Hey guys its been a while, here's where we are:
Strategy
I started this company in order to accelerate the mainstream adoption of augmented reality eyewear. My thesis was, if we could simply make things small enough and stylish enough, then the masses would accept this category (which sounds eerily similar "build it and they will come"). I tried everything I possibly could to convince more investors to come on board, but with the amount of dollars that went into MagicLeap and North many investors had been scared away from consumer. I say this to say that the project is now shifting solely to enterprise applications. This category is easier to fundraise for and one I had been resisting for years. Rather than continue to bang my head against the wall and grit my teeth to get more fundraising for R&D on a consumer, I decided that its better to have the project return to profitability by embracing enterprise (this could then give us the opportunity to use excess capital to fund a consumer product in the future).
To state it in one sentence, "the company creates hands-free streaming devices that improves remote teamwork, respects privacy, and are easy to use". The enterprise product is camera centric with an option for a virtual display. We are taking advantage of the fact that work-from-home is here to stay and there is a skilled worker shortage. Think the ability to have someone in the field be able to use their hands while a remote experts guides or assist them with details from hundreds of miles away. This camera centric product "C2" is a clip-on and works in tandem with our virtual display product "G5".
Marketing
Along with this change in target market is a change in company structure. As mentioned several times in the past, the consumer side of LAFORGE Optical, the brand "LAFORGE", was a large money loser for us but there was profitable side of the company known as "The House of Light Optics", which is where the new ideas and intellectual property came from. The licenses and partnerships from the house of light optics allowed LAFORGE to operate in the red without the company becoming insolvent (that is until the pandemic hit). This next part is probably TMI (but here we go anyway): when I created this company I intentionally called the departments "houses" as part of a future plan to have these groups on separate floors (when the company grew) and have projects working in common areas as a way to cut down on red tape and to put certain functions in lower cost parts of the US. Anyway, I say all that to say that in 2022 LAFORGE Optical will be rebranded as "The House of Light Optics" or "The HOLO" (for short).
LAFORGE (the eyewear brand) will take a backseat (forums and forum history will stay) and undergo a revised image once we and new investors think its the right time for a consumer device. This means that once The HOLO ships its new devices (described below) LAFORGE pre-order customers will be given the option to get one of those devices or take a refund. This name change also helps us with another issue we had in past fundraising efforts: getting prospective investors to distinguish a company known for a product its developing from the part of its business that actually makes money.
Product Dev
We have changed our product development strategy in order to get more funding into the project. In short, we are taking smaller 'bites of the apple' in order to focus on software. Up till now we had been using proprietary optics, proprietary software, and proprietary hardware. This proved too burdensome for us to carry at the same time, particularly as funding in the consumer AR hardware development fell and the number of startup failures increased.
Lens Development
We have been testing a variety of other firms' optics this fall and believe we have settled on a firm that is quick to communicate has plenty of manufacturing capacity for our needs and, most importantly, has proven expertise in mass producing complex optics for this type of application. This means that we have stopped manufacturing development of our optical system (this is where we plowed about 90% of our funds), though we still be designing optical systems for future applications. The long term plan is to make small, inexpensive, incremental changes to their optics based on our goals and customer feedback.
Software Development
SW dev had been a very much "stop and go" process with us in the past as we encountered continuing issues with tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers when it came to manufacturing tooling for our lenses. With each delay we pulled resources from SW dev and placed them into manufacturing. This will no longer be the case. As we have gotten out of the manufacturing and tool development business, a majority of future funds are going into software development. As a part of this shift, we will also be killing off some of the past software projects (socialFLO app, socialFLO desktop client, and our emulator) and replacing them with new products under a new name. These new SW projects are targeted at enterprise, developers, and researchers and will be previewed in 2022. We will hold a town-hall style meeting for those of you who are interested in providing feedback.
