The Challenge of Replicating Reality

a16z Podcast

a16z

Science, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Culture, Disruption, Software Eating The World, Technology

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What would you do if you believed in an idea but everyone said it would fail, nobody would fund you, and the industry was experiencing a nuclear winter? Despite experiencing exactly that, Sandbox VR founder Steve Zhao doubled down and invested all of his personal savings into the unproven business. 7 years and 1 bankruptcy later, Steve has built the world’s leading full-body VR experience with over 30 locations across the globe. In this interview, we get to chat with Steve about the many challenges he faced, how Sandbox made it through the pandemic, the future of VR, and the difficult task of tackling hardware, software, a new computing platform, and real estate.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You know, running a startup is hard.
0:03.0	Running a retail start during the pandemic is really, really hard.
0:06.0	And running a retail start during the pandemic while going through Chapter 11
0:10.0	is really, really, really, really, really hard.
0:14.0	What would you do if you believed in an idea, but no one would fund you?
0:18.0	Everyone thought it would fail, and the industry you're in also happened to be going through a nuclear winter.
0:23.0	Well, today we are talking to Steve Zow,
0:26.0	the founder of Sandbox VR who encountered all of the above.
0:29.0	In fact, about a year into founding Sandbox,
0:32.0	he had to double down and invest all of his life savings into this unproven business.
0:37.0	But seven years after founding and one bankruptcy later, Steve now has built the world's leading full-body VR experience with over 30 locations all around the world.
0:46.4	In this interview, we get to chat with Steve about the early challenges he faced, and trust me, there were many,
0:51.6	but also how sandbox survived survived the pandemic the difficult
0:54.8	task of building across hardware, software, a new computing platform and real estate and
1:00.0	also how Steve thinks about the future of VR.
1:03.4	Oh, and if you're hearing this, you're listening on our podcast feed.
1:06.4	But for this episode in particular, we created some exclusive video content
1:09.8	that you can only find at our YouTube channel.
1:12.0	So go ahead and search A16C on YouTube and amongst the footage
1:14.8	you'll see my very own visit to the full body experience that is sandbox VR. As a reminder,
1:20.4	the content here is for informational purposes only.
1:22.8	Should not be taken as legal business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security
	...

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