Episode 23

full
Published on:

10th May 2022

23. From Cold Emails to Hot Commodities

This week's incredible guest is Ashley Crowder, Founder and CEO of VNTANA. VNTANA democratizes the use of 3D models to create AR/VR experiences using patented technology to standardize shape files of all kinds, opening up the world of 3D to many different industries. From partnerships with luxury fashion brands to collaborations with Meta (Facebook), VNTANA is doing it all. Ashley tells me about her journey into 3D modeling, her love of STEM, and the time she cold emailed Mark Cuban for investment.

Episode Resources:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/04/mark-cuban-and-former-oculus-ceo-back-3d-e-commerce-startup-vntana/ 

https://www.reuters.com/technology/3d-ads-come-facebook-instagram-step-toward-metaverse-2022-03-24/ 

https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/women-still-struggle-to-access-vc-funds-what-needs-to-change

Transcript
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Welcome to the meadow woman podcast. We address the

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issues, opportunities and challenges facing women in the

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development of the metaverse the biggest revolution since the

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internet itself. Every week we bring you conversations with top

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female talent and business executives operating in the

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gaming and crypto industries. Here's your host Lindsey the

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boss POS, the meta woman podcast starts now.

Lindsay Poss:

Hello, and welcome to the meta woman podcast part

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of the holodeck media Podcast Network. I'm your host Lindsay

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The Boss Boss and from struggle to success. We're covering it

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all. For returning listeners. Thank you so much for supporting

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the show. Thank you for sending me feedback. Messages truly

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warmed my heart. And for all the new listeners. Welcome. I hope

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you enjoy and I hope you'll come back. This week's guest is going

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to be so much fun because we're going to do a deep dive into the

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metaverse, which is something that I've touched on but I

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haven't haven't really like fully gotten into yet. So I'm

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excited for that. For all of you that have been following the

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evolution of the show. You know that I've started with gaming

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and wound up in this crazy crossover between gaming merging

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tech Metaverse, all that stuff. And I'm just excited to be able

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to do more of the metaverse side this week. It's gonna be fun. So

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without further ado, I want to introduce Ashley Crowder, CEO

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and co founder of Ventana, Ashley, I would love for you to

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introduce yourself and Fontana because I think you'll just

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explain it better and do it more justice than I can.

Unknown:

Awesome. Yeah, it's great to be here. I'm Ashley

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Crowder, I'm the co founder and CEO of Ventana. We are a 3d

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commerce platform that makes it incredibly easy to manage and

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distribute 3d and augmented reality at scale. We work with a

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lot of fashion brands. So VF Corp Hugo Boss, diesel, helping

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streamline 3d from design and manufacturing, helping people

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with b2b sales to replace physical samples and create

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amazing e commerce experiences and social media. And then of

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course, you can also use that same 3d model in the metaverse

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or different virtual worlds. So yeah,

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because that was so cool. And I know that we're

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going to be talking about it more. But let's kind of start at

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the beginning because Ventana has been working in the 3d slash

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AR slash VR space for almost 10 years, which is super exciting.

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I know you're coming up on your anniversary here. And obviously,

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the emerging tech landscape looks a lot different than what

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it did 10 years ago. And so I would love to hear about the

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evolution of the company, how you moved from kind of more

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entertainment based services to more platform based services,

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how you evolved into the software as a service company

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that you are today.

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Yeah, so my background is engineering, I did

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engineering at USC, got my Bachelor's and Master's there,

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you know, always loved building things. And the USC engineering

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school has a partnership with a military called ICT, where they

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funded research and 3d AR VR graphics and tech. And so that's

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where I first got exposed to all this stuff, like, almost 15

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years ago now, which is crazy. And I was like, this is gonna

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change the world. This is awesome. But you know, there

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were no career paths for that back then. So I ended up, you

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know, founding Montana. And it was really around how do we

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create these, you know, immersive experiences to engage

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consumers. And at the time, web didn't support 3d phones could

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do ar so we did location based mixed reality experiences for

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brands like Adidas, Nike, Lexus, and it was usually in retail

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stores or at sports stadiums or events like South by Southwest.

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And we built a profitable company doing that. But no one

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ever had the right 3d files to create this type of content. So

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we were creating interactive 3d content in game engines like

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Unity and Unreal, to play on our hardware at these different

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events. And we would get, just like these manufacturing design

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files from these brands that were way too big and not in the

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right format and required all this manual work. So we started

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writing software to help automate this. So that is really

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what led us to where we are today. So in 2019, we said you

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know what, we wrote all this software to make it easy to

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manage and optimize 3d models. Now, every web browser can

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support 3d and phone everyone has a phone that can do some

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pretty decent augmented reality. So we decided to raise around a

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funding and launch our software as a standalone service. We

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launched it February 2020, which is very good timing to then get

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out of events. So that was like crazy. And so you know, the plan

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had been to like have our events business kind of continue, but

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open up this new division and COVID obviously, we're like, you

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know what, I'm glad that we wrote All this software and have

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this product and we are 100% focus on our software now. And

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yeah, and it really grew from there because obviously with

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COVID, no one could get physical samples from from China, where,

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you know, 99%, German manufactured, no one was going

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into retail stores, people really started adopting 3d so

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much faster, because there's really no option. So even people

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who were afraid of new tech, we're kind of forced into it.

