The AR Show: Mark Greget (NuEyes) on Bootstrapping an AR Hardware Startup and the Path to the Pro 3 Glasses
Jason McDowallJun 12, 2021 at 6:07 am1h 5min
Jason McDowall
Welcome to the AR show right dive deep into augmented reality with a focus on the technology, the use cases and the people behind them. I'm your host Jason McDowall. today's conversation is with Mark Greget. Mark is the founder and CEO of new eyes, an AR hardware and software company that originally launched in 2016. To assist those with degenerative eye conditions. Recently, the company has expanded its product offerings into enterprise gaming and entertainment. With the launch of the Pro 3 and Pro 3e, Mark is a US Navy veteran and an accomplished medical technology entrepreneur. Prior to new eyes, Mark was the founder of Los Angeles Low Vision, which was recognized as a leader in the medical industry and became the number two distribution company for visual assistive technology in the country responsible for millions in revenue. In this conversation, Mark describes how the company got its start by changing the lives of the visually impaired using custom software glasses from the now defunct ODG. And the patient's ability to learn how to see again through the glasses,
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01:03Mark Greget
using neural activity, changing contrast magnification bringing things closer to you. There's nothing that reverses the this, this visual impairment, if you will, you know taking somebody's usable vision and making their brain process faster and easier. Their world is really the kind of secret sauce of the glasses. So using contrast, magnification having the screens really close to your face. It was at that time, you know something that was that was really changing these people's lives.
Jason McDowall
We go on to talk about the demise of AR glasses maker odg, and the resulting struggles and opportunities for Mark and the team at new eyes. Now they're tackling healthcare, enterprise and entertainment with a pair of new wearable displays. He also describes how he's built an AR hardware and software company on a shoestring budget, and the challenges of raising money as a hardware tech company. As reminder, you can find the show notes for this and other episodes at our website, the AR show.com. Let's dive in.
Jason McDowall
Mark, how did you know this was the right path for you?
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02:04Mark Greget
For augmented reality smart glasses for our first path of medical devices, there's, there's there's a lot of first paths that occurred simultaneously. I think for the low vision aspect of things, you know, sitting in somebody's room with technology, whether it's the outdated products I was selling or trying out our beta test products. The aha moments is when someone turns to you and says I can see again, I can I can, you know, get back to a fulfilling life of whatever they wanted to do. But I think for for myself, when I was out doing alpha prototypes for the glasses for the visually impaired and trying to figure out what worked, what didn't work, you know, what we could do and what we could achieve back in, you know, gosh, 20 2012 2013, I can't believe I'm saying that. We partnered with a company called odg. With one of their previous prototype products for hardware, we came up with some very crude algorithms for software. And sitting in this this woman's house that I've known I've known for, you know, it feels like forever. Her name was Shirley in Culver City, and sitting on the couch and her looking at her books and seeing, you know, our faces from 1020 feet away. That's it's an amazing feeling. I think for me, the aha moment was when she was playing the piano, and she said glasses make bigger, right, and some of our patents around voice commands. And she turns to us, you know, on this video and says, You know, I feel so powerful, you know, and that was that had to be the moment right? The the room, really the air got sucked out of the room. And we're sitting there going, this was something and this is something at that time, we felt was going to be so much bigger than we ever really, really thought it would have been.
Jason McDowall
You really could change your life with the technology that you're creating.
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