Establishing a company to offer VR solutions

Hi guys,

I'm planning to invest in a business to offer VR Solutions by creating VR content for respective clients. I'm planning to purchase VR headsets (Oculus Rift) and hire VR developers. Can anyone share with me, what other assets/software/hardware that i need to invest in? Do i need to set up local servers at my office?

Hope anyone could help me out

 

If you plan on having clients at the office, especially for demonstrations, having at least one demostation set up with be massively important.

 

Investing in a business and starting your own are two seperate things. You say invest, but then you talk about hiring and buying hardware and software which makes me think you will run this business yourself?

If thats the case, doing a lot of reseach is #1 thing you need to invest in. VR is such a volatile, specialist and difficult market that you really need to understand it inside and out to run a business successfully, or be damn sure you already have talent that does. The questions your asking dont give off that impression, so definately spend a few weeks learning the insides and out of the industry you intend to put so much money into, or you will just end up losing out financially.

Also just so you are aware, the margins on work-for-hire VR like you are suggesting is very low unless your a well respected outfit like REWIND (I work for a company like the one you want to start as a senior developer and have done so for about 3 years now, although we also do AR too)

 

Make yourself favor and study deeply VR market, to check if there is even decent demand, beyond few hobbyists and some tech guys. Who you target your business at? And where are you located?

 

If VR will be a success is not a question, it will, question is when. And you need a sustainable business until then. I wouldn't recommend starting a company that's only centered around VR as it stands

 

In the right markets, such as training and architectural visualization, VR startups can do quite well already.

Before investing in any technology, you must hire a chief technology officer (CTO) who has shipped VR applications before, ideally in your target market. If you can't find a CTO, please consider donating your money to charity instead. At least that way it will do some good instead of going straight down the drain.

Your CTO doesn't need a suit and an MBA certificate, just experience with current VR hardware and VR app development. They'll be able to tell you what hardware you need and which developers to hire, at least from a technical standpoint.

Unless you're going to handle this yourself, your next investment should be a sales person, ideally already familiar with your target market and already with contacts. If you can't land contracts, nothing else matters.

In conjunction, to land your first contract you may need to build a prototype app, so you'll need to purchase whatever minimal hardware your CTO recommends to build a simple prototype. Don't go all-out on hardware until you have clients that can justify the expense. Don't subscribe to Unity Pro/Plus until your gross exceeds $100K USD. For the prototype, assets from the Asset Store can significantly reduce development time. But don't buy any without your CTO's advice.

In summary:

• Choose a market with strong potential in your area.
• Hire a CTO. Don't spend any more money without consulting your CTO.

Good luck! Done smart, and with some luck as any business needs, now is a great time to be getting into VR on the ground floor.

 

Also VR market is changing, for example the day Index controllers shipped I got 1700 wish list additions and since then about 50 aday. Before the Index I got around 2 to 5 aday. So it helps when big companies like Valve invest on the market

 

What was your wishlist to sale conversion rate? And how stable were wishlist additions over the course of the release?

 

I dont know if steam provides conversation rates? But it's not that great, our potential customers are waiting for our coop single player update