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And then the benefits have just been so huge from, you know, 10s

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of 1000s of dollars of cost savings to reducing carbon

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footprint by not making samples, increasing speed to market, you

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know, increased conversion rate because of better consumer

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experience online. So COVID force people to try it, and then

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the results spoke for themselves for them to keep going. So

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I want to pick apart this sample portion, just

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because the that interests me a lot. I mean, I'm by no means a

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fashion person, we recently had the Met Gala. And I love that,

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but I'm not you know, I am not my sister in law actually has a

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degree in fashion design and merchandising. So I would love

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to know more about what the sample process previously was,

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and how you've used Ventana to, like you said, reduce the carbon

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footprint of that process. That's fascinating. So can you

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describe a little bit more from start to finish? Yeah, so

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we typically work with brands who design and

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manufacture their products. So whether that is you know, Hugo

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Boss or diesel, so like they design they manufacture, they

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might sell direct to consumer, but they also sell within retail

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stores. And so the typical process is you design, you make

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a sample, you ship that sample out to your various teams to

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review, you make changes, you go make another sample, you come

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back, you know, to finalize that maybe and then maybe the design

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is final. And then you order more samples, because they need

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to go to Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's showrooms for

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people to view and purchase. So it was this very time consuming.

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physical product process, right. Whereas once COVID hit, you

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know, all the factories in Asia were shut down. And logistics

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are still a problem right now. I mean, I moved into this new

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house, I have no furniture because I ordered furniture in

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November, and it's still not here in May. So

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just as an interlude, there's a good tweet

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that said, due to supply chain issues, I'm fully out of

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serotonin

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in this empty my room, but that's why. So, you know,

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it's still a problem. And so people, you know, we're like,

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why are we doing this physically, we'd have a true

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interactive 3d model, you want to make changes, you make

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changes instantly, and then you upload and share that link. And

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you can collaborate in real time on the 3d. So we had clients who

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had a six month sales cycle with where they were selling these

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moved down to three weeks, with 3d. And then on average, you

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know, making one shirt is about five kilograms of carbon of what

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it takes to make that one shirt. We had a client, they moved

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their whole collection to 3d. So they had almost 900 pieces that

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they used to make samples of that now is purely 3d, and

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they're using Ventana just sell to Nordstroms Bloomingdale's

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using 3d instead of physical. So 900 times five kilograms is

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like, over 4.4 tons of carbon saved. So that's equivalent of

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driving like 130,000 miles in a gasoline car, which is amazing.

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And then on top of that, like samples cost money samples, on

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average can be $100 per creation. So you know, 100 times

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900, you're saving $90,000 per season on not making those

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samples. So it's better for the environment. It's saving you

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money. It's increasing your speed to market. There's no

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reason you should not be using 3d.

Lindsay Poss:

So cool. I wonder so that's, that is like you

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said, you're a b2b SaaS company to I know there has been a b2c

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Particularly I remember reading about how Snapchat was allowing

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you to try on clothes in basically, I think it was more

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so augmented reality using your own camera to sort of put

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clothes on your body. Do you see yourself moving into a b2c space

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as I mean, you just you've just reached two years, so I'm not a

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that would be the pinnacle. But yeah, what does that look like

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for you? Yeah, so

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our client ants are always going to be businesses,

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but they are creating these experiences for consumers as

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well. So that same 3d model they use for that, to sell to

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Nordstroms. And that b2b sale, they can also put on their

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website with with our software, so they can, they can have it on

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their e commerce sites, you can see it interacts in 3d, gonna

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hold up your phone and place it in your environment with

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augmented reality, we are working with the social media

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platforms. So whether it's Snapchat or meta to do to put a

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3d model into those platforms, it has to meet their

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specifications. And so this is again coming into what ventanas

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real secret sauces and the core value we provide is we can take

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these big manufacturing files and instantly convert them to

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meet these various specs. So you, you know, you can take that

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manufacturing file, upload to Ventana, and then you can

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instantly publish to Facebook or Instagram or to Snapchat. So

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we're just saving people a bunch of time there. Whereas before,

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they'd have to do manual work. Snapchats definitely the

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furthest along including Tryon, it's still not perfect, but

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they're definitely like, far out ahead. They've been acquiring a

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lot of companies in this space. Super excited about everything

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they're building. It's just not quite there yet. So, but it's

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coming.

Lindsay Poss:

It's so cool, though. And I want to talk more

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about the partnership that you announced with meta. K Facebook,

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which I also always make this joke, but I promise this podcast

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was announced before they changed their name. It's about a

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whole thing. But can you tell me about that partnership? And I

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know you talked a little bit about snap but just how you see

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Ventana working with social media companies. And that's a

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much different client than say diesel Jones or Hugo Boss.

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Right. So So what is it?

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Usual diesel is the is our client who's using us for

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b2b sales, their e commerce site and publishing on meta? Does

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that make sense? So like, what you're doing? Yeah, so we're

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enabling our brand. So the partnership, we set up with a

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meta kind of same thing like they were they wanted to launch

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3d and air ads. In order to do that they needed 3d models that

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met certain standards. So just kind of take a step back, like a

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typical manufacturing design file is 200 megabytes in size or

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bigger. If you want to use 3d on Facebook, it needs to be under

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six megabytes in size. So that's like 5% of the original size. So

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they were struggling with the fact that they were asking

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brands to manually fix all these files, which they're like, you

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know, Hugo Boss launches 40,000 products a year, it's like

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writing a file for each one.

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So with our integration, you can upload

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these designs to Ventana, we instantly get them to meet

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Facebook and Instagram specs. And then you can publish it's a

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click of a button publish a 3d and AR ad unit. And so it's

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fully automated. So your social media manager can log in to

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Facebook or Instagram and create an ad the same way they create a

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2d ad today, because we're packaging up that 3d model and

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3d AR ad unit for you. So you don't have to know anything

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about 3d, which is great. Right? That's

Lindsay Poss:

what I was going to say is I know that one of the

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key points of the product is that no coding is required,

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which is a little crazy to think about.

