Captvr3d, a 3D video startup for events and retail space, landed the Griggs Innovators Nexus as a demo customer. Founder Charise Smith tells the 4thEst8 that the deal came as a result of her July pitch at 1 Million Cups – Columbia when she met University of Missouri Executive Director of Entrepreneurship Programs, Greg Bier.
Charisse Smith, Captvr3d founder
“He came to my 1 Million Cups presentation at Columbia and found out what we did and thought it would be great for their program… for their space… so we did a tour for them,” Smith said. “It’s a proof of concept and (shows off) what all we can do. I’ve had to use a couple of features for our tours that we haven’t done to do before, including a green screen avatar. We recorded one of the students… and he pops up at the beginning of the tour and welcomes you to the to the tour in the space, which is really cool.”
Captvr3d (pronounced ‘captured’) was founded by Smith and her husband Ryan in 2019. It’s bootstrapped, headquartered in Columbia, Missouri and is using cutting edge (but off the shelf) technology. The Smiths say they are using it for event space like the Griggs Nexus, but that they’ve been able to add interactivity so someone on a virtual tour could click on a retail item, get more information about that item including a video, and then put that item in a virtual cart. They have the retail component set on the Shopify platform, but other back end fulfillment platforms can be added in time.
“Our focus is on small business… and this technology would be a really good fit for small businesses to have the impact of companies with billions of dollars of resources,” Ryan Smith told the 4thEst8 in a Ringleader video. “Right now it’s just the two of us… but we’d eventually like to hire a team of individuals (to expand beyond Missouri).”
Links:
Virtual Tour of Griggs Innovators Nexus
On the 4thEst8:
