With the end of the year in sight, it’s time to take a look back at what 2016 had to offer. What’s clear is that the startup industry is still flourishing, with many young entrepreneurs that have plenty of innovative, disruptive ideas for the future. The following days we will be looking back at the startups that stood out to us particularly, and ask them about 2016 and their plans for the future. Today: Virtual Reality startup Bricks & Goggles.
Playing around
If you’re buying a new house that is being built from the ground up, chances are you’ve visited a model home, glanced over blueprints and mock-ups, and daydreamed about your new palace. If it’s up to the guys at Virtual Reality startup Bricks & Goggles, all of that will be a thing of the past. Soon, people will wander around their new house in real time immersive virtual reality. Founders Gertjan Leemans and Ingmar Vroege had the idea to visualize yet-to-be-built projects after playing around with the Oculus Rift DK2. After an enthusiastic architect jumped on board, the VR-startup was born.
Broad approach
“We started in 2016 with a very broad approach in the virtual reality market,” says Vroege. “After a few months we started to focus more and more on yachting and full immersive VR. This approach proved to be successful: it resulted in a lot of attention from the press, new business and more knowledge about the business possibilities for Virtual Reality.”
Vroege thinks that there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to Virtual Reality. “There is not a lot of common knowledge when it comes to VR. A lot of people still not know what the possibilities are and what the differences are between different systems and approaches.”
Ships and Goggles
“In 2017, our focus will primarily be on yachting. We think our services can be really effective in this particular industry because of the high level of bespoke design and custom design wishes in yachts. We just launched our new website www.shipsandgoggles.com and have made some good contacts with architects and shipyards. In 2017 we hope to transform a lot of yachts into a full immersive virtual reality environment.”
Funding
As of yet, Bricks & Goggles has not yet received funding – the founders financed the company themselves with capital from earlier ventures Digitalisma – an app development company – and Safeguard, an app that tracks available first aid workers in a company. “We are not actively seeking funding at the moment. Things are going great at the moment, so it’s not necessary. If we need more money for big marketing campaigns, funding could become interesting. The world of yachting isn’t big, so we can grow organically because we’re the first ones in this field.”