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Yeah, exactly. Like our whole mission is to democratize

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3d and make it easy. That's how we're going to see more

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adoption. Because we know 3d has huge benefits. It's a better

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experience, you can increase conversion rates, save money,

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all the things we've been talking about the barrier has

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really been it's difficult and time consuming and I don't have

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the right staff you know, that's what we're trying to fix.

Lindsay Poss:

So cool. What kind of files get uploaded to turn

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into 3d ads? I'm trying to get technical brains trying to catch

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up with what you're saying. Yeah, so

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like just like the car industry designs and AutoCAD

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programs in 3d fashion has their 3d design programs so for

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apparel, it's it's browse wearing clothes are typically

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the apparel 3d design programs for footwear, they're generally

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designing in KeyShot or Moto and so you know, there's all these

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different 3d design programs which are great for design and

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manufacturing. But again, the files too big and not in the

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right format. So Fontana has plugins to a lot of these

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software's so designers can work the way they work today and then

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just upload directly and we do the rest for you so you

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instantly get this you know web viewer you can embed on your

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website. You To publish to meta, or wherever else that you want.

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Okay, that makes

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a lot more sense. And yes, I have worked with

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AutoCAD. And yeah, those files are a nightmare, basically. Can

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you do with the metaverse coming in companies like yours, that

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are leading the charge in terms of making these experience

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mainstream? Can you just tell me what excites you about kind of

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staying at the forefront of future tech? And what made you

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passionate, I mean, from 15 years ago, as a student at USC,

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all the way up until now, and adapting and pivoting and 2020,

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kind of in a major way, like what drives you to keep making

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these experiences available to people?

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Yeah, I mean, I just love the medium. I think, in

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general, I, you know, I love building things. I love math and

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sciences. Why did engineering but like I also like to be

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creative. And with the metaverse, it's this combination

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of engineering and art and creativity, that is so much fun

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for me. And I just think it has so much potential. You know, the

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metaverse, to me, it's just a spatial internet, or just going

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from the flat to the websites to like, it can now be interactive

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and 3d and spatial, whether that's still on my laptop

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browser and walking around a virtual space or fully putting

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on a headset. And you know, you know, immersing myself in VR.

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It's just so much fun. And you know, I'm part of a group we

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meet in VR on Wednesday nights. And it's really fun. And like,

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we were doing that pre pandemic, and then the, the pandemic, it

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was amazing, because I actually felt like I was seeing friends,

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you know, I just like love it and love everything about it.

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And I want to help make it faster to adopt for everyone.

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And step one to create any of these types of experiences is

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you need digital twins or 3d models of your products or items

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that can work within these different platforms. And so

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that's really what we're trying to solve for people. And then

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I'm excited to see all the amazing experiences that they

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create with them.

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What is your VR platform of choice that you meet

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people on? So I just use

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the Oculus, and that got it right over here.

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streaming of bucks is cheaper than an iPhone? You know, I

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think that's pretty amazing. True.

Lindsay Poss:

I never thought about it that way. But yes.

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And then I personally love VR chat, because it's like

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weird and wild and everyone, like, you never know what world

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you're gonna go into. So that's my favorite. But, you know, with

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this group, it's a lot of industry people. And my friend,

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Christina Heller, the founder of Medisave. She started it years

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ago. And it was really like just to like, learn and explore. So

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like we would, when rec room first came out, we met in rec

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room, and like half the things didn't work. Like I could only

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walk backwards. For some reason there was a bug and really fun.

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We used it as this like fun social virtual meetup, but like

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to learn new technology and test out new platforms. So

Lindsay Poss:

that's really cool. And how has it? I don't

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know exactly how to ask this question, because obviously, we

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know that we're way ahead of where we are 10 years from now,

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but I guess are Are we where you expect to be? Or do you think

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that like, what what do you think about the pace of growth,

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I guess is what I'm trying to get at? Are we growing? You

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know, if you think about 10 years ago, and where you

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started, or 15 years ago? Are we growing at the rate you

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expected? Or do you think like, we're kind of at the beginning

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of a really fast pickup now or? Like what what does that pace

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look like? For you? Who's someone who's been exploring in

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the metaverse for long?

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Yeah, I'd say you know, I obviously hoped it would the

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adoption would have been faster, but I will say that pandemic

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really sped things up. And on top of that, just the advent of

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NF T's

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so, you know, NF

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T's have proven people are willing to pay real money

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for digital goods, which you know, we talk with a lot of our,

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our clients of, hey, yes, you should use 3d and all these

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stages of your current process, but you could also be selling

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digital assets, which is a whole new revenue stream, because I

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want my avatar to look cool in fortnight or Roblox right. So I

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think I think the pandemic has has sped up a lot of that. But

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we're NF T's have also helped make it exciting. It's really

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democratizes the ownership so right now if I'm in Roblox and I

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you know, bye Nike hat. Well, I can only wear that 3d Nike hat

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and robots. I can't take it out of that game with NF T's. I own

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this 3d asset. And I can take that 3d file anywhere in the

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metaverse. I want. And that's what's so exciting about the web

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three platforms like decentraland and somnium space

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that are open, because any 3d objects I buy there I own and I

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can take it with me into these other virtual spaces. So I

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think, you know, it's a matter of time until, you know, these

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these walled gardens like fortnight and Robox open up to

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allow that.

