The Story Behind My Investment In ScopeAR

Back around the holidays in 2015, one of my LPs (who is also a friend) sent me a note about a YC company from the most recent batch, S15. I had been at YC and saw the company, but hadn’t been thinking about the “AR” space. I know they’re unrelated, but previous to this, I had made one small investment in a VR infrastructure company, but it isn’t a space I would claim to know well. As a few months passed, however, I had picked up interest in industrial software and robotics, so learning about ScopeAR again proved out to be excellent timing.

Discovering and investing in a company like ScopeAR is yet another case of where the founders guide me (the investor) to learn about their technology and market in real-time. Within a few email exchanges and conversations, it was apparent to me that Scott (the CEO), David, and Graham would be easy to work with as co-founders. On top of this, I liked their enterprise and/or industrial focus (which fits within my themes), and it was immediately clear how their solution would save companies money from Day 1.

Luckily for me, by the time I had invested, ScopeAR had already won the business of companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Honeywell, among many others. ScopeAR boasts two products to date — WorkLink (a platform to create smart instructions), and Remote AR (powering remote collaboration via AR) — which help their customers increase savings from industrial hazards, operator errors, and operational inefficiencies.

When I invested, the main interfaces were largely considered to be iOS or Android platform devices. In a serendipitous turn, I was invited by friends at SVB to a small drinks reception and conversation with Satya Nadella, who during that chat specifically called out Hololens as a major core focus area for the company in enterprise settings, and that in such settings, AR might be the first technology to be adopted on the platform. Once I heard this, I ambushed him (in a friendly way), called up the ScopeAR site on my phone and he deftly introduced me to his SF-based Corporate Development Team — I was able to follow-up and got the team in touch with Microsoft on this initiative.

That’s about all I’ve done so far, and as I write out this story, I realize just how fortunate I am that my friend tipped me off to the deal, that enough time had passed for me to develop an interest in the space, and the founders were extra nice, kept the same terms from their round, and let me slide into the deal. They did me a huge favor, and for that I am grateful and want to work extra hard for the team. I recounted this story last week at an industrial hardware meetup I co-hosted with Lemnos, and we joked that the deal was sort of like a “booty call” at the end of the round. As they say, a seed round is never closed — and thank heavens for that.

It is crazy that within a year of ScopeAR’s time in YC to now, AR has gone from a concept to something millions of consumers interaction casually on their phones, either through Snapchat or Pokemon Go, among others. In a work context, it is easy to envision how processes can be improved by using connected cameras with information overlaid on top. Given the way the winds are shifting, I look back on this investment decision with a smile. It’s easy to imagine a world in which ScopeAR’s current customers use new platforms and go deeper into various industries. And, lucky me, as I was able to hop on the train just as it was leaving the station.