well? And we’re very lucky today because Purcell is com comes from us. She’s founder of a company called tech app Tika.

I’m hoping I’m getting there. I’m doing this by memory Kari adaptive, adaptive. I’m doing it by memory. Okay. So this one was by memory. But I did look up a few things earlier about Carrie and what she’s done, and she’s really a transformative leader and understands visionary and digital very well.

She’s leading a company in a, a bleeding ed space, which is the metaverse and really helping startups in the metaverse. And so I thought this would be a really. Cool topic to bring to clubhouse and have Carrie, talk to us a little bit about the metaverse, what it is and what are the opportunities there.

So welcome. Carrie, I know you’re a star paddle boarder. You do that with your marquee. I did read that as well. But today we’re talking about reverse. [00:02:00] Awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah, no, I’m in Canada Toronto, Canada, for those who don’t know. I love paddleboarding, but our season is not particularly long here.

So you have to take every chance you can to get out there. But yes, as a as just mentioned, so I’m. CEO and co-founder of tech Adaptic we are growing quickly because of the environment and everybody gets what we do today, but we started years ago when people did not know what we were doing and certainly the word metaverse dates back to the early nineties, but was not widely used.

And even today it’s a broad term. So not everybody knows what they’re referring to when they use the word universe, but we work in the metaverse space. We focus primarily on education. You can do anything in the metaverse. So we’ve over the last two years Explorer to anything and everything that people wanted to from conferences and events to interactive, at low fidelity, low equipment versions of the metaverse to, completely immersive Mehta versus, and it’s all open.

So maybe that’s enough of an introduction. [00:03:00] So it’s a, metaverse just a renaming, a virtual reality. Augmented reality is. Is this just a renaming thing that we, it seems to happen in history when you see technology adoption, especially for technologies are just not catching the mainstream. They seem to rebrand them.

They, my, my first business was providing servers on demand application service provider, and then it became software as a service. And then it became cloud computing. Is this just another renaming or is there something else we’re missing about the word? Yeah, so the metaverse is conceptually.

And that’s part of why I say it’s broad because if you ask people today, people will get passionate about it and they’ll fight you and tell you, this is a, metaverse, this isn’t a, metaverse the metaverse doesn’t exist yet. And I see it all over LinkedIn. And I, I see it across my network.

The men have versus a broad term that conceptually refers to 3d virtual environments that are typically connected. Is that VR, it can be it can be augmented [00:04:00] reality. It can be a 3d kind of game, like world on your computer. Like second life was. And as I said, there are people who are gonna yell and say, this 3d virtual world on your computer is not a metaverse, the metaverse has to be multi connected and it has to have everybody present and you have to be able to move through it worlds.

And that’s totally a metaverse too, but if you ask me I’m not, I’m much more open in my understanding of what it can be and where it’s going. And and it just really requires that you have a 3d virtual environment that you can move through realistic or unrealistic with a headset, without a headset or using augmented reality, which I think we will.

I know we will see a lot more. And so often you’ll see XR, like kind of this idea of mixed reality playing together. Can you give us a real example? And I’d really if you could talk about the incubator model, cause you were on a prior show here and you talked about how in Canada people can go into this virtual environment and actually join your incubator and [00:05:00] it would help them launch their startup.

Can you talk a little bit about. Sure of course. So we were able to with part, with partnering, actually with the government of Canada we were able to launch a virtual incubator partway through the pandemic. And what we did is create or recreate a physical space. So a big kind of glass dome building that was futuristic.

It has three stories. You can see all the environments through the glass walls and inside you have access to things like an auditorium for pitching presentations or, having a panel, having a keynote, you have a booth area where entrepreneurs can actually exhibit what they do and have their website up and have 3d physical kind of 3d models of their product.

If they have a product we have breakout rooms, we have small private meeting rooms, lounges games, all of these things and that 3d virtual environment. Way to connect not just due to the [00:06:00] pandemic but also the geographical expansive Canada. It gave us a way of connecting people together. So they were located all across in this case really large country.

But they’re able to come together virtually as avatars and the avatars walk and talk. They can turn on their webcams. So if it’s important to have a one-on-one and really see who you’re talking to, or you’re giving a presentation and you want to act it out a little bit more, you can still use your camera in this environment.

But essentially we recreated an ecosystem to support entrepreneurs, meaning I’m sure you can have. A coworking space. So you can show up there and you can work. You can go to the lounge at lunch and start to network with other entrepreneurs. We also brought together service providers. So anybody who’s in the industry of supporting entrepreneurs, and sometimes these are accountants and lawyers.

Sometimes they are other entrepreneurship courses. We ran what we called the VC bootcamp. So we brought investors on every single week [00:07:00] and they would do presentations. They would do panels, but they would also take time with the entrepreneurs that they were interested in to help them with their pitches and their, obviously if they were interested enough to actually sign a deal with them.

So that’s the environment and it continues to grow and develop once you have it started. So it starts with kind of a basic concept. We have a place that people can meet. With the CPQ things they can do. Some reasons why they should be there. And the more that you spend time there the more that people bring in their ideas on what should be happening in this space, who should be involved in it, and even how to recreate what the space looks like and feels like, and how to interact in it.

All right. Great. And before we open up the audience, I have one more question. If there are businesses in the audience or people who wanted to use Tech adaptive to help them with their startup or with their business. What would be some of the types of applications they could use a training? Just comes to my mind.