Lindsay Poss:

That just reminds me of when you go to friends

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houses when you were little to play with their toys, because

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you didn't have them. As if your parents actually bought you the

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toy and brought it home. It was yours forever. Yeah. Which is a

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silly, that's a very, like 90s Kid analogy right there. But

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that's exactly what we think of.

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And then the kids today like my friend's kid, she asked

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for her allowance and robots not in American dollars, because she

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just wants to buy things for her avatar in Roblox because that's

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where she meets her friends. Right. So like, this whole

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generation is growing up, comfortable and used to buying

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digital goods. And, you know, with digital currency,

Lindsay Poss:

which is fascinating. That is a really

Lindsay Poss:

big change. Yeah, I mean, definitely a big change. I know

Lindsay Poss:

I was thinking about it, like I have Beyblades. Actually, I

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didn't have Beyblades I wanted Beyblades much different than

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robots. I want to pivot and shift gears a little bit because

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I do want to talk about what it's been like for you to build

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this company over 10 years as a female founder. We both I'm sure

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know that securing VC funding for women can be difficult to

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just kind of a different process. So just finished a

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great book called bro topia by Emily Chang all about Silicon

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Valley and the season stuff super fascinating. According to

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an article invoke Business Research has found that

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historically, less than 5% of VC funding has gone to women owned

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or women led businesses. In some cases, there is a backward

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shift. According to software and data provider PitchBook. This

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figure has shrank to 2.2% in 2021 Despite the creation of

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women's centric funds, such as female Founders Fund, which

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narrows women's shot at our small shot of funding, or just

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narrows it. So I would love to talk about your experience

Lindsay Poss:

building your business because Ben Tonto has the backing of

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some heavy hitters from the partnership with metta and I

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know Mark Cuban and the formula former Oculus CEO Brendan Uribe

Lindsay Poss:

hope I'm pronouncing arrived they arrived. Okay. ism is among

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you know, among many others have have backed Ventana, and we

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don't necessarily have to look fully through the lens of

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gender. But can you just walk me through what the growth and

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funding experience has been like for you? Yeah, look, I

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think no matter who you are funding, it's hard to start

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to grow a business but you need funding. And as the CEO, my job

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is to make sure we're bringing in the right partners and

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investors to grow the business. And it was something I had to

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learn. You know, I studied engineering and I wanted to

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start this company. I knew no one did not know anything about

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VC funding when I started, had to figure a lot of it out. And

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really started by just going to networking events and trying to

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learn and asking people to coffee. And, you know, Shimon

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Walsh was one of our very first backers. She's like a female

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partner at at a fund who's amazing, and has invested in

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some incredible companies like sweet green all the way to other

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tech companies. And having her as a mentor was so helpful to

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like learn the process. I would also say a really great book is

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venture deals. So it was written by a guy who, what he was an

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entrepreneur who grew, raised money, sold his company, and now

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he's a VC. So he writes it from kind of the entrepreneur and the

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VC perspective. I wish I had read that book before I raised

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any money a couple years ago, it just it's so helpful. And it's

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not that long. So read it, I suggest it. But so much of of

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raising money is it's about trust, right? It's showing, yes,

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I have I have this company with real Tech and a real business.

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And I'm going to take it from A to B, and this is the money I

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need to get there. And this is how I'm going to spend the

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money. And, you know, investors want to need to be able to trust

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that you're going to do that. Hey, that's what it comes down

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to. And I think part of the issue with wise Many women and

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minorities don't have as much funding is they just don't have

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those networks, right? Like I didn't know, anyone. I had to do

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tons of networking and reaching out and asking for introductions

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and building those relationships over time. To get to the point

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that said, I cold emailed Mark Cuban, and he responded and

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invested a couple of days later. So that was wild. And you know,

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I read an article about how he's investing in NF T's and the

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metaverse and I just was like, He's gonna love what we're

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doing. And so I just, like found his email and emailed him. So

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like, that can also happen. But yeah, so I think, you know, part

Unknown:

of it is, and that's why it is good that we have these networks

Unknown:

in organizations trying to help women and minorities meet more

Unknown:

VCs. Again, because I just think it's a matter of, I think so

Unknown:

much of it is not malicious. It's just like, who do you know,

Unknown:

I've watched them build this before. I know they can do it.

Unknown:

Oh, I've never met you before. So

Lindsay Poss:

my one, yeah, there's definitely reasons why

Lindsay Poss:

women and minorities don't have those networks built in right

Lindsay Poss:

away. But there's also ways around that, which I think is

Lindsay Poss:

good. So that's completely cold email MerKiVa. That's great. I'm

Lindsay Poss:

a big proponent of that, as someone who used to work in

Lindsay Poss:

communications, and I always had to email reporters and reporters

Lindsay Poss:

are notorious for never responding, which makes sense,

Lindsay Poss:

they get a billion emails, it's not a problem. But I remember I

Lindsay Poss:

have like a 13 follow ups rule where I'll follow up 13 times

Lindsay Poss:

and you can't take it personally, because everyone

Lindsay Poss:

knows that everyone else is busy. You just kind of have to,

Lindsay Poss:

like, Hey, it's me again. How's it going? I'm a big fan. I'm a

Lindsay Poss:

multiple texter, multiple emailer. You gotta try to not be

Lindsay Poss:

too pushy. But also, keep in mind that everyone else is busy

Lindsay Poss:

and in their own world, in order to get into their world, you

Lindsay Poss:

kind of have to make sure you're always top of mind. Some big fan

Lindsay Poss:

of cold emails do, I wouldn't have thought to cold email, Mark

Lindsay Poss:

