Who will win the SamsungNEXT Startup Competition at Propelify 2017 along with tons of cash, prizes and bragging rights? We’re thrilled to introduce you to the 10 semi-finalists of this year’s Startup Competition. They will be pitching to judges in a showdown this Thursday, May 18th during the Propelify Innovation Festival in Hoboken, NJ. Be there to see who is crowned the winner!
Get to know LiveWorks, a 360° VR video platform with a mobile-first approach.
Describe the problem you are solving.
LiveWorks is a 360° video chat application that seeks to provide a simple-to-use web application for Live 360° video stream that allows for multiple camera feeds and graphics. We built LiveWorks at a hackathon in March 2017. It is like Skype for 360° video that allow users to talk from long distances live while being in the same VR room. It is an WebVR based application so it work on desktop, mobile, tablets and VR headsets like Google Cardboard and GearVR. LiveWorks helps content creators stream live VR devices starting with mobile phones. By taking a mobile first approach to VR, we will grow the user base and make it simple for content to be published on all devices and VR headsets.
Why did you start this company? What excites you about it?
“I am deeply passionate about 360° VR Video because it is a way of capturing unfiltered stories. I have been working on 360° VR Video content creation since 2013, when I discovered the Oculus at the NASA Space Apps Challenge hackathon. Within 36 hours, my team and I built a 3D tour of Mars and won a prize for most “Inspirational Idea”. A year later, I saved up thousands to buy 6 Go Pros, stitching software and even developed both a VR drone and VR robot to add movement to my VR work,” says Edwin Rogers, LiveWorks CEO. “Now my team and I are trying to change the way media is viewed from inside the large networks and I’m building LiveWorks to help make that easy and affordable.”
LiveWorks believes it can be a platform to change the way media is viewed and disrupt the industry by making live VR easily accessible, and add diversity with unique views the media landscape. “My proudest moment was pushing NBC News to shoot a VR Video at the Women’s March in D.C. This 3-hour livestream in 360° video got 3.5 million views. It is now easy and affordable to showcase these kinds of events that are having a major impact in a unfiltered way and still draw a large engaged audience.”
What steps have you taken to validate the market? What traction can you share?
LiveWorks is in the design and prototype phase now. Our target demographic are businesses and large networks like NBC, The Weather Channel, Today Show, CNBC as well as agencies and brands looking to explore VR. NBC News will be our first customer. This app was developed to solve a need at NBC. I have been consulting with them for almost a year and they wanted a way to talk to field reporter live with no delay.
Does your product solve a social good?
There are many ways LiveWorks can be used for social good. For example Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center wants to use it to help patients visit home in VR and have a meaningful conversation with loved ones. We plan to incorporate some giving into our business model as well.
Tell us about your team members.
Edwin Rogers is the CEO and User Experience designer with 20 years of film, TV and web design experience. William Steele is the CTO and head of development.
Join us on May 18, 2017 in Hoboken, NJ at Propelify Innovation Festival, where 8,000+ innovators from across the Northeast unite for a must-attend day of tech, investors, talks, exhibitors, VR, drones, and music. Register For Propelify Now.
