Nanea and her co-founder Zach Norman have deep backgrounds in gaming, and many many firsts.
- First mobile games for Nokia
- First mobile game for flip phones
- First Mobile games for iPod
- 3 of the first 5 iPhone games
- First multi-player mobile games
Its no surprise Tim Chang from Mayfield Ventures chose to invest in them. Skilled, vetted and experienced.
Nanea’s mission at Tripp centers around making Virtual Reality games that are immersive and mood-altering. To ‘Dial up moods.’ Our conversation was wide ranging from what data can tell us about our users, to the shifting landscape of mindfulness in business.
In the medical world, there are many regulatory challenges to overcome before a procedure is accepted as medicine. Lots of evidence based research is required. Its an interesting concept, to build tools in the wellness and entertainment markets, where regulatory control is not as embedded.
One of the things Nanea mentioned over and over is her desire for what the many Indian religions call Ahimsa, or ‘do no harm.’ Its also a core tenet in many other religions around the globe. Her intention is to build experiences that enhance life, not cause harm. Personally I’m in alignment with this intention. And, I often reflect on what harm, or good means. While there are cultural agreements, its also a relative perspective based on personal experience.
The potential power to use these tools for good is tremendous, and the potential power for non-good is also large. I look forward to seeing the breadth of creativity and cultural impact more humans join in to create experiences that align with their values. Could this tool be used as a social and cultural change agent? Will it by definition act as a social and cultural change agent? Is how we interface with our environment also shaping us as individuals and societies?
One concept we talked about in our discussion is the interaction and evolution of connectivity and interface. The connectivity, or pipes of connection, for human thought and consciousness are being firmly established even deeper into this planet’s infrastructure with the internet and cellular networks. Paralleling and, iteratively interacting with that communication network are the methods, the ‘ways’ humans are interfacing with both each other, and the dominant software and hardware available. My hunch is these communication and creativity tools are both shaped by humans, and also shape us humans as we interface with them. If this hunch is true, then we are entering a whole other dimension, both literally and materially, in the realms of spatial and embodied computing. How we touch data, how we think, what ideas autonomously surface in the subconscious mind, what programs we are running, our world-views, perceptions of self, other, and society as a whole.
I am seriously excited at Nanea’s mission. I also am excited at the splash a $4MM investment in this space makes. In many ways the investment validates the impact VR can have on consciousness and the approaches to digital experiences Nanea and entrepreneurs like her are going to have as they explore these embodied computing realms.