Cuban, but you know,

Unknown:

he's gonna, like, kill me, because all these people are

Unknown:

going to email him now. But

Lindsay Poss:

hopefully, he has a good army of, you know,

Lindsay Poss:

executive assistants and whatnot to filter through and find the

Lindsay Poss:

really cool opportunities, which I'm sure he does. And kind of on

Lindsay Poss:

that note, there's, there's definitely a place for lodging

Lindsay Poss:

complaints about this process. Thankful that social media has

Lindsay Poss:

given many people a voice to express in justices that happen

Lindsay Poss:

in Silicon Valley and in the venture funding world. But I

Lindsay Poss:

would love to focus on some of the positive things you've had,

Lindsay Poss:

in your experience getting funding, and potential solutions

Lindsay Poss:

to make it a more inviting environment for women. So could

Lindsay Poss:

you tell me what some of and I know, you've mentioned certain

Lindsay Poss:

relationships, specifically, but what were some of the positive

Lindsay Poss:

ways you were able to interact with potential VCs? And what are

Lindsay Poss:

some of the ways you think the VC environment or just the

Lindsay Poss:

funding process itself could improve? Yeah, I

Unknown:

mean, I've had the benefit of some really great

Unknown:

mentors, you know, another investors, Jamie Montgomery, the

Unknown:

founder of March capital, I think I met him because I gave a

Unknown:

pitch at USC that he was attending and spoke. And then

Unknown:

he's done a lot for female founders, he has an event every

Unknown:

year, he gives, like a certain number of female founders free

Unknown:

tickets, and, you know, tries to help with that. I think just

Unknown:

building those allies and mentors within your network is

Unknown:

so helpful to give you advice and help make introductions. And

Unknown:

then how to make it better. I mean, so much, there's like so

Unknown:

much to do. Right. So I think, you know, funds can make sure

Unknown:

that they're at least seeing a variety of deals, you know, if

Unknown:

you're looking at your deal pipeline, and your deal pipeline

Unknown:

is 90%. White man. Okay, what can you do to get more diverse

Unknown:

founders in your deal pipeline, right? Like, if you're not even

Unknown:

having the pipeline of the diverse deals, there's no way

Unknown:

you're going to actually fund diverse deals, right? So whether

Unknown:

that's partnering with a women or minority network or school or

Unknown:

you know, there's a lot of different ways to do it. I think

Unknown:

that could really, really help and then setting up frameworks

Unknown:

for investing. So you know, so many and then the earlier the

Unknown:

stage, that stage of your company, the more they're just

Unknown:

investing in you, right? If you're Doing a seed round, you

Unknown:

don't necessarily have revenue or a business to look at yet.

Unknown:

It's a little it's like the beginning. But it's you like, do

Unknown:

we trust that you can build this? And so that can get very

Unknown:

subjective quickly, right. And so I think funds building

Unknown:

frameworks of, of analysis of how they're evaluating founders

Unknown:

and their companies, and keeping that consistent, will help also

Unknown:

make it a more fair playing field, right across gender and

Unknown:

ethnicity and everything else.

Lindsay Poss:

It's yeah, all those studies of when you remove

Lindsay Poss:

the name of a resume and who gets hired. Yeah, I essentially

Lindsay Poss:

feel that same vibe from what you just said. But I do think

Lindsay Poss:

that it's accurate. It's, it's, I mean, we live in a world where

Lindsay Poss:

there's a lot of unconscious biases. And it's hard to even if

Lindsay Poss:

you think you're a person who doesn't hold them in some way,

Lindsay Poss:

shape, or form you probably do so I can see what you're saying

Lindsay Poss:

and trying to make that process more consistent to limit the

Lindsay Poss:

impact of those at least is one way of getting different people

Lindsay Poss:

in the room. So that does make sense to me. Um, and switching

Lindsay Poss:

over to you for a second because we've talked all about Ventana

Lindsay Poss:

we've talked all about Vc, Vc funding and what it's like to be

Lindsay Poss:

a female founder. But I want to know about you know, you and how

Lindsay Poss:

you got to where you are. I know that you mentioned that you

Lindsay Poss:

started engineering at USC. But it's it's pretty, you know, it

Lindsay Poss:

takes a lot of gumption to be run a tech and specifically

Lindsay Poss:

Metaverse focus 3d technology company for 10 years. So tell me

Lindsay Poss:

a little bit about yourself.

Unknown:

Yeah, I'm one of those people where I get an idea and I

Unknown:

just nothing I have crazy, like blindsided focus on this to a

Unknown:

fault. And I'm going to do it. So my poor parents growing up.

Unknown:

You know, if I wanted to do something, I was going to do it.

Unknown:

But, but yeah, I mean, growing up, I loved math and science, I

Unknown:

hated writing with passion. So I would do everything to like,

Unknown:

take more math and science classes, and I love building

Unknown:

stuff. My dad was an electrician. And he, he, the

Unknown:

company he worked for went out of business. And I was in first

Unknown:

grade. So he decided to just, you know, start his own company.