Is that one of them? Yeah, [00:08:00] absolutely. The, when we initially started building the platform, it was with education and training in mind. So the types of trainings that happen are extensive and we continue to push the boundaries on what those look like. So sometimes it’s as simple as registering for a course with an institution that has some online portal and we’ll integrate with that portal.

So you can start to see your content and your assignments and your peers both through the portal, but you’re inside the campus. So you’re connected with people. And then we pushed the limits of what that looks like. So we have. Some really forward-thinking clients and partners that we’re working with, where you can completely redesign the learning experience in the metaverse in ways you wouldn’t be able to do at a physical space.

So think about machinery, right? So access to machinery, storing it, getting everybody into a space. And then in a physical world, you can walk outside of it and you might be able to go inside of it. So in our virtual world, you’re going to walk inside of it. You’re going to definitely go inside of it.

Then you’re [00:09:00] going to start to blow it up. So I want to see what the engine is made of. Maybe not me personally, but somebody might. So we’re going to, we’re going to let them go inside the engine. We’re going to let them zoom in and out. We use what we call an exploded view. The explode of you starts to pull pieces apart and it shows the names and it shows electrical currents that you wouldn’t be able to see in real life.

But you can build in the metaverse it shows you things by video it lets you spin around and manipulate. So that’s where we start to get, a little bit more out of the text and we can generally offer in person from a teaching and training perspective, but you can do anything.

You can sit down and have a meeting and we do tons and tons of team building. And we do it for our company. We do it for other companies, but we also do things like frosh week for colleges. And like it’s a pretty cool environment to be able to run and play and do competitive activities. Yeah. So just a few more.

Oh, you remind me of a cartoon. I used to watch [00:10:00] with my daughter called the magic school bus and they would shrink down and they would go into these little environments and, it just, it never occurred to me until this conversation that, there are really a lot of applications that in the real world don’t, are almost impossible to execute, but this opens you up to a whole new, different way of thinking.

All right. If you’re in the audience and you have a business in the metaverse, or if you have an idea, or if you have a question for Carrie or the panel here, please raise your hand. This is all about clubhouse. This is all about interacting. It’s all about talking about these new technologies, new opportunities we want to hear from you.

So please raise your hands and come on stage. I’ll pass it around to anyone else on the panel here right now. Jeff, you want to start kick it off next? I just, I, I have two questions. My first question is who really created the metaverse William Gibson, Ernest Klein, Neal Stephenson, or mark Zuckerberg.

That’s what I want to know. But aside from that, [00:11:00] Carrie, I think, I feel and I could be wrong here. And I’m just curious, like, when I think of the metaphor. Because it’s existed. As you pointed out in so many different forms already, I was very active on second life. In the early days, you’re creating this platform, this virtual world, there’s countless other people creating virtual worlds.

And they’re all independent in my mind when we actually achieve what would be the metaverse is when you can move yourself seamlessly between all these different worlds, just like you can on the internet, you can go from website to website. So in the metaverse, as I see it, it would be great. If you could have your avatar, your one avatar, that’s your digital persona.

And maybe you have multiple avatars, but you can appear in your platform in someone else’s platform in someone else’s platform, but you are always that same. Digital persona. That to me is like the metaverse. And I see traces of this happening with [00:12:00] NFTs being used as avatars, like on Twitter and other places where you have that verified.

Avatar your NFT in this case, your board ape or whatever. And then it’s validated. So you can be that avatar across different platforms. To me, that sounds more like a metaverse than just creating these individual platforms. What does that make any sense? And what are your thoughts on that?

Yeah. Now, to me that makes complete sense. I don’t think you’re alone in that concept. I think there’s a ton of value there, and I think you’re right, that we’re close, but I haven’t seen anyone hack the idea of a universal avatar yet. But we have the technology to do it. We have some technology limitations going from, limitations, optimizations slight adjustments that we have to consider going from platform to platform.

And that might be what the sort of delay is there. Okay. I think it’s coming. I’ve seen people work on it for years ahead of us and they’re not quite there yet. But I do think it’s coming. I think [00:13:00] that they, I think that idea whether the environments connect or whether the avid, whether the individual, the human is going from platform to platform it makes complete sense to me.

And there are a lot of people that are in kind of references a little bit that are reinvisioning what the internet and what the web will be and should be once you apply mixed reality. And so this idea that we really are going through all of these interconnected pages, but the pages are more immersive.

They’re using more of that mixed reality technology. Just makes sense. There’s a lot that can be enriched when we do that. So I think we are going there. On a really kind of practical level, we divide up the Metta versus for their primary purpose. So is it social, is it workplace, is it education?

Like what are the kind of the buckets that fits into is it is it kind of pleasure? Like second life had a principal of an alternate reality. You weren’t necessarily going in representing yourself and what you did in that world was not necessarily what you do in the real world. If [00:14:00] you applied that to education, it starts to become quite dangerous.

I think there are some ethical things there that are pretty interesting to solve. Maybe before we, we see the next iteration, the full-blown answer to truly what is the metaverse. But I think here, I think you have the idea that a lot of people would agree with.

Great. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah I’m looking forward to that version of the metaverse where we can move seamlessly from place to place, as opposed to having to sign up for 10 different versions of the metaverse. Hey, Jeff, do you want to play traffic control right now? Sure. Michelle, go ahead.

You had, I saw you flashing. Yeah, I have a question. For Carrie just like we’ve seen with Tesla th they have, they’re on the verge of massive adoption and we knew one of the barriers that had to be solved first was this availability of charging stations. So I’m very curious from your point of view Carrie [00:15:00] what is it that is hindering.

