In the latest episode of “Who Are These Startups,” the startup coach sits down with Jerry Chien, the CEO and Co-founder of Gravvity, a Canadian startup revolutionizing the creation of 3D augmented reality and virtual reality shops. Gravvity enables anyone to easily build virtual shopping experiences without the need for coding expertise, catering to the growing trend of virtual environments where kids spend hours each day.

As the podcast dives into the interview, Jerry explains the current landscape of virtual shopping experiences and how major brands are increasingly investing in this space. However, the main challenge lies in the complexity and cost associated with hiring development teams to create these virtual shops. Gravvity aims to simplify the process, making it accessible and affordable for anyone to bring their virtual shops to life.

The interview covers a range of topics, including Gravvity’s core offering, their target audience, and the story behind the startup’s inception. Jerry also discusses what drives him as an entrepreneur and how he defines success in the dynamic world of technology startups.

The conversation delves into Gravvity’s business model, funding situation, and the lessons Jerry has learned along the way. He reflects on the biggest challenges faced as a founder and shares insights on effective pitching techniques. Additionally, Jerry reveals his favorite productivity hack, utilizing ChatGPT, and talks about the Next AI program, which Gravvity is a part of.

For aspiring founders, Jerry provides valuable tips and advice, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and team building. As an AI founder, he shares his thoughts on the current debates surrounding AI development and addresses the concerns and fears associated with it.

Listeners can connect with Jerry and Gravvity on LinkedIn, where they can learn more about the company’s innovative approach to web3 store creation. Building such stores may seem daunting, but Gravvity aims to streamline the process, reducing the time commitment and asset requirements typically associated with it.

Tune in to this episode of “Who Are These Startups” to gain insights into the world of virtual shopping experiences and how Gravvity is transforming the way we shop in virtual environments.

Links:

Gravvity Website

Jerry Chien on LinkedIn

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

founder, startup, gravvity, create, ai, shop, companies, virtual, space, big, product, opportunity, super, day, experience, path, marketplace, executable, building, shopify

SPEAKERS

Jerry Chien, The Startup Coach

The Startup Coach 

Welcome to Who are the startups podcast shorts featuring founder interviews of Canadian startups.  Don’t let pain hold you back, get fast pain relief with the pain removers, maximum strength pain relief balm, the perfect solution for chronic pain and sore muscles, visit the pain removers.com and get back to living your life to the fullest.  Welcome back to who are these startups. I’m the startup coach, founder of Toronto starts and with me today is Jerry Chen, CEO and co founder of gravvity. Welcome, Jerry.

Jerry Chien 

Thanks a lot, Craig, really appreciate it.

The Startup Coach 

What is gravvity do

Jerry Chien 

so we make it possible for anyone to create 3d augmented reality and virtual reality shops basically had in the marketplace right now all the biggest brands are creating these virtual shopping experiences, because they realized that kids are spending almost three hours a day in these virtual environments like Roblox, Minecraft and fortnight. And it’s projected to reach you know, to $2.6 trillion by 2030. So the big brands are piling in. But the real challenge right now is that it’s really complicated and expensive to hire teams of developers to create these virtual shopping experiences. And with gravvity, we basically make it super simple and easy for anyone to be able to create these virtual shops, without any coding experience require.

The Startup Coach 

What kind or size of business is gravvity for

Jerry Chien 

was basically for any type of business. To be honest, it could be for a big global brand, or it can be a small little retailer. Similar to what Shopify has done. For the ease of creating online shops, we’re basically making it just as easy to create these types of immersive virtual shopping experiences.

The Startup Coach 

What is your startup story?

Jerry Chien 

So we actually started in the height of COVID, or startup COVID. Back in January of 2020. Myself, I previously built the world’s first billion dollar insurance program for cryptocurrencies convincing 20 different traditional property and casualty insurance companies back in 2017, to put up a billion dollars. And so from that experience, I had quite a bit of work through different opportunities. And then my co founder, Jason Harrington, who is really a genius, sort of product advertising guy from Spotify, Snapchat, and Twitter. And we embarked on this journey to really think about how we can actually create tools using AI and XR, to help creators come up with better content in the social space. That’s kind of how we started our Genesis. And through that path, we ultimately landed on, you know, being really focused on serving the virtual shopping space. What drives you? Personally, I really want to empower as many people as I possibly can, having sort of drank from the Kool Aid of blockchain crypto space, and I definitely saw the fact that there’s this huge future where hopefully, we can spread the power and wealth, I guess, better for everyone and create more accessibility and opportunity for smaller sort of players to stick their nose in and try to get some outcomes that run our seem to be kept by sort of consolidation and big conglomerates in the world.

