Mighty Eyes Co-Founder Sam Ramlu on why virtual reality’s time has finally come
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Good morning, Caffeinators!
Heard of the All-In Summit? Stay to the end to find out what happened when Musk, Vance, Thiel and others came together in LA last week for two days of ‘real speak and outrageous parties’ 👀
Today we’re also diving deep with the kiwi woman who is betting the virtual reality world is finally going mainstream; EY has announced the five category winners now vying for ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’; it’s your last shot to join the 2025 OnBoard cohort; the results are in for the Aotearoa Startup World Cup; meet our new hot seat for ‘Ask a Founder’; and why you should have heard of the ‘LapStacker’ and its inspirational Founder Mike Brown.
Keep the stories and paid subs coming team. We’re loving our inbox right now.
Have a great day.
Lauren & the CAFFEINE team
Mighty Eyes Co-Founder Sam Ramlu on why virtual reality’s time has finally come.
The virtual reality market has seen multiple false starts, but one Kiwi startup is betting the technology is finally going mainstream and wants to be on the ground floor when it does.
Mighty Eyes Studios, creator of AIXR VR game of the year finalist Wanderer, is seeking a million-dollar raise to finance its next projects, an updated and modernised remake of the game and a sequel.
Mighty Eyes have chosen an innovative route for funding, crowdfunding investor platform Snowball Effect.
“It allows the public to come in and, for a nominal amount, get into investment. It’d be an opportunity for New Zealanders to get behind a local game studio and say they’ve got a part in that success and future growth,” Mighty Eyes Founder Sam Ramlu told Caffeine Read More.
Category winners announced for EY’s 2024 Entrepreneur of the Year: EY has announced the category winners with five top entrepreneurs now competing for the highly coveted ‘Entrepreneur of the Year Award’. These winners have developed innovative solutions in areas like beauty, financial literacy, and marketing. Jason Macgregor, Director of EY Entrepreneur Of The Year New Zealand, praised them as trailblazers who will inspire future innovators by demonstrating individual impact on industries. Read more.
OnBoard NZ Applications still open for 2025 cohort: OnBoard is a one-year programme, designed to get top performers from the tech sector ready for start-up governance. They do this by placing individuals with a leading start-up board for a one-year board observer role, and providing quarterly workshops on governance fundamentals. Applications are still open for their 2025 cohort and ⚡️THERE'S STILL TIME TO APPLY! (Applications close 23rd September). If you, or someone you know would be a superstar on their programme they want to hear from you now. More info here.
🏆 The results are in for the Aotearoa Startup World Cup, and we have our champions! A massive congratulations to gold winner Natalia Lopez from Kitea Health, who’s heading to Silicon Valley this October to represent New Zealand on the global stage. 🌱 A big shoutout to Irina Miller from Daisy Lab, who took silver, and Ben Scales from KiwiFibre, securing bronze. Their innovative visions and compelling storytelling wowed both the crowd and the judges – we’re excited to see where you go next! More here.
A round of applause for Kaila Colbin who has been put forward for the ‘Ask a Founder’ hot seat. Kaila is the founder and CEO of Boma and the Crusaders Leadership Programme, a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator, and the 2022 Kea WCNZ Friend of New Zealand award winner. A sought-after international speaker, she has presented to over 25,000 people on exponential technological trends and how to approach the future with courage and intelligence. A serial entrepreneur since 22, Kaila has spent 20 years enhancing Aotearoa’s global presence, spearheading initiatives like the SingularityU New Zealand and Australia summits, and co-founding the Ministry of Awesome. She also has extensive governance experience and is dedicated to being an uplifting presence. Fire us your best questions to hello@caffeinedaily.co and we will share her answers in our next column.
Jane is an AI-powered assistant designed to support sole traders / operators across various industries by handling their missed or declined calls, qualifying leads, scheduling appointments, and filtering spam. This tool helps alleviate the burden of administrative tasks, allowing business owners to focus on their core work. By integrating with existing phone systems, Jane offers a seamless way for sole operators to enhance their sales capabilities and improve efficiency without extra effort. Developed by NZ’s very own Ryft Ventures, Jane is built to solve everyday challenges faced by small businesses. More here.
A huge heartfelt congrats from us [and most of LinkedIn by the looks] to Mike Brown, CEO of Adaptdefy who has been named a finalist in the 2024 Best Awards for their revolutionary LapStacker. In 2012 Brown went from fit, healthy and standing, to paralysed from the waist down after being hit by a car. This life changing incident triggered a desire to help people adapt and defy. For as long as people have been using wheelchairs independently, they have struggled to carry things on their lap. It can be extremely embarrassing, frustrating and costly dropping things. Lapstacker is the world’s first and only retractable carry system for your wheelchair. This simple concept for a tension or retractable strap for holding things on your lap is the result of an extensive R&D project, many many prototypes, a Kickstarter campaign, and eventual manufacturing and production. Add your congrats here.
The ALL-IN Summit was held in LA last week [8-10 Sept] connecting the All-In community with the world’s most influential thinkers to shape the future of business, politics, and society. The exclusive 3-day event was "All-In" on technology, markets, economy, science, politics, and society with, in their words “the All-In Besties at the World's Greatest Conference — two days of realspeak and three nights of networking and outrageous parties.” At $7500 USD a ticket the speaker line-up alone was a fairly impressive who’s who including JD Vance, Elon Musk, Travis Kalanick, Peter Thiel and Megyn Kelly to name a few 😮💨 To make it easy for you, here’s a link to their first 7 podcasts released from the event. Take your pick!