Unknown:

So it was him and a friend doing like it started as like house

Unknown:

calls. I'd like ride around in the truck on the weekends to

Unknown:

construction sites. So I'm gonna have a break. So I think that's

Unknown:

where I got interested in, in engineering. And I watched him

Unknown:

you know, it was it was really hard. It was full on startup,

Unknown:

you know, when I was in elementary school, but I watched

Unknown:

him grow it to a couple 100 person company that did jobs

Unknown:

around the world. And it was really cool to watch that. And

Unknown:

really inspiring. And I was like, you know, I want to build

Unknown:

my own company someday like that. That was awesome. And so,

Unknown:

yeah, but my dad, you know, he never got the chance to go to

Unknown:

college. She was like, you know, you're gonna go to college. It's

Unknown:

like, sounds good. I put engineering and got in and, you

Unknown:

know, ended up like, again, I could avoid as much writing as

Unknown:

possible. I liked it. And yeah, I knew I wanted to start my own

Unknown:

company. Wasn't sure what, you know, I worked at British

Unknown:

Petroleum for a while actually, after I graduated, I worked at

Unknown:

an oil refinery. I learned a lot, not my passion at all. I

Unknown:

was like, what kind of like, like, I'm still friends with

Unknown:

some of the people. I mean, refineries are intense, like,

Unknown:

literal fires happen, and you got to work together and figure

Unknown:

it out. So I'm still friends with the people there. It just

Unknown:

was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And so I

Unknown:

ended up leaving. I took a leave of absence and didn't go back. I

Unknown:

got a job programming light shows for DJs on the weekends.

Unknown:

And that was super fun. So it was like finally combining like

Unknown:

engineering and art. It was one of the most fun jobs I ever had.

Unknown:

And that's kind of where I was like, Alright, how do we take

Unknown:

these light shows to the next level? How do we create more

Unknown:

interactive experiences? And that's really what led me to to

Unknown:

co founded Ventana. So midlife crisis or quarterlife crisis to

Unknown:

working at a nightclub and starting a company

Lindsay Poss:

now I was actually kind of picturing while you're

Lindsay Poss:

saying that you know what I enjoy a lot about music and

Lindsay Poss:

lightness or a lot of it is that I mean I can actually see the

Lindsay Poss:

the crossover into kind of 3d models and stuff because it's a

Lindsay Poss:

very like yeah, I don't know I think of like, it's it is kind

Lindsay Poss:

of an immersive thing, right? Like it's It makes everything

Lindsay Poss:

feel more alive when you have really cool lighting. That's

Lindsay Poss:

something that I actually really value. I went to college at a

Lindsay Poss:

place where we had a very good theater program, and I met a

Lindsay Poss:

lighting major my first year. And then after a while, she

Lindsay Poss:

totally convinced me she actually switched to sound too.

Lindsay Poss:

But she totally convincing the importance of lighting. And I

Lindsay Poss:

feel like ever since then. Yeah. That actually transitions pretty

Lindsay Poss:

well into the kind of 3d hands on things I think. And yeah.

Lindsay Poss:

Live.

Unknown:

Yeah, it's another way to put how do we put the digital

Unknown:

in the real environment? How do we, you know, take these visuals

Unknown:

to that next level and augmented reality and virtual reality?

Lindsay Poss:

You know how to do that. Yeah. Well, it's such a

Lindsay Poss:

funny way. Yeah. So next time, you're at a big club, everyone

Lindsay Poss:

listening.

Unknown:

You know, like, like the, I mean, the lights are

Unknown:

incredible. Everything that's happening with like, the drone

Unknown:

light shows are amazing. Every year now Coachella has augmented

Unknown:

reality experiences overlaid on top of the show, you know, so it

Unknown:

still?

Lindsay Poss:

Yeah, super cool. Actually, one of my favorite

Lindsay Poss:

shows that I saw was MGMT, and they had horrible stage

Lindsay Poss:

presence. But what they did have was an incredible, like, it was,

Lindsay Poss:

it was it definitely felt like augmented reality. But it was

Lindsay Poss:

not but an incredible life display during the whole show.

Lindsay Poss:

And I was just like, fascinated, we all had glow sticks going

Lindsay Poss:

along with it. It was amazing. So yes, I think that music is

Lindsay Poss:

one of the best ways to get into 3d experiences. For sure. That's

Lindsay Poss:

my own personal opinion. So I really enjoyed listening to

Lindsay Poss:

music. But you know, I'm, so I love that whole story. And thank

Lindsay Poss:

you, thank you for telling me about your childhood stuff. And

Lindsay Poss:

really cool that your dad was able to build such a huge

Lindsay Poss:

business. And that takes so much work. And you mentioned just

Lindsay Poss:

from a very young age, dating, writing, loving math and

Lindsay Poss:

science. I think that's the thing that a lot of women

Lindsay Poss:

experience. But we do see really low retention rates by the time

Lindsay Poss:

women start to get into their late 30s ish in STEM and tech

Lindsay Poss:

fields. What do you think we can do? And particularly we I'm

Lindsay Poss:

talking more so probably about small to midsize companies who

Lindsay Poss:

have a lot of flexibility in their practice, not like society

Lindsay Poss:

as a whole and enormous institutions. But what can

Lindsay Poss:

people who are in positions of leadership within a business do

Lindsay Poss:

to better recruit and retain women in STEM positions? Yeah, I

Unknown:

think, you know, I do a lot of volunteering.

Lindsay Poss:

I think it starts with teachers, right

Unknown:

and encouraging that the from a young age, I had no

Unknown:

credible third grade teacher who like let me do extra science

Unknown:

experiments in the back of the room. I still remember this

Unknown:

Mackenzie's she was awesome. So it kind of starts there. And

Unknown:

then you know, I do lots of volunteering at USC, which, you

Unknown:

know, I think 2020 was the first year we had like a 45%, woman

Unknown:

engineering freshman class, which is amazing, because when I

Unknown:

graduated, like the graduating engineering class was like, 19%

Unknown:

women, so that so the schools are doing a lot to help recruit

Unknown:

and promote and retain more diverse students. So don't tell

Unknown:

me it's pipeline problem, you know, hiring. You know, like,

Unknown:

we're fixing that problem, right. And so then as a

Unknown:

business, making sure that there's those entry level

Unknown:

positions that have like training and support to grow

Unknown:

into those next roles. And that's just good for your

Unknown:

business in general, right? You want to be building a pipeline

Unknown:

of students to mid mid managers.

