03:03:10 · Chris Samra, Jordi Hays, John Coogan
[03:03:10] S9: Yeah. No. These are cosmetic. [03:03:11] S0: They Okay. [03:03:12] S9: They they're not [03:03:13] S1: Not not live. So, yeah, this is kind of like a typical hardware prelaunch vision statement, collect preorders, and then start manufacturing, I assume. Yep. Very cool. What what was the key takeaway? What was the good response? What was the stuff that you think you need to address? How has the overall response been? What have you, like, learned? What did you expect versus surprised you? [03:03:35] S9: So I'll talk about the good and the bad. I think, you know, we we have hundreds of creators in our inbox right now. It is it is really popping off. I mean Yeah. I think, you know, Twitter is is very much like a tech forward audience but even with that, I think with the virality, we were really able to lock in our ICP here. We have some of the biggest names in IRL that want to work with us. I can't name names right now, but, it is very exciting. The downside, I mean, like, I think I think we we we got a lot of feedback about privacy. [03:04:07] S1: Yep. [03:04:07] S9: And, you know, I think we're we're still pretty set on our stance here. Like, we're gonna ship with an indicator light, but in the conversations that we had with content creators, a lot of them emphasized the fact that, like, you know, they they want something that allows them to capture candid authentic moments because those go the most viral. [03:04:28] S1: Mhmm.
03:04:28 · John Coogan, Chris Samra, Jordi Hays
[03:04:28] S1: Mhmm. [03:04:29] S9: And if in certain situations that means them being able to disable the lights, we wanna give that option to them. So yeah. [03:04:38] S0: And that's distinctly, we were just talking with Casey Neistat. He said that if you try to cover the indicator light on the meta Ray Bans, then stops filming. Yeah. And so do you think part of your opportunity is that you're willing to go and do something that Zuck won't? [03:04:54] S1: Counter positioned. [03:04:55] S9: I think so. Like, I mean, I I don't think meta realizes where the puck is going. I think they're they're way too focused on, like, adding AI and waveguide displays and trying to go after a bigger market that we don't really know is going to fully adopt just yet. What we're seeing now is, like, the most retentive Ray Ban's users are content creators. And what are they doing? They're posting social content on Reels and TikTok. They're posting prank videos, Riz videos, like social interactions, interviews, things like that. Right? And all of them that we talk to are just like, we wanna take this and we wanna go live. Like instead of me flirting with somebody on a short clip, I wanna actually live stream a date and have a chat, tell me what to say and what to do. Right? So we just wanna be able to enable those kinds of content to to exist. [03:05:43] S1: How is the actual live streaming infrastructure? I assume this pairs with your iPhone somehow to pass to to like some sort of stream key to or whatever. Yeah?
03:05:43 · John Coogan, Chris Samra, Jordi Hays
[03:05:43] S1: How is the actual live streaming infrastructure? I assume this pairs with your iPhone somehow to pass to to like some sort of stream key to or whatever. Yeah? [03:05:52] S9: Exactly. It's just RTMP. So we stream to the phone and then phone streams to either the the streamers back end and then to Twitter Kick or just straight to the streaming service. [03:06:02] S1: Yeah. Is there any like pushback from Apple on this type of thing? Are they pretty open with those particular APIs? It's effectively just a camera. [03:06:11] S9: Yeah. Are apps that exist already that let you this just [03:06:14] S1: a different camera. [03:06:15] S0: Yeah. What about the how do you evaluate like the technical risk? The the glasses look great. Small. They're very and they look really tiny. You're trying to pack a lot in there. Maybe the the actual quality of the video matters less early than just the ability to have that FPV view. [03:06:36] S9: So I'm pretty confident that, you know, we'll be able to hit a pretty similar quality to a Meta Ray Banz or a Meta Oakley. We we have good connects in Shenzhen that have set us up with some really good suppliers. And, you know, I think, like, if if the issue is, like, can we fit it in these frames? The answer is yes. Mhmm. Like, the way we've sized it is is kind of unique in that. I almost call these, like, the hockey stick temples because Sure. We keep it thin in the front and then, like, thicker in the back. So PCB, internal battery, and then swappable battery.
