Going on a TRIPP to hack Human Consciousness with Nanea, Zack and Andreja

As a gamer and early adopter of new platforms, VR to me is the next logical and disruptive medium for interactive and immersive experiences: the entire history of art, storytelling & media has been an attempt from one human being to tell or show another human being “this is what it’s like to be me,” and perhaps now we can finally experience vs. just watch or listen. But for the past several years, I’ve been on a broader mission with my investment work, trying to stretch beyond entertainment and games to fund startups harnessing technology that can make us *more* human and connected — with each other and with our aspirational, better selves. Thanks to technology, we’ve created a post-Abundance era filled with infinite choices and convenience but also more distractions and complexity than ever before, leaving many of us feeling overwhelmed, out of balance, and even addicted. I have been waiting to find the right team to partner with on this mission, with a shared vision and the right offering for this stage of the market (for a while now, I’ve been saying at VR conferences that the killer app for virtual reality shouldn’t be VR Netflix, but “VR Net-trips”).

That’s why I’m excited to announce our investment in TRIPP — a Los Angeles-based company which is building what I believe to be a truly killer app native to VR, that goes far beyond just gaming or VR cinematic content. TRIPP’s killer founding team consists of Nanea Reeves (Electronic Arts, Machinima, Gaikai, JAMDAT), and Zack Norman (Activision, JAMDAT, TextPlus). They are joined by Andreja Djokovic, former head of game development studio Babaroga in Chicago.

Although VR is still a nascent market in terms of revenues and install base, TRIPP is aiming for mass market appeal via mobile VR on existing handsets first, without requiring high end HMDs like Oculus or Vive. TRIPP’s new type of experience will be native to the VR format, and has the potential to be an initial killer app for the medium, blending generative visualization, adaptive music, and mood enhancement with deep personalization and machine learning. The goal is to create a dynamic and interactive VR visualization engine that take the user through different “Tripps” depending upon what the user wants to feel, from focused to relaxed, to reflective or grateful. TRIPP is also building its platform to have each journey adapted to the user based on past journeys, and become increasingly personalized over time.

It’s rare to find a team with the combined DNA of storytelling, business expertise and technical depth that also has a deeply personal mission to leverage a new medium to improve people’s lives. I’m honored to partner with Nanea, Zack and the rest of the team and look forward to participating in their impact on the world.