With VR technology, it is feasible to experience things that do not exist with the help of computers! Virtual Reality is a popular technology that is allowing a wide range of businesses to take a risk and replicate actual presence in both the real and virtual worlds. The improvements in this immersive technology produce a computer-simulated environment, and they provide cutting-edge solutions.
Cutting-edge technology has broken down barriers, allowing several industrial verticals to adopt it in order to develop new marketing and communication strategies. Virtual Reality technology, of course, has revolutionised the game experience, but it isn’t confined to the gaming business. Virtual Reality’s importance is spreading over the world, including enterprises from various areas. In today’s environment, virtual reality technology offers a new road to achievement. And enhancing this technology, Paracosma is providing some robust solutions for the world.
In an exclusive interview with Insights Success, Ken Ehrhart, Founder, and CEO of the company, shares with us his experience and insights about Paracoasma. Below are the highlights of the interview.
Please brief us about Paracosma Inc.
Paracosma Inc is an Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) Solutions Provider. We offer custom AR/VR application development and 3D content creation, including 3D modelling and 360-degree video production and distribution. We now have over one hundred employees in the US; we have our Japan technology, sales office, and Nepal development centre.
What inspired you to enter the industry you are catering to?
Having studied technology trends and investment for twenty years since 1996, it is evident that the commercial launch of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets in 2016 was a significant opportunity. According to the Yeti Survey Report: The State of Virtual Reality—2016, 88.5% of companies were planning or already developing VR projects, but VR development was new and expensive.
Lack of development resources with appropriate skillset and development bandwidth were cited as the primary obstacle to developing VR technologies by 36.8 and 28.4% of respondents, while 40% cited lack of budget. Fully, 55.2% of respondents said they were likely (27.1%), very likely (14.6%), or extremely likely (13.5%) to outsource some or all of their VR product design and development. Paracosma was founded to address these issues by offering enterprise clients high-quality, low-cost VR development resources. Our demand has grown every year since then.
What kind of services do you provide to your clients?
We provide custom VR and AR development for virtual events and remote collaboration for onboarding and training, as well as travel and entertainment. Our artists have created over 7,000 photorealistic 3D models for studio photography replacement. We use this expertise to create large-scale digital twins for industrial applications, for synthetic image creation to train machine learning AI systems, and for virtual film production. In addition to CGI solutions, we have a 360-degree video production team and a 360 video distribution platform.
What challenges have you faced while entering industry you are catering to, and how did you transform these challenges into opportunities?
VR has unlimited potential across all areas of human activity. VR can do anything that you can do in real life. The technology is also advancing quickly, with better hardware and new platforms arising continually.
Paracosma has embraced the broad opportunities and quick change by investing heavily in bringing on, training, and equipping our engineers and artists to provide cutting-edge capabilities across numerous sectors. We have invested in our effort, so the clients get the best.
How was Paracosma affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and what measures did you take to shorten the damages while helping your clients and maintaining the safety of your employees?
As a global organization with teams in three countries, we were immediately impacted by travel bans and the necessity of adapting to remote work. As a VR company, we were able to create a virtual company office in VR with both meeting and conference rooms, as well as an auditorium for company town hall meetings. We were also able to offer remote event and meeting services to existing and new clients. Because loyal clients recognize the value of Paracosma services, with low costs and high quality delivering fast ROI (return on investment), Paracosma’s business continued to increase throughout 2020 and 2021, with 90% of revenues coming from existing clients. According to a survey by Morning Consult in Oct 2021, fully 39% of business travellers say they will never take another business trip. The pandemic has forever changed the business travel, conference, and tradeshow industries. VR can enable a better future through virtual alternatives.
What would you like to advice the young generation of entrepreneurs and enthusiasts who want to become a part of the industry you are catering to?
Recognize that the transition from 2D to 3D technology is much broader than AR and VR. Self-driving cars, industrial 3D printing, global climate modelling, medical imaging, even deep-fake videos, and virtual movie production are all being enabled by this transition.
Paracosma’s replacement of studio photography with the virtual rendering of 3D models and the use of 3D game engines to create synthetic images to train AI systems are fast-growing businesses independent of the number of AR and VR users. Everyone entering the technology field will be impacted and stands to benefit from this 2D to 3D transition.
Where do you see yourself in the future? Kindly tell us about your strategies for scaling your business.
One of our fastest-growing services is ‘Build a Team’ solution, in which we provide managed teams of expert AR/VR developers and 3D artists on an ongoing long-term basis. While Paracosma hires, trains equips, supports, and oversees the employees, the end client directly manages their projects and tasks, with constant daily interaction as if the developers and artists are direct members of the client’s in-house teams. This provides clients with long-term dedicated resources to scale capacity and rapidly grow their business while providing Paracosma with growing monthly recurring revenue.
What is the current scenario of your industry?
As 2022 begins, all signs point to a record year of growth and adoption of AR/VR and 3D services. There is sustained interest and investment in the sector. There is significant adoption and scaling of commercially ready products and platforms. Our opportunities are growing rapidly at a pace equal to or faster than broader industry trends. Hiring, onboarding, training, and deploying is now the critical focus of both Paracosma and its clients.
A Dynamic Leader
The Founder and CEO of Paracosma is Ken Ehrhart. Mr Ehrhart is also a cofounder and a General Partner at the Venture Capital firm SunBridge Partners. SunBridge is well known for its expertise in Japan market entry and cofounded Salesforce.com Japan. At SunBridge, Mr. Ehrhart cofounded Concur Japan, Market Japan, Demandware Japan, and Kyriba Japan. He is also a cofounder and Director of TalentA, which distributes leading talent management solutions in Japan, such as HireVue and Monday.com.