03:06:36 · Chris Samra, John Coogan, Jordi Hays
[03:06:36] S9: So I'm pretty confident that, you know, we'll be able to hit a pretty similar quality to a Meta Ray Banz or a Meta Oakley. We we have good connects in Shenzhen that have set us up with some really good suppliers. And, you know, I think, like, if if the issue is, like, can we fit it in these frames? The answer is yes. Mhmm. Like, the way we've sized it is is kind of unique in that. I almost call these, like, the hockey stick temples because Sure. We keep it thin in the front and then, like, thicker in the back. So PCB, internal battery, and then swappable battery. [03:07:09] S1: That'll be the swappable. Temples. So Yeah. They two different batteries? You can swap one and then swap the other and then swap the other. [03:07:16] S9: Only one swappable battery. [03:07:17] S1: Okay. [03:07:18] S9: But we'll we'll pack it with two. So, like, while while you're using one, the other one's charging. [03:07:23] S1: Got it. [03:07:23] S9: So you can just flip flop. And it's hot swappable, so you don't have to stop your stream. [03:07:27] S1: You don't have to stop your stream because there's enough battery juice in the actual glasses that when you take the battery out, you have a minute to swap the next one or something. [03:07:33] S0: Exactly. Yeah. [03:07:34] S1: That makes a ton of sense. [03:07:35] S0: What were you doing before this?
03:07:35 · Jordi Hays, Chris Samra, John Coogan
[03:07:35] S0: What were you doing before this? [03:07:37] S9: So I originally started this company with my cofounder to do sub vocal speech recognition. We did a lot of stuff with, like, neurotech and just, like, ML research. And I think we were caught in this loop where, like, we wanted to make a cool gadget, but we were way too research focused and not market focused. [03:07:55] S0: Mhmm. [03:07:55] S9: And we just decided to do a full one eighty and just, you know, I'm I'm very inspired by what Roy Lee has done and what Avi has done with their products. And I I just think that, like, you know, really focusing on a retentive user, so I e a content creator, but then also making a gadget that's just cool, and nice to wear and doesn't look like a super bulky thing and just I think that's that's the goal for me. [03:08:21] S1: So Sub vocal. So you were thinking like hardware device that I can whisper and it picks up what I'm saying? [03:08:27] S9: Or just mouth out words. Yeah. [03:08:28] S1: Just mouth out words. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Interesting. [03:08:31] S0: How much did you spend on the launch video? Yeah. It's very well well produced. [03:08:35] S1: That thing looks amazing. [03:08:36] S9: So I mean, we have a we have the next Spielberg on our team, Donald is is an amazing individual. We we actually filmed it in Canada. So Cool. For context, my cofounder and I were both Canadian. Yeah. We filmed it in Vancouver. It was around, I'd say USD, like, maybe $50.60 k. [03:08:55] S1: Wow. Solid. Yeah. I mean, we invited you. I mean, it looks like Super Bowl quality.
03:08:55 · John Coogan, Jordi Hays, Chris Samra
[03:08:55] S1: Wow. Solid. Yeah. I mean, we invited you. I mean, it looks like Super Bowl quality. [03:08:59] S0: Well, yeah. And there's so many different actors. I'm assuming you just like actually had to hire a bunch of people. [03:09:05] S1: Now now none of the footage is from the same sensor that will be in the actual camera. So there'll probably be some sort of disconnect there. But hopefully people are happy with the final sensor. Do you [03:09:15] S0: have [03:09:15] S1: any goals? Like, you know, we shoot on FX3. I like the full frame look. I like a 12 megapixel, you know, four k. Obviously, can't stuff all that into, you know, something the size of a little smartphone camera. Where where are the break points in terms of quantitative metrics for a camera to get good enough that people will actually share it? Because even with the Meta Ray bans, the the pictures and images I was taking and videos, they weren't jumping out to me as like, yeah, these are really great to post right now. [03:09:46] S9: Yeah. I think a big thing with with the metas is just image stabilization. Like, if you're like walking around while while you're taking the video, there's like almost like a bobbing effect. And I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done there. Low light is another thing. I mean, you're kind of working against the volume that you have to fit the sensor. So you you are already constrained with how much light that you can actually capture.