Adoption is a glasses. Is it lack of content, really? What needs to change to make this, to, a wide consumer adapted kind of technology? What would you say that is? Yeah, that’s a great great question to be thinking about in my experience, we are still relatively early on that, on the technology adoption scale for the metaverse and there’s a lot of factors.

So you brought up the example of charging stations with electric vehicles. There is a scalability factor with the metaverse and a lot of us have gotten to the point where we can essentially solve it. But it is hard in any of the metaverse environments that exist to put a lot of people in a space, even though tech makes it easier for us to get away with it.

A lot of virtual people and a lot of physical people. [00:16:00] Are a lot. So it’s a lot for the tech to handle and you have to really play some tricks to make it function well, equipment is absolutely a factor, but I also think we can solve that one in different ways. So I know for my company and for a lot of the companies that do that, that we are friends with, that we work closely with.

They have like I said, low fidelity options, right? So options that will run on more basic hardware where you don’t necessarily need expensive eyewear. We also know that there are options coming that are going to be less expensive that are going to be more scalable. So there’s that kind of scalability question, but we’re pretty close on that.

I think there’s a kind of a. Metta was huge. So I loved Jeffrey’s question around, which one came first, which one’s the real one. And I think it drives to the point that the end, you know the concept the metaverse is evolving and defining itself as we move forward.

So Facebook’s Metta is different than, the metaverse referred to in the early nineties to a point they’re the same, but they’re just an [00:17:00] evolution of the same thing. So people now know the word, they don’t necessarily know what the word means or refers to, which is why I say we’re a little bit earlier on that technology adoption curve.

There is FOMO this year. We’ve seen this huge fear of missing out all of these people, like running to be a part of the metaphors, but there’s also there is a significant portion that’s completely intimidating. They don’t know what it is, and they don’t think it’s for them. I think there’s a few factors there and we could talk about that for a long time.

If it were one, we’d probably be able to solve it. Yeah. I’m not surprised. And you almost make me think that the, first let’s just say mass adoption may not be out of the us. Because I think we know based on cell phones and other kinds of technologies, quite oftentimes, that is not centered in the us, but places where they’re adopting, better [00:18:00] equipment faster.

Yeah. Yeah. It’s I don’t have the answer, but I can tell you business-wise we have seen a trend out of north America this year in particular. Moving into, I know you’re probably thinking of examples with cell phone technology. Fast-tracking across Africa. We have faster adoption rates in the middle east India Singapore, China than we’re seeing in the U S this year.

Excellent. Thank you for the insight. Yeah, it’s going to be interesting. A few people in the chat have made reference to Apple’s, reported AR glasses. That’ll be coming out soon and, the hardware component to certain versions of the metaverse is going to be very interesting, but let’s go to some people on the stage who haven’t had a chance to speak yet or who might have a question for Carrie?

Debra, did you have a comment about the metaverse or a question for Carrie? This is. Perfect timing. I’m Canadian as well. And I felt little Canadian. And I actually, I’m just starting up on a [00:19:00] nonprofit organization called the healing Heartland experience where we use art to be able to help or at risk indigenous youth, as well as at risk youth period.

Being able to Really dive deep into their creative newness and become an entrepreneur based on their art. So I’m an art teacher and it’s funny that you brought up Jeffery a magic school best because I’m going to be doing a traveling art show, like a magic magic school bus, but with magic art.

Like a bookmobile, but think art. So my question actually is how can I want to be able to use my art. Raise funds for fundraisers to be able to help local people who are making a big difference and a big impact with an I’ve been looking for NFTs and how to do this. And I would love any information that you may have to be able to harness the power of NFP and art.

So I would love to hear more. Yeah, that’s [00:20:00] very cool. From the sounds of what you’re doing. I love it. And I think, both in the metaverse, but also out of the metaverse, so think maybe augmented reality. Now there are some really cool things you’d be able to do. So certainly the idea of potentially recreating that art as a digital artifact, that, that has an original that somebody can own and purchase and prove or copies that they can also purchase and own.

But there are some other cool things that you can do when you think about it as a, like a community building a community engagement kind of thing. So almost a tip the tip, the artist, and you’re using with augmented reality, you can build it into an app and you pay whatever you’d with both augmented reality and virtual reality, you can build it in.

So that again, they’re maybe getting some kind of token for what they’re doing that is, their own original. Token that they can keep and take with them. So yeah, there’s some pretty cool ways that you can think about that. And I think it’s just getting a handle on the concept.

I talked about this earlier in this meeting at night. Definitely talked about it in the last the last start-up clubs that I was [00:21:00] on. Start with your kind of your total, your MVP, like the smallest version of what that concept can be and build from there because you’re going to learn a ton as you go.

And you’re going to, you’re going to create, you’re going to have tons of ideas now find the smallest version of it and start there. Particularly if you’re going to start to invest in the technology side of things and test it out. So you’re gonna, you’re going to take that iterative approach.

But I’m totally happy to connect offline and see if there are other ways that thank you so much Perry. And yeah, I know why I was just, it’s everything is just aligning, but I would love to learn how to get involved more into the startup club because it’s something that I think a lot of people myself, I’m going to say I’m on long-term disability.

I, I a lot of people who are on long-term disability don’t have necessarily the the means to go and research and do everything. So the groundwork seems like it’s already done for the like education part of what this whole with the government and having the government involved. I think it’s.

