Marcus Richards
VR Club is a new brand that focusses on introducing Business, Social Organisations, Community Groups and adults to the benefits of Virtual Reality Applications and to nurture and support their use of them.
Tell us about yourself?
I have been an IT consultant, Web Developer and Internet Marketer for the last twenty years and have become increasingly aware that the new Web 3.0 technologies are leading us all towards a revolution that many adults are completely unaware of and unprepared for.
We live in a three-dimensional reality but have been forced into a working life consisting of two-dimensional computer screens, websites, social media, billboards, posters and printed material.
This is all about to change, because our brains and our bodies are adapted to three dimensions and we, therefore, will respond quite naturally to immersive technologies, such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality as soon as we encounter them.
However, we need to encounter them and learn what is already available for us to take advantage of.
Now that I have spent time researching and trying out Virtual Reality apps for business meetings, training sessions, design, collaboration, and many other categories, I understand the need to assist others in that journey.
In order to evaluate these apps for your business you need others to meet with and collaborate with. VR Club is designed to provide that service.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Fortunately I started my research a year or two ago, but what I didn’t realize then was just how quickly this new technology would evolve.
So my advice to myself then would be, be prepared for starting a business that will grow rapidly, and bring the right people with you to allow that to happen. I’m only just beginning to start my search for those right people to join with me.
What problem does your business solve?
We all realized during the lockdowns that working from home using tele-conferencing for meetings wasn’t as easy or as practical as RLM ( Real Life Meetings) used to be.
We yearned for company and our bodies ached for movement. However, many of us enjoyed not having to commute to the office everyday and to spend more time with our families.
VR Club seeks to enable both as a possibility for our future working life. Meeting in VR feels like RLM because we meet our team or our clients as 3D beings and can show them designs or collaborate with them on developing new ones.
At the same time we can move about and not sit hunched up on our desks staring at screens all day.
We can also save time and expense by using an open space in our home for working. We don’t need office space or conference space or event space since any size and style of room is available for our specific purpose at the time.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
I was suffering from “Zoom burnout” and looking for an alternative that would give me a better immersive experience for business meetings.
Having found many alternatives, each of which is suitable for different types of scenario and requirement, I am now setting out to help businesses and organisations develop strategies that will reduce costs for them and at the same time increase productivity.
The business model I am using to be able to provide assistance to businesses around the world is a franchise type model so that I can train others to do the same as I am doing in my own local area wherever they may be.
What is your magic sauce?
There are many tech companies designing VR apps and each one provides help and support for their own app. There are also VR Games Centres starting to appear in cities aimed at giving teenagers and children the opportunity to try out wearing VR headsets to have fun.
VR Club is different because we provide inexpensive Taster Sessions for business owners to try out what it is like to meet with a VR Headset on. We also provide Evaluation Sessions where adults can join in with other serious-minded business people to try out a different app each session, so that we can help them identify ones that would best work for their own needs.
Thirdly, we provide VR Club Business Networking Sessions so that business owners can regularly meet up with others in their chosen geographical area, in order to build connections and trust in order to pass referrals to each other, just like regular Business Networkiing Groups but without the expense of travel and the cost of hire of a meeting space.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
My hope is that we can provide some added value to the worlds of VR by enabling a transition to a less costly and healthier way of working as quickly as possible.
We all know we have to transition to net zero for carbon emissions by 2050, so reducing our need for travel can have a major impact on that.
Within the next 5 years I would like to enable a thousand VR Club franchisees around the world to build successful businesses for themselves by introducing VR to one hundred thousand business people.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
As a web designer, developer and internet marketer I have provided hundreds of clients with the means to run their businesses in the 2-Dimensional world of websites and social media.
Prices for my work have been slashed over the years to keep up with growing competition and the marketplace has become filled with solutions to the same old problems.
Now, technology is coming to our rescue and opening up huge new opportunities for those with the courage to reach out into the unknown to a better way of working and build a resilient, sustainable 3D world together.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We are looking for serious individuals who can see the vision of VR Club and want to help us build that better future.
Any business person that reads this can have a free listing on our website that links back to theirs and provides space to tell others what they are aspiring towards with VR in their business. Anyone interested in starting a VR Club in their own area, eithe
