Ross Finman (Augmodo) on Customer Discovery and Leveraging AI + AR (Part 2)

Ross Finman is the CEO of Augmodo, a company utilizing AI and AR to revolutionize grocery store experiences and economics starting with the personal shoppers who fulfill online grocery purchases.

Previously Ross spent 4 ½ years at Niantic. There he founded the AR mapping and Visual Positioning System (VPS) effort before becoming the AR Strategy Lead and then the general manager for the AR Headset group.

He joined Niantic through the acquisition of his first startup, Escher Reality, which became the foundation for Niantic’s AR Platform, now called Lightship.

He started Escher Reality as he was finishing his Ph.D. in Robotics from MIT, after previously completing his undergrad in computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon.

In this conversation, the second of two parts, Ross digs into his current startup, Augmodo.

We discuss:

- the problem they are solving,
- the importance and approach to customer discovery,
- how AR and AI work together to form a solution,
- why now is the right timing and this the right opportunity, and
- some recent progress and announcements.

Ross goes on to share additional lessons learned and advice for deep tech startup founders.

You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com. Please consider contributing to my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/theARshow.

Links From The Episode

- Article: [Innovating Category Management – Groceryshop 2023](https://retailwire.com/blog/innovating-category-management-groceryshop-2023/) by Georges Mirza for RetailWire

- Article: [Pokémon GO creator Niantic buys Escher Reality AR startup](https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/01/niantic-buy-escher-reality-ar-startup/) by Lucas Matney for TechCrunch…and related [Niantic blog post](https://nianticlabs.com/news/escherreality).

- Article: [BMW introduces Smartglasses for Motorcycling](https://mixed-news.com/en/bmw-connectedride-smartglasses-announced/) Benjamin Danneberg for Mixed News

- Video: [Star Wars: Jedi Challenges Review - Lenovo Mirage AR Mobile Headset](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-hsJ0xeaT4) by TWiT Tech Podcast Network

- Patent: [Augmented Reality Hat](https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2022219603A1/en) by Ross Finman, Michael Miller, and Maryam Sabour

- YouTube Channel: [Perun](https://www.youtube.com/@PerunAU)—an Australian covering the military industrial complex and national military investment strategy.

- [Episode Transcript - Part 1](https://otter.ai/u/5KVmmaOHVjMliriCJLzbsA1Tj8E)

- [Episode Transcript - Part 2](https://otter.ai/u/m50rbDodqw1gwz1NHJgMytTr9vw)

Please consider contributing to my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/theARshow.