It’s [00:22:00] perfect. Yeah. Let’s connect after that works with you. I would love to just find out how I can get more involved. Definitely. Yeah. I think you’re going to we’ll talk. I think you’re going to easily find a community around you who is interested and supportive and wants to be involved and push your goals forward.

And I, I don’t know your specific situation, but I like to say that the metaverse really balances the playing field like every year. And you’re going to find that too. So whatever whatever your situation is in your life at home, on the metaphors, it’s very equal.

It’s very accessible. It’s very cool. It is what you want it to be. So yeah, let’s let’s talk offline afterwards. Great. Thank you so much. What a wonderful room. Thank you. Yeah, I love that. It’s very intense. This idea of NFTs though, and the metaverse do they come together? I know you touched upon that a little bit.

Deborah’s got her artwork, is that, does that breathe new life into not having an NFT? And I want to, let’s say it’s a pair of running shoes, sneakers, digital sneakers. I paid, an ether for, and I want to [00:23:00] feature them and use them in my metaverse and show them up. I don’t know, go here.

But does it connect? Is there really a collision or a, or not a collision, but more of a combination of . Is there an opportunity for investors to identify certain entities or products that would work well in the Metro? A hundred percent. So they the limits, as far as I see them are really, as far as you can imagine.

So it can be, it can be something that you purchased where however you purchased it. That is your digital asset that you own, like a pair of running shoes that you bring into your virtual world. It can be something that you acquire or even like a reward that you get in the virtual world.

So in education, where sometimes thinking about how to incentivize different behaviors a simple one is, we want people to fill in their profiles because it makes it a better level of interactivity. When you have more information about who you’re there with. And so you want to give them rewards for doing it, and you want everyone to see those rewards.

[00:24:00] So it could be a pair of sneakers and it could be a flashy pair of sneakers that nobody else can find anywhere in the metaverse until they try to copy your behavior. And then they get their version of the sneakers. What’s interesting is there is so there’s, there are a ton of. Companies and researchers that will have, they’re going to be on the same page and they’re going to say a hundred percent and they’re going to have their example of how they’re doing it and where they think the future is.

But something that’s interesting. And this is research that I think, I believe it came out of Stanford university. It’s called the Proteus effect. So the idea is your virtual avatar. So who you are in your virtual avatar will influence who you are in the real world. And I touched on earlier, the idea of whether you’re replacing the real world version.

So is it is an extension of who you are or is it an alternative to who you are typically? What we’re seeing is an extension of who you are, however your avatar might do some things. The virtual world that you don’t yet do in the real world. And when [00:25:00] we add in kind of consumer behavior and that level of marketing to it, if your avatar, where certain designer clothing in the virtual world, you as a real individual in the real world are more likely to go and buy that clothing.

Support that brand. And we have research that shows that already. So it’s a pretty interesting dynamic. It’s definitely something that you can leverage if you want to. But yeah, th this is everywhere. It sure would be nice if that’s interoperable. I don’t, even if I can say the word but I don’t want to have to go by the running shoes through mark Zuckerberg.

And pay him and then have to go buy it again on another platform. So it’d be nice if you could, if it was interoperable, if that’s the right word. Yeah. You’re NFT. Asset is something that you’re going to own and you’re going to keep, but again, that, that idea of universal universality, whether it’s the avatar or whether it’s whether it’s this pair of sneakers or whatever the example is, I think that’s, we haven’t quite cracked that.

[00:26:00] And I think it really just comes down to how the technology is built and used right now. We know that it’s possible for those assets to move throughout the environments, but there are, depending on how they’re built, there are some technical requirements to, to make that happen seamlessly.

Maybe that, I don’t know how many techies are on the call with us here, but I can picture some interesting ways we could try to solve that problem. I don’t know if anybody is doing it right now. Great. Thank you, Samantha. You’ve been on stage for a long time. I know you’ve popped on and popped off again or popped off and popped on again. Did you have something you wanted to share about the metaverse or a question?

Oh sure, absolutely. It was actually by accident that I popped out. I’m just observing and taking everything in, but I find it interesting in the education space. As Carrie, as you were speaking, I always think about the original concept of the Mensa society and this idea that, perhaps, metaverse can create, an [00:27:00] educational system that adapts to the student versus a very, a one way of, teaching everyone because not everyone learns the same.

And then with the biometric aspect of this, to be able to identify characteristics, personality, types, and behavioral patterns. Do you foresee in your your education space in the metaverse, do you foresee designing something where Artificial intelligence of the, your technology would adapt to the student.

And that’s just the first thought that came to mind. Yeah, I think it’s really cool thought. I, we have used AI in different ways and we certainly the concept of adaptive learning using AI exists. It exists in different capacities. Sometimes it’s better. Sometimes it’s pretty simple. And the power of it, I think is amazing.

Like the way that you’re thinking about it is more advanced than what I’ve seen on the market so far. But I would love to see it. [00:28:00] I think it’s very cool. Yeah, maybe I’ll stop there. I think I have some development ideas, some that are some that go back and some that are new that probably touch on it a little bit more and So if it’s a, I don’t know if it’s a point of interest, we can chat more.

Absolutely. I’m actually high functioning ASD, and that’s always something that I’ve always dreamed of where, we have an educational system that is, adaptive because of the systems that we have in place today. Not everyone is meant to succeed in regards to the Mensa society.

It seems to be structured around finding out, who is more likely to succeed. So I’d love to see more educational systems that, factor in different types of, children different learning patterns and being able to structure educational systems that can be very adaptive. No, I’m completely with you.