Lindsay Poss:

But I think, and

Unknown:

this isn't like a gender or minority thing, but

Unknown:

just humans, every human in general learns differently. And,

Unknown:

you know, I think making sure you build a program, like a

Unknown:

training program within your company that can help people get

Unknown:

to that next level. And I'm not saying to like, do special

Unknown:

things for women. I'm just saying in general, like you

Unknown:

should have a clear pass for promotion within your company.

Unknown:

Which is good for like growth and retention in general. But I

Unknown:

think

Lindsay Poss:

just as a little side plug, yes, that is

Lindsay Poss:

basically the number one reason people cite for resigning from

Lindsay Poss:

cushy jobs is no growth potential.

Unknown:

Exactly. Yeah. So So I think doing that and I think

Unknown:

you'll end up just being more attractive and more attractive

Unknown:

to more people, which will give you a more diverse pool of

Unknown:

candidates. And then of course, in your interview process. I

Unknown:

think Airbnb did a study, they realized that they weren't

Unknown:

hiring enough women or minorities, and they realized

Unknown:

like all the interviewers were men, and they're like, oh, we

Unknown:

should To throw in and make sure the interviewers are diverse,

Unknown:

and lo and behold, when they switched up the interviewers,

Unknown:

all of a sudden they were hiring more diverse people. And I think

Unknown:

it's a combination of so many factors of the, you know, if

Unknown:

you're a minority coming in and you see another minority, that

Unknown:

company, maybe you're more comfortable and confident in

Unknown:

that interview, you know, like, I think there's a lot of factors

Unknown:

at play. But that's like a very easy thing that you could do.

Unknown:

Just make sure your people are doing the interviews are diverse

Unknown:

themselves some. So

Lindsay Poss:

yeah, the Rooney rule. But for everyone. We have

Lindsay Poss:

any NFL fans out there. We don't google the Rooney Rule. It's a

Lindsay Poss:

good rule. Well, actually, I before we get into our last

Lindsay Poss:

segment, I want to quickly just summarize everything we've

Lindsay Poss:

talked about so far. We started with you giving me basically a

Lindsay Poss:

whole primer on what Ventana does, which was super cool. And

Lindsay Poss:

I, I truly mean that I really enjoyed getting to learn about

Lindsay Poss:

the technology. And what Fontana does do is streamline 3d from

Lindsay Poss:

for design, the manufacturing processes. The it's a, I'm gonna

Lindsay Poss:

say all of this, and then you interject if I'm wrong, but it's

Lindsay Poss:

a b2b software as a solution service that basically takes

Lindsay Poss:

shape files from any 3d type of program that designers might use

Lindsay Poss:

across industries, and converts them into a much smaller, much

Lindsay Poss:

more ready to use customer facing type of file for use and

Lindsay Poss:

advertisements for use in collaboration. One really cool

Lindsay Poss:

example that you gave was use in samples within the fashion

Lindsay Poss:

industry. So allowing people to easily share those rather than

Lindsay Poss:

creating a physical sample should not only reduce costs,

Lindsay Poss:

but severely or severely sorry, word impactfully reduced carbon

Lindsay Poss:

footprint quite a bit. One thing that I thought was super cool is

Lindsay Poss:

that by using 3d models, and going through the design process

Lindsay Poss:

that ways one of your clients was able to go from a six month

Lindsay Poss:

design time to a three week design time, which is a huge

Lindsay Poss:

savings in so many ways. And so this is a b2b service with b2c

Lindsay Poss:

impacts, meaning that clients can create better experience for

Lindsay Poss:

their customers using the optimized files that come from

Lindsay Poss:

fatahna. So I get that right.

Unknown:

Yeah, exactly. And the easiest analogy is just like

Unknown:

Vimeo and YouTube make it easy for you to upload embed into

Unknown:

your video. And Tonya makes it easy for you to upload, embed

Unknown:

and share 3d and

Lindsay Poss:

AR which is so cool. It also democratizes AR

Lindsay Poss:

and VR for all audiences because it removes difficulty and

Lindsay Poss:

converting files to all kinds of different platforms for the

Lindsay Poss:

person who created the file so then be able to use and share

Lindsay Poss:

them. And then we after discussing Ventana, you just did

Lindsay Poss:

a great job of explaining to me how you've interacted with the

Lindsay Poss:

metaverse, which was so fun. I haven't had anyone on quite yet.

Lindsay Poss:

Who's it? Who's done it in the same way you have. I've

Lindsay Poss:

certainly had people who are super involved in Metaverse

Lindsay Poss:

design and building but you're someone who's been having

Lindsay Poss:

Metaverse meetups like before it was cool. You're like a

Lindsay Poss:

