Ross Finman (Niantic) on Pokemon GO as Outlier or Indicator & Foundation for Bigger Success to Come

The Guest

Ross Finman is the AR Strategy Lead at Niantic, the company behind Pokemon GO and Harry Potter Wizards Unite.

You may have noticed the press over the last few months that Niantic is making a heavy push to support and expand the AR ecosystem through the development of their Real World Platform (planet-scale, augmented reality platform for current and future generations of AR hardware), as well as the establishment of their Niantic Creator Program and Beyond Reality Fund. Plus they recently announced a collaboration with Qualcomm to accelerate AR software and hardware.

As the AR Strategy Lead, Ross is a key driver of these efforts. He joined Niantic through the acquisition of his AR technology company, Escher Reality, which he founded while pursuing his PhD in Robotics at MIT.

On the whole, Ross is an entrepreneur with over a decade of experience at the intersection of the digital and physical worlds through Augmented Reality and Robotics.

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Ross Finman

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Niantic

The Conversation

Ross and I spoke on stage at the 2019 VRAR Global Summit in Vancouver. This episode includes our on-stage conversation as well as about 19 minutes of additional Q&A we did back stage.

Regular listeners might remember Ross and I did something similar at AWE back in May, and here we continue that conversation.

I ask why Pokemon GO should be considered a harbinger of what’s to come, and not an outlier of AR success. We also explore what’s needed to make AR-based experiences an everyday habit, and why developers should trust Niantic enough to build their business on their platform.

Ross goes on to give his perspective on the challenges of creating an AR-first mobile app.

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