And at tech, Adaptic our what we’re trying to do is democratize education worldwide. And that means a lot of things. [00:29:00] Sometimes that’s a financial thing. Sometimes it’s an access thing. But it also, it means accessibility on all levels. And I can see like the technology innately the way it is today really can level set in so many ways.

It can enhance and it can it can do so much just as it is today. And we’re already seeing that. And then thinking about building that out for the specific purposes you were talking about. I’m not seeing it yet, but I think it’s very cool. I, and when I say I’m not seeing it, I can envision it.

I don’t know anyone who’s doing it right. So I love it. I think that’s great. And I think, Colin mentioned earlier on, what are the opportunities for entrepreneurs? What are the ideas that are available for startups to jump on in this? Metis metaverse space. And I think just from the conversations we’re having today, you could see that there are tremendous opportunities when you combine the technologies.

When you think about the hardware component, the 11 leveling of the playing field, when everyone’s online with their own equal avatar, the inclusion of [00:30:00] AI and machine learning, really endless possibilities, the verticals from education to shopping to entertainment. It’s exciting when you think about it from that perspective, the opportunities are endless.

Debra, thanks for being patient. Did you have a comment or a question about the metaphor? Oh I’m S it’s still me. I just changed my picture to one of my paintings. But it’s still me. It’s okay. I’m just thinking everything in. This is just everything that I needed to learn about. The metaverse like this is so we’ll go to Harry next then.

Harry, did you ever a question or a comment

Harry’s on the phone, Daniel? How about you?

I do so Jeffrey, I just come in the gym and then in the UK, so many different times, it’s just very, to say it’s a beautiful topic. And if there was a matter of us and we can do, and I feel one of the main reasons why people are still adopting it [00:31:00] is the, a beautiful word called understanding what blockchain and a defy actually is.

Going back to these two, these cores. Help people understand why it’s important and important to be in this new version of a year of the universe we’re opening up by now. I think that’s a very important point for education. Maybe something to put into the educational paradigm, actually teaching, the young generations that come afterwards, first of all, the importance of the blockchain and the importance of being in a space that is decentralized.

That’s what I really wanted to share and sorry for the voices, if I’m literally on a treadmill but love, love the topic and there’s somebody that I’m. Thank you, Dan, I’m thinking, since we’re talking about the metaverse and all this stuff, I’m thinking of black mirror and you on the treadmill, you’re probably powering the metaverse as you run on the treadmill.

That’s what we’ll all be doing in the future. It will be generating the [00:32:00] electricity as we exercise to support our metaverse. Justin welcome. Did you have a comment or a question about the metaverse? Yeah. Hey, what’s up Jeffrey? How you know? Yeah, I have a question from pretty much all the mods and Carey.

I’m in the domain industry. Do you guys see any opportunity for like domainers what these new startups being developed in a metaverse, and are they leaning towards more brambles or just straightforward, exact match domain names. And I noticed a a lot of startups they’re using like different TLDs and I just want to know like w what type of opportunities that you guys see for domain.

Yeah,

no, I was just going to say, I’ll take a crack at it and calling him Michelle, I’m sure we’ll have something to add since we’re our roots are in the domain industry with.club, which we sold to GoDaddy last year, I think anything that. Keeps people online and encourages more activity online is [00:33:00] going to be good for the domain industry.

And at the end of the day, even if you are appearing in different metaverses with your NFTE avatar ultimately you’re going to want to have your own property online. You’re going to want to have a way for people to find you a place that you can point to. And that’s going to, ultimately be a domain name in terms of, for domainers people who are investing in domain names.

Clearly there have been some extensions like.io and arguably even a little bit of.xyz that had been very popular, in the web three space and people who are, dealing in crypto and NFTs. So there’s always going to be new opportunities like that cropping up. So I think the more online activity there is always going to be good for D the domain industry.

I don’t know. Michelle, did you have anything, any thoughts on that? I don’t necessarily attribute this to the metaverse, but I know it is a function. Where I think we believe there is a lot of opportunity is [00:34:00] actually making payments, right? Using your domain as the holder of your wallet ID.

So I think, gosh, I think there’s a lot of opportunity that no one’s even thought of or isn’t using. And I do think there is opportunity for somebody to come up with some really cool user-friendly tools using domains, like making payments to someone’s specific wallet using their own domain. Yeah. It’s interesting too, look at any new technology being adopted and see the Justin’s of the world domain investors leave.

They get way out ahead of a lot of, that’s the business they’re in, I try to identify particular gems in a very large haystack and domain investors are very good at that. They’re good at identifying. So the question becomes first and foremost, will the metaverse become mainstream, will it become, I even throw this that we’ll [00:35:00] end up, T’s become mainstream.

And that might be a strange thing to say, because then if T’s are so big and we’re all talking about them, but the reality is probably 95% of the population have never even seen an NFT. I had the opportunity to buy an NFT about two weeks ago, and it took me hours of trying to figure out all the nuances of the complexities associated with buying it.

Talking specifically about the metaverse and what are the opportunities. I do think there’ll be some clubs on the matter of you, Justin, you may not know our background, but we used to own.club and we sold it to GoDaddy. So there probably would be a lot of opportunity around identifying, certain key words with the word Metta.

There’s a gentleman who runs a show called page how he runs the domain club. He also runs a show on on, on startup club with Jeff sass, and the show. He talks a lot about domain investing. And if you haven’t already gone on some of his shows, Justin, you should check it out because he is really the ex I know Paige.

