How this Mixed Reality company generates S$500,000+ annually without investors' funding

In one line, what do you do and what is your most significant achievement?

I built a Mixed Reality content creation company generating SGD 500,000+ annually without any funding from investors.

Who are you and what business did you start?

I'm an engineer and computer graphics enthusiast with over 8 years of experience in the industry. In 2016 we established LiveRoom (Pvt) Ltd. which is a software development company specialising in mixed reality. As a company we help other businesses to develop mixed reality applications and create content for these applications.

Also I recently started Kaiju Web3 Labs Pte. Ltd in Singapore which is a software development company building financial infrastructure for Metaverse and Web3 games.

What's your backstory?

Though I studied engineering, from my younger ages I liked 3D games and animations. I was fascinated to learn about how animated movies and games were created. I got my first gaming console in 1998 and PC in 2001. As a kid without the internet I started learning how to create animations and games with Macromedia Flash reading tech magazines.

When I got into University to study computer science I specialised in computer graphics and computer vision. I was fascinated about mixed reality from the early days way before the AR / VR hype started in 2016. So during the undergraduate time we built our own Augmented Reality SDK for Android devices as we wanted to build an augmented reality app similar to Nintendo 3DS AR game in Android.

I was able to publish papers in the field of augmented reality and got an opportunity to do an internship in a Japanese company which made a 3D rendering engine. This was my first professional experience in the computer graphics industry.

After graduation in 2015 me and my friend founded LiveRoom which is a mixed reality software engineering company.

What led you to specialise in your industry?

My passion for 3D computer graphics and the internship I did in Japan lead me to specialise in this industry.

How did you spend your First 100 Days of launching your business?

When we started the business we only had few VR / AR demos running and in 2016 it was very difficult to get customers for these new technologies. First 100 days we didn't have any customers or revenue. Infact for the first year our revenue was less than $2000. But we knew the potential of this and we kept talking to potential customers and keep improving ourselves. It took us 6 years and a lot of endurance to grow our business to where we are today.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain partnerships/customers?

Mainly the quality of work we do has led to retaining partnerships and customers.

What is one underrated thing in your industry that business owners should start doing/using?

Investing to train high quality 3D designers and XR developers. When Metaverse becomes mainstream 3D content creators and XR developers will be in short supply. There will be a huge short supply of skilled people in a few years down the line. So the computer graphics industry should invest more in developing 3D continent creators and XR developers.

What were the biggest challenges you faced and how have you overcome them?

Biggest challenge we face at the moment is finding quality 3D content creators as they are in short supply. To overcome this we have created a 18 months internship program to train and convert artists to 3D modelling and animation.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

GSuite, GitLab, Canva, Blender, Unity3D.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

Before 2022 our main market was Asia and in this year all changed and we got our largest clients from the USA. With the Metaverse boom we are growing rapidly and the future looks bright as businesses globally are starting to use more immersive technologies in their business.