Jeri Ellsworth (Tilt Five) on Mentorship (Part 2)

AR Show with Jason McDowall

Jeri Ellsworth is the co-founder and CEO of Tilt Five, a company that has created AR glasses that bring tabletop, multiplayer games to life.

Prior to Tilt Five, Jeri was the founder of CastAR, which was also making an augmented reality hardware and software platform, and one that had raised $15 million in venture funding before shutting down in 2017.

Previously Jeri was a race car driver, computer shop owner, and toy industry veteran. She was also recruited to Valve to lead the hardware R&D team with a mandate to research novel user interactions and bring the entire family together in the living room. She contributed to the early development for Valve VR (which became the HTC VIVE), the Steam Box, and the Steam Controller. It’s also where the story of Tilt Five originates.

In this conversation, the second of two parts, Jeri shares her fundraising journey and offers some practical advice. She offers an honest look at early product feedback and discusses what users really care about.

Jeri goes on to share a deep reflection on mentorship, including important mentors in her life and how best to find and utilize your own. We also touch on AI for creators and game players, and given this was recorded before Apple’s announcement about the Vision Pro headset, she shares her expectations for the device and its impact on Tilt Five.

You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com. Please consider contributing to my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/theARshow.