The Startup Coach 

How do you define success?

Jerry Chien 

Well, for me, it’s really about you know, how much impact I can have on people, especially people that I care about. But certainly, I want to find that the path where people can have the best opportunity to maximize their own potential. So that’s truly what drives me. And that’s how I measure success is that if my team is doing well, they’re healthy, they’re successful. My partners are successful, I believe in creating Win Win scenarios for everyone that I sort of get involved with.

The Startup Coach 

What is gravvity’s business model?

Yeah, so right now, it costs literally hundreds of $1,000 to create a virtual shop. And with gravvity, you can actually create a virtual shop for free. It usually takes, you know, months to create a virtual shop. Now you can create a virtual shop in minutes using our templates and our AI solutions. And basically, you can run your shop for less than it costs to run a shop or Shopify. And so it’s a monthly subscription plan. And then we have the adoption, depending on the partnerships that we have. I’ve also collecting fees on a processing fees on all the different shop transactions that are happening.

The Startup Coach 

What is your funding situation?

Jerry Chien 

We’re basically at this point still grinding along in terms of bootstrapping our business as far as we can go. We have raised money through equity crowdfunding, and we have raised money through government, you know, loans and subsidies and things like that. But we’ve been trying to stay lean and mean and we’re about now at the time that we’re ready to scale. So we’re currently seeking and exploring all the different lead investor options to help us reach sort of our goals over the next six to nine months.

The Startup Coach 

What is your biggest learning as a founder, I

think, you know, everyone tells you hey, man, it’s hard. It’s a grind. It really is. And as big as your idea is, you know, I think and youth Hope that you can get funding for it. If I was to go back in time, I definitely would have picked something that is very executable where it doesn’t rely on any venture funding for sure. You know, something that I can get to market quickly, something that can be monetized, and use that as a building block for whatever other bigger vision that you actually have. So I think the commitment to analyzing the opportunities and being more thoughtful around, you know, what’s realistic to achieve with the resources that you have at hand, versus expecting or hoping or relying on the fact that a VC would have to come in to save the day?

The Startup Coach 

What’s your biggest lesson in pitching your startup?

Jerry Chien 

I think the biggest thing is, and when we started pitching, it was like, tell them everything that you possibly can about your product, your business, and, you know, make sure that you answer all the questions that everyone always try to predict, I guess everything and try to try to tackle that in the pitch. What I’ve learned is, if that’s not what really matters, but there’s always gonna be questions, there’s always gonna be things you can’t cover. So find a really cool story, a cool narrative that touches on the highest level of key key points, that creates curiosity and interest in what you’re doing and establishes trust and belief that you can actually execute. So that’s kind of what what I’ve learned over the years, and certainly, we’ve gone through literally hundreds of different pitch decks. So yeah, definitely being confident and having a very clear, simple story to tell.

The Startup Coach 

Being an AI founder, what’s your favorite productivity hack or AI tool?

Jerry Chien 

There’s not gonna be the most unique answer here. But, um, you can’t ignore the impact that Chachi Beatty has had on everybody and everything, like the casual, anybody who’s just, you know, has any challenge in writing or understanding something or researching something? How could you ignore that tool? And so yeah, I use it, literally. And it saved me so much time. And also I think what’s unique for me anyways, I use it for a lot of validation of like, Hey, man, I have this thoughts. Here’s how I wrote something, is there anything else that’s missing that would be normally should be included? And to me, that’s huge to have the confidence that you’ve covered generally, what you think is the right topics?

The Startup Coach 

You are in the next day I program? Can you tell us a little bit about your experience?

Jerry Chien 

Oh, man, the next day I program has been awesome. Our venture manager Stephanie has been just incredible to work with, I mean, any startup there’s ups and downs and things that you’re you’re working on, and we certainly had our fair share. And they’re always been there to guide us with sort of, not just what best practices are, but obviously what other you know, other companies have dealt with and how they’ve handled it. And, you know, the guidance they provided have been truly sort of invaluable. The network that you’re building, I think it’s super amazing. Like, everyone’s all trying to ask hustle on their own projects, but I’ve never had a problem with anybody else, you know, reaching out to anybody else and saying, Hey, what do you think of this with that, and then providing with support and, and hopefully they feel comfortable sort of doing that same with me as well. So yeah, it’s definitely a very different accelerator, I would even call an accelerator, you know, they frame it as really sort of a founder development program. And that’s truly what it is, you feel like they’re investing and trying to build you, as a founder to give you the the building blocks to be successful. And that’s something that is absolutely necessary. And I wish that we would have experienced next AI a little earlier, would have definitely would have saved us a lot of headaches and bumps in the road that we would know to overcome quicker and maybe easier along the way. So yeah, nothing but great things to say. And hopefully any other startup has the opportunity to be involved in that program.

