Building Businesses in VR and AR, with Jessica Manins - Ways to Wealth EP123

In this episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie is joined by Jessica Manins!Jessica Manins is the co founder and CEO of Beyond, a virtual world building company specialising in VR and AR games and experiences. With over a decade in the space, including time at Star Now and founding Projector in Wellington, Jessica shares the real story of building a company in one of the most volatile corners of tech.The conversation covers the launch of Beyond’s first collaborative VR game Oddball and the tough timing of COVID shutting down venues just weeks after their US launch, the pivot into home entertainment with Runaways on Apple Vision Pro, and their latest initiative Game Fit bringing VR fitness gaming into New Zealand high schools with Sport Waikato and Les Mills. Jessica also explains how Beyond has survived through a hybrid model of services revenue and IP development, the realities of platform dependency, particularly with Meta, and her philosophy on fast customer validation, balanced bootstrapped and funded growth, and keeping gaming healthy and collaborative.Find out more about Beyond here: www.beyond.funWatch all episodes of the Ways to Wealth Podcast here: www.eccuity.com/podcasts#waystowealth #vr #augmentedreality #gaming #startups #entrepreneurship #technology #founders #newzealand