Hardware Development
For the LAFORGE product we had long ago developed a circuit board that was about the size of a piece of trident gum that had the capability of recording video, BT, wifi, touch and audio. Our new devices will have those features but have additional features that are geared toward streaming to a 3rd party device. We are still comparing cameras and chipsets for "C2", once we have finished this analysis, we will provide more details. Additionally, as we can get away with a larger form factor in consumer the devices will not be as thin as what we had developed at LAFORGE, and there will also be an option for a wearable battery pack. Below are pictures of two of the products along with a version (C5) to be released later that is based on many of the innovations LAFORGE Shima. I will show a video demo of the optics in the coming days.
Fundraising
LAFORGE raised approximately $2.3M in it's history. The HOLO is currently raising about and additional $1.2M to support software dev, marketing, and engineering. We have confirmed about $200K of this new raise based on the level of interest in the changes we made (shifting to enterprise) we should be able to close that gap in the coming months and be off to races.
I'd also like to thank those who have support me and this project (it has been tough) and those who have criticized us (for letting us know where we can do better and learn).
Hi,
How do I go about a refund? I invested in 2016/2017 but haven't heard or received any of the things promised. I did get the lock in glasses but my superscription wasn't added to the lenses. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
This post is currently the only google result for "House of Light Optics". I hope to hear more about the rebrand soon.
With Google showing off new AR glasses, Apple plugging away at it, and Facebook throwing money at AR I don't understand how LaForge has only raised $3mil in investment funding. Shima could be a game changer. It still could be! You'd think that at the least the big players would want to license its tech.
Any new updates?
@Corey | Founder | - C2 is described as a clip-on camera; do you anticipate that it will be possible to detach the camera from the G5 and use it as a display-only device? I have enterprise situations where a display would be helpful but cameras are verboten.
Man, this is what I get for ignoring the boards for a few months.
I was initially invested in this project because I wanted something that looked like regular glasses.
In terms of priority, it was really the Screen (useful for my work and everyday travel) > Camera/Audio recorder (Recording the confrontations I encounter every now and then with troublesome/threatening/stealing "customers") > everything else.
At first I was really concerned about what to do when I needed updated prescriptions since the projector screen would have been embedded in my prescription glasses. However, that got naturally solved when you mentioned that the project would move from embedded to attachable projector/screen. This way we could use it with our current prescription glasses.
Now if you are saying that Shima Style/Everyday style is the EVENTUAL goal this will get to, even if we have to do a round-about way to get there, then I'm still invested.
I mean...the C5 is sorta close to the Half & Half / DJ frame style that I was wanting to order anyways.....so maybe I can make it work.... maybe?
But if everyday-use glasses design is not a goal, then I may need to reconsider when the time comes.
So since those are not products I wish to receive, how do I go about getting a refund?
How disappointing. Everything is enterprise, the consumer market is completely unserved.
Unless there is significant redesign, even the C5 looks too enterprise for me to wear as daily glasses.
More later after I digest further.
That's definitely unfortunate, as having a giant camera sticking out will prevent the enterprise version from being usable outside of specific enterprise applications. (The several attacks on people wearing Google Glass teaches that lesson.) Additionally, being camera-centric at all pushes this product outside what I'd need it for.
I do fully understand why you have to make this pivot, and wish you the best of luck on the enterprise side. Hopefully someday you can return to pursuing the vision to "...accelerate the mainstream adoption of augmented reality eyewear", because that squarely targets what I'm looking for as well.
Wow... This is a turn of events. Not really sure what to write. I've lost faith in the project a whole while back, but as I've gotten into it out of personal and work interest and curiosity, any chance for you to get it properly backed up and in production is actually great. Even if I'm not the target customer... Yet.
So, good luck!
Question about this part
"This means that once The HOLO ships its new devices (described below) LAFORGE pre-order customers will be given the option to get one of those devices or take a refund."
Does this mean that we can get just to be initial C2+G5 or the late stage G5 too?