I [00:36:00] know you guys background

clubhouse launched. Perfect security. Any thoughts for domain investors? Are there any unique areas that we should be thinking about? If you had told. You know us, if you told us that metaverse was going to be as big as it is now, I think everybody probably would have been registering, metadata club and, Mehta learning.club and all those kinds of, or.com even, no one probably had metal learning.com late two years ago, but all of a sudden today that would be a tough one to get.

Yeah, absolutely. I don’t have more to add except what you’re already on the track of. I’m seeing every version of ed, you met a Metta and an education any way that they can put it together. Adding the word parts of the word innovate. Yeah, exactly what you’re saying.

Great. Thanks for that question, Justin. Lots of opportunities on many sides of the metaverse Curtis, did you have a question or a. [00:37:00] Hey, I did. Thank you. And I just wanted to follow up on something that Carrie was talking about earlier, how the metaverse and augmented reality and virtual reality spaces can level the playing field.

And that’s something that I’m very passionate about that we’re working on at my company rooms. So we’re leading the global conversation in hospitality applications in the metaverse, and we’ve been featured in Forbes and MarketWatch and hotels magazine. And. Lots of other ones. And essentially because we’ve built the first dedicated metaverse for hotels and therefore our own right where citizen M and other hotels are in decentral and or something like that.

And one of the really neat things is our hotels rooms. I means rooms only. And so we don’t force someone to stand behind a front desk. A big part of the reason for that was, my very first my very first time applying to work as a front desk agent many years ago, I was told that I was too gay to work at the front desk and that wasn’t illegal in Georgia [00:38:00] at the time.

And it’s not illegal in Georgia today. And so if they’re not going to do something about it, then we’re going to have to do something about it. And so by having the rooms, a lobby in the rooms, a lobby lounges be in a virtual inviting. Wear a headset is not required. You’re able to interact with our remote hosts, who would be a front desk agent, either via video chat, via text, via instant message or using augmented reality and your app camera.

You can see their physical avatar in front of. Or you can go into the rooms of vers and you, your avatar can work with the avatar of our employee. Who’s working from home. And that’s really inspirational. I think it’s really helped us get employment opportunities to people who felt disenfranchised or left out of the hospitality space.

So there are a lot of really cool things that our platform lets people do. That drives utility. It’s the first time you can actually transact in a hotel in the metaverse. [00:39:00] So you can take a full tour of our hotels and standing there in the room. You can book it. And then as soon as it’s booked, you can change out the pillows, changed out the soaps and make some adjustments to the room.

And then whenever you arrive, it’s done exactly that way. So thanks for letting me do that, Carrie. I just thought it was a wonderful point. Yeah, that’s amazing. I love what you’re doing. It sounds so cool. I hope imagine that everybody got as clear of a picture of what you’re doing as I did. And I also just ask, asked the first hotel is set.

Our first hotel is set to open on the magnificent mile. This fall 351. Nice. I just found you on LinkedIn. I’m going to be following and watching what you’re doing. I’m totally a supporter. And I love as well. So the idea of the virtual real estate is it is a thing. It was a thing in your, you’re doing an awesome job of leveraging it to make a real impact for people.

And how I got the idea and how I got the idea was I used to travel with my grandmother who is disabled and she’s since passed away. But, I knew that, and I’m a hotelier, right? So I knew that I couldn’t trust the [00:40:00] photos because they lie. And I think we all can, we can all relate to that, and we know better than to trust a hotel photo, but it was problematic because traveling with my grandmother, I didn’t know how much room there was between the beds or how far it was to the bathroom. And with wide angle lenses, I knew that I couldn’t really get a spatial awareness of the room. Now in the rooms averse, you can walk through each individual room.

We, we basically upload the floor plan and we make a completely interactive environment out of it. So far, you’re able to judge for yourself using a browser, using your phone, using an app, or using a headset in a completely immersive environment, and actually drive that utility. And I think that it’s that gravitas and that’s that gravity that brings the metaverse D that’s how we make it not stupid.

That’s how we make it stick, how we make it, where it is applicable to all these verticals, because we have to engage more senses it can’t just be C and here we have to do more. And I think that by driving utility, that’s how we accomplish. [00:41:00] Very cool. I love it. I also love what I understood to be a little bit of mixed reality.

I’ll tell you, so just kinda, yeah, just using augmented reality a little bit to bring people in avatars into connection with one another. And when Daniel was talking on, I assumed I could hear some kind of cardio happening in the background and it was reminding me of some pretty cool mixed reality models where you can, game-ify your exercise by, putting on augmented reality glasses and interesting seeing an avatar.

And we use our AR engine and VR engine are actually the same engine. And so you can seamlessly move between augmented and virtual reality. And what that looks like in your guest room is you can say, you want to add a Peloton bike or treadmill to your room. You’re able to select that from. And then place it with your finger or whatever, but then you could just place a headset.

You’re still in that same transaction and now you can move around and place that bike wherever you want it. And then if it’s [00:42:00] available and then whenever you show up, that’s where it’ll be. Cool. Let’s definitely talk more. I love what you’re doing. I’m sure lots of other people are going to be following.

And if anyone knows anything about NFTs, I think I have an idea where you can ping me if anyone does this by the way, but you could take an NFT and turn it in, have a Foundry that turns an NFT into a pet that follows you around in the metaphors. Like children’s truck.

