Founder: Otavio Good, Programmer and CEO of Quest Visual
Venture: Launched in 2009, Quest Visual created and developed Word Lens, an augmented reality iPhone app which instantly translates text from one language to another. Word Len’s original inception is aimed at tourists for use as a navigation tool, translating signs. However, as the app’s performance is improved it will be able to operate as a more general instant translation tool.
Founder Bio: Originally trained as a programmer, Otavio Good has demonstrated his skills as an entrepreneur innovator by his adaptation of augmented reality technology to create this product as well as his success at championing its realisation. The You Tube video demonstrating Word lens attracted 2.5 million hits in less than a week, and the product won the New York Times’ “best tech ideas of the year” award in 2010. Quest Visual was recently sold to Google for an undisclosed amount.
Good is a serial entrepreneur, he created the Quest Visual enterprise using the funds he received from the sale of a video game company called “Secret Level” to SEGA in 2006 for 15 Million dollars. In line with Basil Peter’s advice that entrepreneurs adopt an early exit strategy, Good has sold Quest Visual as soon as he was able to demonstrate his business model rather than hanging on until the venture had necessarily reached a point where it was earning a profit.
Good’s team was composed of software engineers and programmers all of whom are now employed by Google. His mother Maia Good, herself a computer programmer, has also been involved in the development of the venture.
Personal Reflections: This analysis has made me realize that I would be better to characterize myself as an “intrapreneur”. While I think I can lay some claim to have been involved in championing the use of disruptively new technologies in the past, I prefer to be doing it within the security of institution. I experience life on the outside not knowing where my next mortgage payment is coming from and I found it too stressful.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Google
Basil Peters – Start at the End / Your Exit Strategy: http://vimeo.com/31887193
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2010/12/22/hot-new-word-lens-app-is-founders-first-project-in-augmented-reality/
