Last episode was all about the value of VR in creating virtual

meeting spaces; today, we're looking at AR. As Jacob Loewenstein from

Spatial explains, both have their advantages in an enterprise

setting, but AR is best suited for people collaborating together in

the same room. Listen to this edition of XR for Business to find out

why.

Alan: Today's guest is Jacob Lowenstein, VP of Business Development and Strategy at Spatial. Spatial's mission is to empower people to be more connected, creative, and productive. Organizations are increasingly distributed across offices and information doesn't flow easily; success depends on people working together. Their first product enables people to collaborate anywhere with AR. The founders have deep backgrounds in 3D user interfaces. Co-founder Anand Agarawala sold his previous startup, BumpTop -- a 3D physics multi-touch desktop -- to Google, and also demoed this in a TED Talk. Co-founder Jinha Lee developed pioneering AR interfaces at MIT, Microsoft, and Samsung and then also showed them at a TED talk. They are a passionate team of 3D designers, VR and AR experts based in New York and San Francisco. Our guest today, Jacob, has also been a partner at Samsung NEXT. And I'm really, really excited, because Spatial has raised a seed round from such amazing investors as Inovia Capital, Expa, Lerer Hippeau, Leaders Fund, and Samsung NEXT. To learn more about Spatial, you can visit spatial.is.

Jacob, welcome to the show.

Jacob: Hey, it's great to be

here. Thanks so much for having me.

Alan: It's my absolute pleasure.

We had an awesome opportunity to meet at Charlie Fink's exclusive

dinner at CES this year, and I was really blown away by the warmth

and passion that you bring. And so I want to just thank you for

taking the time to jump on the show with me.

Jacob: I had a blast at that

dinner, and I believe we both had delicious Indian food together.

Shout out to Charlie for organizing that. I met a ton of wonderful

people, and the compliment goes right back in the other direction. I

mean, you have been at this for a while as such a positive and

fundamental figure, helping shed attention and light on the projects

in the space that matter and that are moving the needle. And frankly,

you've been moving the needle yourself, and have been a builder in

this space for some time. And so I'm excited to chat with you, and

happy to answer any and all questions.

Alan: Well, on that note -- and

I thank you for that -- tell me about Spatial. I know about it, but

for the people listening -- really, you guys have built enormously

powerful tools. So, maybe give us the idea of what Spatial is, and

how it's being used.

Jacob: Totally. So, I'm going to

give you the headline, and I think the backstory is a little bit

illuminating. I know you spoke a bit about that already, but I'm

going to dive deeper. But the headline is that Spatial enables people

to collaborate from anywhere with augmented reality. And the idea is,

essentially, we're all big believers in the VR and AR space. I

imagine folks that listen to this podcast are, or are trying to learn

to be. And if you've done a lot of demos in VR/AR, you've probably

encountered the same phenomenon, which is; you get someone to put on

the headset and they say, "Oh wow, this is cool," and they

smile and they compliment you, and you probably never hear from them

again. And it's because most demos -- in VR and AR -- frankly, are

not that useful, and they wouldn't really generate particular impact

for an ente