I pay to have like my niece or nephews NFT made into a pet that they could have. Yeah. I think Curtis and Carrie are doing here is very interesting because, I’m very skeptical. I D you’d probably didn’t know this Carrie, before the show started. The matter verse it’s like, it’s, I’ve seen VR glasses now for 20 years.

This is not going anywhere. But what Jeffrey Moore talked about, Geoffrey Moore’s is the one, the author who redefined to the technology adoption curve. And he was on our show about two months ago. And he talked about this idea of a bowling alley, like [00:43:00] identifying a particular area, or I like the way you put it, Curtis utility.

And that compels individuals to go into the metaverse like, for instance, for you, Carrie, it’s the education, an incubator for Curtis it’s the hotels. I know Curtis. I could see people using that application for cruise ships, and you could be all right. Perfect. You could, you can see how it could open up to so many different opportunities here.

And now we own the patent on the ability to transact in a massive environment. That is awesome. And that is what’s going on. The early majority, that’s, what’s going to pull the pragmatists into the metaverse it’s right now, the men of versus owned by the innovators and the early majority. That imagine if you will imagine, if you will imagine a limited engagement Gucci hotel, where there’s a wait list for say 10 rooms that sell for $5,000 a night, but anyone can go into the Metta Versal version and [00:44:00] buy anything.

You touch like artwork. That’s awesome. And then I would do that, but for the lucky few who get to stay there, everything in the room is for sale, right? It’s a completely immersive lodging blended retail experience works beautifully for something like Disney cruises, where you could personalize your suite before the cruise begins.

For instance, personalization is the real product that we’re offering. So w we’re making the argument that you don’t care what the hotel artwork looks like. If you’re able to be immersed and you’re able to choose, and you’re able to personalize, you’re able to see it for yourself because you’ve created it for yourself.

You’ve curated it for yourself. And you’ve done that. Using every piece of technology available to us.

Love it really interesting stuff, Curtis, thank you for sharing it. And really, I think that’s when it gets very exciting when you see this convergence of the real world and the virtual world, which has been tried so many times in so many different ways, but I think, everything’s catching up now both from a [00:45:00] technology standpoint and more importantly, from a consumer adoption standpoint because the technology is Collin said the technology for AR headsets and VR headsets and all this stuff has been around for years and years, but it takes time for consumers to be comfortable doing it.

Very short of. In 1997, I was working for a game company. We did first person shooter games built on the doom engine and the game industry hit a real tough time back then. And the company filed for chapter 11, bankruptcy and we shifted and pivoted and started doing virtual reality walkthroughs of homes for developers here in Miami, Florida, before they were built using the doom engine.

So we had our game developers take the floor plans and the designs of a home. Turn that into a virtual reality walkthrough that you can do on your computer. Like you were playing doom. The company was called VR tech way ahead of our time, 1997, great stuff. We actually sold a $750,000 home for a developer site [00:46:00] unseen.

The couple literally sat in front of a computer, did this virtual, a virtual reality walkthrough. When they bought the home, it was a great product, but it was way too soon. The developers wouldn’t pay for it. The technology took too long and it was too expensive to develop today. Everyone’s doing that on their phone, so the consumers have caught up, the technology has caught up and as you’ve described, Curtis would just at the tip of the iceberg of doing great things.

And I can’t wait to stay at a room’s a hotel. It’s thank you. W just so you know, you’re so right about the consumer’s 60,000 visitors a month, find our website by searching metaverse related terms, 59,114 people in March. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. We’re coming up on the top of the hour. This has been a great discussion calling me.

We may have to do a new. Episode of the serial entrepreneur club hour, about the metaverse or in the metaverse one of these days soon, Mario, you’ve been very patient. Did you have a comment or a question about the metaverse? Yeah. Thank you. I do as being a nine session, [00:47:00] so I would just go straight up.

I think I’d like to ask about the possibility I’ve seen. That have the users trying to con themselves, we take 3d scanner and creates a very close to very good avatar of themselves. A current, remember the projects I’ve seen by new, I’ve seen a couple of projects like that. And of course there, there is adoption issues and scalability issues because how could you move such kind on how many persons could get and you could actually, I think according to those projects, you could actually scan some of your items as well.

You could scan a car or something under restaurant, something you are physically and move it to the metaverse about the concept. I really am interested in since a lot of business businesses wants to obtain to the metaverse is do you think, does carry things. There is an opportunity for business to allow this sort of incentives or a way to, to [00:48:00] drive people, to adopt to the metric as bad.

If I push you as an NFC, for example, in night, and I can Ft or arrange revive and Ft, and I push, is it for a particular exact amount or even more, I could purchase a free range of up in the rig world and then have an option in the metaphase to actually request. To me in physical world or actually requests denied shoe to mean there.

So I actually don’t just have it in the metaverse. I also have it physically or do I paid for it in the metaverse and I’m using Marvetta is using it in the metaverse and I can just ask any time I’m saying I don’t have to push it and you start shipping it to me directly. No, I have to request for it.

And so do you think there is the possibility of this kind of extension of really realities, right? An extension of realities? Yeah, I think that could eat if there is, it could aid adoption as well. Yeah, I think you’re completely right. I’ve seen I haven’t seen it on a [00:49:00] mass scale, but I have seen it on a small scale where so think about sports jerseys.

So people attending in the metaverse a sports sporting event. They buy their Jersey that they, perhaps it’s unique and they get to own it. But we have done integrations with e-commerce sites where you also at the same time, buy an order one to your home again, unique or not. So there is totally a model for it.