The Startup Coach 

Do you have any tips for founders,

Jerry Chien 

as I said earlier, the, you know, the concept of building something that’s small and executable and monetizable. In the beginning, you know, I think it can’t be understated. I think that’s really, really valuable to understand. It also gives you a path where you are in control of what you’re trying to do. And, you know, I think you get pulled in so many different directions by so many advisors resources to people just kind of having their you know, their thoughts and their from their experience. But you need to shape your own path. And I think having control by having a scope that makes sense that you’re able to execute on really will streamline your experience. And I think that’s the biggest lesson that I’ve learned over the years.

The Startup Coach 

As an AI founder, what is your reaction to the current called the pause AI development and all the fear around it?

Jerry Chien 

Was the fear warranted? I think yes. Is it realistic to actually pause? No, I think it’s just that’s just the way I feel about it. I feel like it’s a lot of bluster PR based for the industry or for specific strategic reasons people are calling for it. I think the Pandora is out of the box and I don’t think there’s going to be any way to actually put the genie back in for me. It’s really about how do we educate people enough to understand how people should be using it. And for the Malicious or bad players, you know, how do we actually build tools to detect and navigate that so for every problem that exists with this, there should be a counter solution that should be available. To believe, hopefully help stabilize and balance the market. Oh,

The Startup Coach 

building a web three store sounds pretty daunting, what kind of assets and time commitment is needed from a founder or a startup or any company really, to do it with gravvity and make it look professional?

Jerry Chien 

Well, actually, it would have shot templates, just the same as a Shopify does. And you literally just pick the template that you want. And in a matter of minutes, you could be live selling items. So, you know, obviously, there’s some technical challenges that are still in our path in terms of getting products, physical world products scanned in efficiently into 3d spaces. But that’s that technology is moving at lightning speed. And we fully expect that by the time we’re fully scalable, that that will be solved with all the all the things that we’re researching and seeing in the marketplace. It’s something that we’ve made a point of trying to keep it as simple as you possibly can. You literally pick a virtual space pick, upload your logos, your color, your vibe, your music, or whatever you’re choosing, and your products, and you’re basically ready to go. So we’ve kind of made it super simple to create a shop.

The Startup Coach 

Everyone talks about hustle, what kind of traction is gravvity getting in the marketplace?

Jerry Chien 

Yes, so actually, our beachhead marketplace is actually Japan. A place where virtual experiences and Metaverse is just part of their everyday life, but definitely leaders in that space. So back in 2022, we were actually selected by the Canadian government. It’s one of the 10 companies to represent Canada on a Metaverse trade mission to Japan. And through that, we’ve developed incredible partnerships and discussions with some of the biggest companies in Japan. So we’ve developed three POCs already over the past three months. And we have a pipeline of over 20,000 shops that we’re ready to capitalize on. So the projects are super cool. We’re working with some of the best Atomy companies studios, studios that have over 4000, TV and film sort of titles. And so like, yeah, we’re super excited to be there. And you know, what’s really great about being there is that you don’t no one asks you why would someone want to shop in a virtual space? Well, because that’s already happening, and people are already sort of comfortable with that. So it really creates a headwind for us. Right, tailwind? I’m not sure. But it’s really creates a good opportunity for us to launch. And I think there were a lot of great support from the Canadian and Japanese government. So we’re super keen to keep pushing on that pipeline.

The Startup Coach 

Where can our listeners connect with you and gravvity online?

Jerry Chien 

Yeah, check me out on LinkedIn. I think that’s the place where I’m most active in terms of just being responsive. So definitely feel free to DM me or follow me or whatever you like on LinkedIn. Obviously, our website is gravvity.ai. So feel free to check out we’re all belts, you can check out our demo of our product, which I think is cool. So yeah, look forward to engaging with anybody who’s keen to find out more about us.

The Startup Coach 

I really appreciate you taking the time to be a part of who are these startups.

Jerry Chien 

Thank you so much for this opportunity, Craig would appreciate it.

The Startup Coach 

This has been who are the startups? Find out more at whoarethestartups.com and check out our live events at Torontostarts.com/events