Summary
Customer engagement is a vital need for thousands of companies. Increasingly, a sleek digital presence is a pre-requisite for fostering that engagement. And as tools like augmented reality and virtual reality become more commonplace, consumers may expect such experiences when they interact with their favorite companies online.
MyXR wants to make it easier for companies to create that digital, AR-enhanced experience. The company has created customizable platforms that businesses can use to drive their customer engagement. We recently sat down with CEO Hans Koch to learn about the decades of development that have gone into MyXR’s products and what potential investors should know about the company.
Note: This interview was conducted over phone and email. It has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Can you give us a brief elevator pitch for your company?
MyXR Inc is a three year old, post-revenue, SaaS company with augmented reality, AI, gamification, and rewards platforms. Our flagship platforms are MyXR Engage 2.0x (multi-industry gamification/engagement platform) and MyXR Experience Platform 3.0 (Syndicated Augmented Reality platform, soon to be called MyXR T1/TX). The software has previously been embedded in hundreds of apps and reached millions of users. The 2021 releases (2nd and 3rd gen) are set to be released to partners globally. More information can be found at www.MyXR.com.
What inspired you to take the leap and build this company?
Making people smile — seriously. If we can’t make our clients and investors smile, this isn’t the business we should be in. The things we laid out in our roadmap are falling into place for us globally — from product to revenue. We also envisioned our technology to change lives for the better, and now we’re inspired every day by the use cases created by our customers and users, creating new businesses and new opportunities for the company to build value beyond the bottom line.
What past experiences prepared you to start, build, and lead your company?
My background is building award-winning companies in different industries, and my experience in each one has a small piece in MyXR. I learned through experience the power of partnerships and that the journey isn’t a race but a marathon. My first company, Owners.com, changed how we buy and sell homes by creating the first online marketplace to do it directly. The films I was lucky to be a part of had incredible results because of the teams.The real estate developments my companies did were just visions before they were award-winning and sold. These are just a few. Partnerships and exceptional teams were a part of every one, taking commitment over the whole marathon.
What is your vision for the future of the industry you are operating in?
The very nature of augmented reality is that it augments the world we live in. There are endless opportunities for our industry. We are building the platform that all creators will want to work with as we work on distribution in all facets of life and business and in all corners of the world.
Who is on your team and how did you come together?
We have an incredible team that has come together since I assumed full control of the company in 2020. To highlight a couple of them, our core team includes Peter Stramese (President), who has led/deployed communications systems for NASA and other agencies. Pete leads an incredible team of inside and outside engineering teams, including one of our investor/strategic partners, KiwiTech.
We met Brian Saal — our new VP of Partnerships — in 2018 when he was with an NFL team that we knew, and we are excited to have him now on our team now with his deep understanding of professional sports, brands, talent, and community. We have our teams in Nashville, Michigan, Los Angeles, New Delhi, San Francisco, and DC — all working together on a single mission.
Do you have any competition, if so, how do you differentiate?
We have a lot of competition generally if you look at both rewards and augmented reality. There are some great companies out there. We are different in our business approach, business model, sales strategy — and the flexibility and adaptability of our software/IP to scale quickly with our partners is a big differentiator. The platforms of 2021 are products of a decade of work, testing, and initial deployments.
What does your business model look like?
We created a business model for our SaaS business that drives revenue, shares revenue with our partners in some cases, and delivers to the bottom line throughout the year. We sell annual or longer term subscriptions for our two platforms, Engage and Experience Platform. Additionally, we derive reward and product placement revenue on each platform. We will from time to time release new a la carte products, like the MyXR Portal, which debuted in 2020 and is being upgraded for 2021. Resellers for each platform, by geographic region or by vertical, add velocity to our business model.
What brought you to equity crowdfunding and how do you intend to use the money you raise this round to scale the business?
We believe in building markets and shareholder value, to create an exit opportunity for all investors. We chose Netcapital for its deep commitment to compliance, and for a company that is within a shot of going public, they are the pre-season and crowdfunding in general is the regular season. This particular round will go to expanding engineering before we announce our new partners, revenue, etc.
What do you want potential investors to know about you and/or your company?
We are tireless, passionate, and connected. We are also investors and would not be here if the opportunity was anything short of market maker or exit-worthy. We believed in proving the business before we scale — as we proved our business model in 2018 with revenue. We made adjustments and advancements over the last year and a half to be in a better position to scale quickly, and investors today get the benefit of that multi-year investment.
As you think about the business 5-10 years down the road, what do you see exit opportunities looking like? Have you set any future goals for the company?
The exit opportunities — given growth, revenues, and predictable ARR — could start to become reality in 12-to-24 months, if not before. Whether IPO or acquisition, we believe we will have options to maximize investment returns. We are on plan with respect to our roadmap of growth and product development, and following our vision and global ambition, initially laid out in early 2018.
We at KingsCrowd are excited to see where Hans and his team take the company. MyXR is currently raising on Netcapital.