We do have research and, examples that show that you are going to. Be more likely to imitate the behavior of your avatar. So I think a hundred percent of that’s who you are, and you had an amazing experience in the metaverse, you’re going to want to bring that back into the real world as well.

Your comment at the beginning about so there are more and more technological ways that we can essentially scan in or 3d model in or take out, and Curtis was talking about taking floor plans. We can take architectural plans and bring those assets into the metaverse faster and faster.

Also using like we can actually build avatars faster using motion, capture technology and things like that. The one thing I’ll you got [00:50:00] close to it, so I’ll just say depending on what you’re interested in. If you’re not familiar with the concept of the uncanny valley look it up.

It’s only relevant when we’re talking about the avatars, like the, the human representation. And the theory is that if you get too close to reality, it’s it hasn’t, it has a very negative effect. So it’s very creepy for people. They don’t find it comfortable. So I would be weary when it comes to your avatar, but I will say that I know that there’s a thriving community in the fashion industry.

That’s really trying to get fit down and using that technology to look precisely at your body for those purposes and, a different application where it could make sense in the metaverse. So you have just a few thoughts on that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Great thoughts.

Great. So that’s totally agree. And that’s actually crossed my mind as well. Ethically if we’ll make the words too close, then it’s, it could be a big issue because from human psychology just gaming some persons get frustrated by just gaming. So imagine being frustrated in the metaverse and you take it on [00:51:00] yourself and so person smashed their phones.

And just on the screen being frustrated on the screen. So imagine such kind of immersed reality, and you have a lot of similarities between your avatar and your real reward person, a bad experience in the metaverse could actually mean worse for you real time yet. Because you could just, they’re so similar.

So I think there should be some level of disconnection ethically just to protect people and and all that. I totally agree. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you Mario. And thank you, Carrie. We’re coming up on the top of the order or top of the hour. Excuse me. What a great discussion. There were some really good comments in the chat too.

So if you haven’t poked over there, I would advise you to go read some of the messages in the chat. There’s some good advice there in comments from people as well, who haven’t been on stage. Colin, I’m going to hand it back to you. I actually have to run for a three o’clock meeting, but this has been a great discussion, Carrie.

Thank you so much. Thanks to everyone who’s been on stage. I’ve learned a great deal and really enjoyed the session. I’m [00:52:00] going to listen to the replay. My pleasure. And I just want to know if Collin is a convert. What do you think? I’ll get to that in a minute, but I would Debra. You wanted to add some thoughts at the last minute here.

Debra, just clapping in agreement. I’ve just clapping clap. And it was just, it’s beautiful. It’s been such a wonderful, insightful room and I just can’t wait for another one to come. I’ll tell you I changed my entire perception. And it’s really yourself, Carrie and Curtis, who just really got me thinking that this isn’t just a game environment and slap on a headphones.

And, I had this really negative perception about the space. But there is utility and I know that in the lodging space I would spend, I do spend like hours trying to research different layouts of rooms and things like that. I go on YouTube and look for anyone who’s done a video of that particular suite on a cruise ship, so I totally understand and get where everyone’s coming from.

I’m very [00:53:00] excited. I even registered for Justin, I registered metalogic.club and.com just to dislike it. I’m teasing. I have a Nike that registered a name, domain name yet, but you can see how the domain investors can start thinking about opportunities around this as well. And. Metalogic.club and metalogic.com.

I don’t know. I haven’t registered yet. I’m just coming up with ideas. I don’t know. That’s what we’re doing here, right on, on start-up club. And I love the fact that it’s about leveling the playing field and it feels it feels like the internet in the nineties, it feels like when clubhouse was beginning to take off, there, there feels like there’s an opportunity to have to rewrite the rules of the game for everyone and to be more inclusive and more of an environment where everyone can participate in and the prejudices don’t exist.

And I really think that is something as well. Thank you, Carrie. From tech Adaptic this was the second time you’re on. You’re an all-star. You’re truly an all-star on clubhouse. Hope to see you more on clubhouse and everyone here. Really thank [00:54:00] you very much. Next week, we are talking about catching the big.

I think Jeff sass came up with the term, the twerking moment or someone else did. I know he talked about it with respect to our industry, but you know how, what is it that we can do as startups to figure out how to catch the big break. Now I know what appears random. It appears luck, but the fact is there are things we can do to encourage the brig big break to happen.

And if you enjoy today’s show, you’ll love the podcast. We are now on all your favorite podcast channels. We do the show every Friday, two o’clock Eastern, we’ve got over 50 shows and every one of them is incredible. We go in deep. If you were to listen to these 50 shows, I’m telling you, you would have an MBA in entrepreneurship.

And the other thing I’ll ask you to do is go to startup.club signups that email lists, because we have on great speakers like Carrie. And if you’re not on the email. [00:55:00] You’re not going to be in the know, and we’ve got some really exciting speakers coming on start-up club over the next month or two, we had, I know Jack was in the audience there.

He runs a show called manifestor destiny on startup club, which is a very popular show it’s taking off, but he had Joe Foster, the founder of Reebok on, and it was just amazing. We just all went on stage and talked to him and had a great conversation. He’s 85 years old and he was just telling us about his story and what he did.

And we, that episode is available on startup.club, or it’s also available in replay on the app. If you enjoy the show, follow the speakers here. I did. I know I followed a number of you on stage today and really excited to to connect. Thanks again. Carrie, thanks so much. It’s such a pleasure.

Yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see you on clubhouse on a future show. Thanks, bye. For now.[00:56:00]