Metaverse hipster. So that was really, really fun to learn

Lindsay Poss:

about. I like that you called the metaverse, the spatial

Lindsay Poss:

internet, I think that's an easy way to define it without getting

Lindsay Poss:

lost in the hype. So it's just a new way of interacting with the

Lindsay Poss:

digital world. We actually talked about NF T's which I

Lindsay Poss:

wasn't necessarily expecting to come up, but they are the

Lindsay Poss:

buzzword of the moment. But I don't think that you use it in a

Lindsay Poss:

buzzword II type way. Because what you were teaching me about

Lindsay Poss:

is that have to show that people do value digital ownership and

Lindsay Poss:

assets and valuing. And they also value fully owning that

Lindsay Poss:

asset or thing anywhere in the metaverse so not just a single

Lindsay Poss:

platform item. we pivoted into discussion on funding and

Lindsay Poss:

building a company. You had said that you started by networking,

Lindsay Poss:

building relationships over time, which can be difficult for

Lindsay Poss:

women and minorities who don't traditionally kind of, there's

Lindsay Poss:

some people who kind of start off with that network just in

Lindsay Poss:

their circle. And some people have to work a little bit more

Lindsay Poss:

to get that network. And so you mentioned that you were a person

Lindsay Poss:

who had to work a little more to get that work. But that you

Lindsay Poss:

started with mentorship. You started with coffee dates, you

Lindsay Poss:

started with cold emails to even Mark Cuban. And any recommended

Lindsay Poss:

venture deals as a resource for folks looking for funding. When

Lindsay Poss:

it comes to how we might be able to improve the funding space.

Lindsay Poss:

One thing that you said that was really concrete was keeping

Lindsay Poss:

evaluations, companies and founders consistent across the

Lindsay Poss:

board, which can help bring more people into the room and remove

Lindsay Poss:

some of the barriers for women and minorities, which I think is

Lindsay Poss:

just a overall problem, not just funding society. valuations were

Lindsay Poss:

consistent for everybody. Definitely. And we ended with

Lindsay Poss:

recruiting and keeping women in STEM. You shared a great story

Lindsay Poss:

about how you grew up and became interested and shout out to Your

Lindsay Poss:

third grade science teacher for letting you do extra

Lindsay Poss:

experiments. But how it is important to nurture young woman

Lindsay Poss:

who showed interest in math and science, colleges are doing a

Lindsay Poss:

lot better to recruit and maintain diverse students. This

Lindsay Poss:

is not necessarily every college, but I know that a lot

Lindsay Poss:

of places are working really hard to make this top of mind,

Lindsay Poss:

which means that the pipeline problem can no longer be stated

Lindsay Poss:

on the business and hiring. And then there is a pipeline, you

Lindsay Poss:

have to go out and find the candidates. But one thing that

Lindsay Poss:

can help is by creating a path from entry level up and training

Lindsay Poss:

programs for those who are interested in actually moving up

Lindsay Poss:

that path. So actually having a vision for folks that start

Lindsay Poss:

working with the company and figuring out a way to move them

Lindsay Poss:

forward if they would like to do so is one of the best ways to

Lindsay Poss:

attract and maintain employees. And then we also discussed the

Lindsay Poss:

interview process and how making sure that the interviewers

Lindsay Poss:

diverse, are diverse means that you can help ensure that you get

Lindsay Poss:

more diversity within your candidates. So that was a wide

Lindsay Poss:

ranging discussion. But I like to end every podcast with what I

Lindsay Poss:

call the moment of reflection. And this is just a chance for

Lindsay Poss:

you to look back on your career. And the thing that I asked you

Lindsay Poss:

to answer is what is the one thing you would like to tell

Lindsay Poss:

your younger self about getting into the tech industry and being

Lindsay Poss:

successful?

Unknown:

Oh, man, I don't want to celebrate the wins. I think

Unknown:

as you as you grow, you know,

Lindsay Poss:

you're I have

Unknown:

so many I think any entrepreneurs like this, you're

Unknown:

always looking for that next thing that next level you want

Unknown:

to get to and sometimes you forget to celebrate the wins

Unknown:

along the way, and you don't realize how far you've come. And

Unknown:

so

Lindsay Poss:

that would be my advice.

Unknown:

I really liked

Lindsay Poss:

that I haven't had anyone give that sort of advice.

Lindsay Poss:

But yeah, I think that women should brag more. You can still

Lindsay Poss:

be humble and brag a little bit it's fine.

Unknown:

It's possible even just for your own self like enjoy way

Unknown:

the the winds when they happen and don't blow past and think

Unknown:

about the next thing you know too fast. So yeah,

Lindsay Poss:

take a second I get it. Thank you so much for

Lindsay Poss:

coming on. Where can people find you follow you read what you're

Lindsay Poss:

thinking about? Find Ventana contacting for sales.

Unknown:

I'm on LinkedIn, love LinkedIn. So just Ashley

Unknown:

Crowder, you can find me there. You can follow Ventana on

Unknown:

LinkedIn as well. Or go to our website. It's just the n t a n

Unknown:

a.com. So it's like window and Spanish and sauna without the so

Lindsay Poss:

I actually didn't put that together until you said

Lindsay Poss:

that. But that's great. For all the listeners out there. Be sure

Lindsay Poss:

to leave those five star ratings and reviews. Check out other

Lindsay Poss:

holodeck media podcasts, including metal business for all

Lindsay Poss:

the metaverse finance stories you could ever want. Business of

Lindsay Poss:

esports for interviews with industry leaders. I'm on

Lindsay Poss:

Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and Lindsey pass and you can

Lindsay Poss:

catch me once you Nate's on the business of esports live after

Lindsay Poss:

show. You can catch this podcast and your feed every week. We'll

Lindsay Poss:

see you next week.

Unknown:

Thanks for joining us here on meta woman. Make sure to

Unknown:

subscribe to this podcast everywhere you get your

Unknown:

podcasts, leave a five star review and tell your friends,

Unknown:

family and colleagues all about us. Also, make sure to follow

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About the Podcast

META Woman
Weekly metaverse content - for women, by women
Meta Woman will focus on addressing the issues, opportunities, and challenges facing women in the development of the Metaverse. Top female executives and business people operating within the gaming and crypto industries bring a wide range of perspectives through regular guest appearances.