Interview with the Founder – Edumersive
Meet the Founders: My interview with Daney from Edumersive
The incredible technology behind Edumersive is truly mind-blowing. The VR training capabilities and huge leaps taken by the minds behind this company can teach us everything we need to know about launching a successful tech start-up.
As Blue Orange Wave’s Marketing Manager, I had a chance to sit down with the founders and pick their brain about where it all began. I learned the company was founded by 3 gaming-minors from The University of Applied Sciences of Rotterdam. I was amazed by how much they accomplished in a short period of time. When you look at a company like Edumersive, you learn anything is possible with the determination, commitment and passion.
I spoke with Daney last week, and he was excited to sit down and share his story with the Blue Orange Wave audience. Here’s how it went.
How did you start Edumersive? Who are you and where do you come from?
[Daney]: We all met each other during our gaming minor at The University of Applied Sciences of Rotterdam. We came up with the idea to develop software in the VR & AR fields when I showed them everything it could do. I was already working on it, and my dad had already invested some means when 3 students joined the team. It’s just 3 people now after a year. Me (Daney), my dad (Dan) and Bart.
I completed my education in Human Resources first, but learned it wasn’t really for me. I then started a programming education (creative media and game technologies). That is where I met other students and Bart.
What is your product, what do you sell?
We were already busy with VR and our first project was creating a driving lesson in VR for a Special Education school. They were super happy with the results and said, “can we make something like that ourself?” That brought us to the idea of creating Edumersive.
Edumersive makes VR accessible for users without them having to program it themselves. It works just like a presentation software which uses 360 photos or videos as the background of a “slide”. Users can add pictures, questions, texts or sounds in there themselves. They can make an entire training or class themselves in an easy way. The added value being that you can now train in your own environment on a distance, which is very important during the COVID crisis.
We deliver Edumersive to companies that want to train their employees but also to schools at a discounted price.
What separates Edumserive from the rest?
We separate ourselves from our competitors because we serve all levels of education and easily share their content to their users. The users of Edumersive get the choice between starting a training alone or together. It was very tempting to make a real video editor with a bunch of options. We purposefully chose not to do this because it’s meant to be accessible for everyone…even the 50+ year old teacher that can barely handle a computer.
Being user friendly is very important for us.
What does the future look like for Edumersive? What’s left for you to achieve?
We want to expand to a small development bureau and keep working with VR and AR. AR is going to take flight in the upcoming years, and it is where Bart and I graduated in (Microsoft HoloLens). We also think it’s fun to develop and keep working on new techniques. We love making something that people can actually benefit from. Edumersive is a great example of this.
We want to keep improving what we create, and we need users to do this. That is how we can be in a great situation where we make something that others benefit from and they help us to make it even better. We use our own software ourselves, which makes us a costumer of our own system.
What is your look on Learning & Development?
I went to college for Human Recourse Management. A part of this was L&D so that fit in perfectly with what we are doing now. A lot of schools and organizations use classic theory sessions with a potential assignment. We think this can be improved. The trainings that stay with you are the ones you experience. This is possible with VR/Edumersive and it is clear for everyone. You see it how it actually is and train in the actual situation without making any costs in training materials and/or travel time. We have a part in Edumersive where you can see detailed analytics results. This is how you can see the training results at the same time after a session and eventually export or import into another LMS-system.
How are you seeing the collaboration with Blue Orange Wave? What difference does it make for you to have this collaboration?
When creating a scenario, it is important to look at what you are training and what you are showing. This is where Blue Orange Wave comes in. As programmers, we have no experience in the actual practice. Blue Orange Wave does have this in the maritime sector. Blue Orange Wave is a lot closer to the client which allows them to create the scenarios. It’s mostly Bouke Bergsma, L&D Manager from Blue Orange Wave, who has the main focus on this. We do the client contact / creating scenarios on top of our other activities. Blue Orange Wave puts their focus on this which allows them to go much further than us, so that we can put more attention towards creating a better result in creating scenarios/classes.
Behind all great companies, are a few really great minds. That was exceedingly obvious through my interview with the Founder of Edumersive. This company is well on it’s way to making serious strides in both VR and AR. Keeping up with modern technology is a challenge in itself, but with the right talent and right minds you can made a huge impact – that’s exactly what these 3 are going to do.
