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We began the with the question "How will people store and revisit their memories in the future?"
We formed a hypothesis and tested market interest with social media advertisements.
We drove 1,000 visitors to a splash page that got a 6% conversion rate. This told us there was an interest in the hypothesis, so we dove deeper.
Relivable seeks to make our digital content more immersive and emotive. The path we found was to leverage existing technology and pair them better; how can we connect 360 cameras to VR headsets more seamlessly to make memories more immersive?
Further Faster’s partnership with Relivable started during the idea stage when the first seeds of this product were being planted. Bob Matteson, a second time founder with a recent exit, wanted to nurture a personal and deeply held fascination with legacy and memory transfer. Through deep collaboration, including 3 stages of iterative testing, our work resulted in a validated value proposition, clear understanding of the customer’s needs, MVP product concept, a financial model, and a fundraising plan. We continue to partner with Relivable as a co-founder and investor.
It has been a pleasure getting to know the Further Faster team and I see them as partners for life. It was extremely beneficial to collaborate with them while launching my latest venture. The quality of work was top notch and I learned quite a bit from working closely with their entire team. I would highly recommend their studio to any serious entrepreneur.
Preserving memories is an innate human need- persistent across millenia. More recently, technology has helped us to capture moments better through photos and videos, but these platforms are still consumed en masse, in 2D: TV, phone, and computer screens. Relivable aims to enhance your memories by putting you directly in them, giving you the ability to re-experience important moments in a new and immersive way.
We kicked off our project with the Relivable team by seeking to understand the motivations of the “over-preserver” persona and the ways in which they make meaning from memories and milestones in our lives.
“How might we help over-preservers organize and make meaning from memories and milestones in a way that inspires and motivates them?”
After a survey of 60+ people, 6-10 in-depth interviews, and secondary market & competitive analysis, we understood the fears, purchasing behaviors, and motivations of the "over-preserver", but we needed to get more focused on a specific behavior.
Some of our key insights shows that this persona:
While we understood the motivations behind the capturing experience, we needed to better understand viewing experience. The team developed a more focused interest in identifying a market opportunity to enter the VR/AR/Metaverse space, which directed for our second phase of research.
Our first phase of research led us into key insights that pointed in the direction of our persona being someone who captures moments intentionally. We wanted to focus on the tech that will allow these individuals to intentionally capture and relive a memory.
“How might we help intentional-capturers more fully and confidently capture moments in their lives in a way that allows them to relive the memory?
Based on our interest in memory capturing and preservation, we sought to speak with Entrepreneurs in the memory and technology space, Researchers to understand the science behind memories, and thought- leaders in the VR/AR industry to understand how this technology could be the future of memory making. We interviewed 9 experts in these fields.
Here are some key insights from these experts:
The next phase of secondary research was an in-depth analysis on the market trends and data around segments in virtual reality and augmented reality. The goal of the research was to explore the opportunities and threats of the nostalgia market, including the VR/AR ecosystem, the professional photography market, and the high-end events market, to gain a deep understanding of the forces affecting the market and insights that could provide a competitive advantage.
Here are some key insights from this analysis:
We also tested interviewees interest in VR tech for a wedding with a web page prototype. We created a pricing page prototype that would test interviewees interest in immersive VR for their wedding and their thoughts on pricing for this service.
Feedback on our VR weddings concept was mixed, leading us to further build off the feedback and insights. As a team we conducted a solution storming workshop and evaluated both short and long-term concepts, created a rubric for success and narrowed our focus further. This resulted in an investigation of the next generation of image capturing and viewing. Respectively, 360 cameras and VR headsets were compatible but not regularly enjoyed by the same customer and we wanted to know why.
Our first and second research phases explored the personas of users who overly, yet intentionally capture memories and their triggers and motivations for reminiscing or reliving that memory. We researched how virtual reality can enhance this by providing a more immersive field of view and auditory experience. Although there are some barriers to adoption, a clear energy emerged from those in the traveler/adventurer/sport sectors. We hypothesized that those already interested in high tech, travel, and new parents will be our first movers in purchasing a bundle that will allow them to create interesting content with the ability to relive in the immersive experience of VR.
In the short-term, we believe that bundling 360 cameras and VR headsets for family-oriented techies and for sandwich-year techies will help them capture and re-live memories more immersively. In the long-term, we believe this can evolve + scale into a VR space that facilitates immersive memory-making.
We created digital ads to target our main audience segments to gauge interest in the Immersible Bundle.
These audience segments include:
We created a website to direct traffic to a pre-order form for early access of a "bundle product offering" of a 360 camera and VR headset allowing us to recruit and interview those who signed up.
Interviewing a subset of those who joined our pre-order contact list revealed that the bundle is a high-demand offering for an enthusiastic group of people interested in the intersections of VR, videography, and travel.
Here are some key insights:
Our last phase of secondary research was an in-depth analysis of the market trends, opportunities, threats, and major competitors around 360 cameras (Hardware and Software), Virtual Reality Headsets, uploading, and editing platforms, and the metaverse.
Here are some key insights from this analysis:
To better understand capital outlay and initial investments, we needed to determine the potential market size and return. Using our fractional CFO services, we ran a series of models that
Our overall research investigated patterns of behavior in capturing and reliving memories and the ways in which we can enhance this experience.
In this final phase of research, we’ve identified that the “bundle” (a 360 camera and VR headset) is an in-demand offering for the “Adventurous Techie” persona, with the potential to build an engaged community of consumers around the vision to relive memories in virtual reality. However, there are still limitations with the technology that is accessible to a consumer audience, which should not be ignored.
After understanding the technical, skill, and time hurdles involved in converting 360 camera footage into virtual reality, we decided to do further diligence around legal patents, incumbent interests, and technical architecture. We learned that Google and Facebook both entertained this idea in the last 3 years, but both abandoned them. We also learned that the technical complications were manageable and potentially valuable to several parties alone. The Further Faster team is advising on product development and strategy with Terrafuse, an emerging XR development studio.
We have joined the team as co-founders of Relivable, socializing and raising a $2M round into the fall of 2022. We are helping the team strategize on future hiring needs, vet talent and leadership, and oversee product strategy as the team grows to support itself fully.
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