Ureka Labs is an ideas incubator. They are currently working on 2 projects.
The first is a social network for interior designing, think along the lines of a virtual “Pimp My Room”. Arrange/Buy new furniture, let your imagination run wild, see how your room looks without actually having to do it. A more serious application is to collaborate with your interior designer.
The second project is about monetizing online video. Ureka Labs wants to be able to impose virtual 3D objects into streaming video (in Real Time). It’s pretty ambitious, and amazing. Check out the video presentation below.
This interview was conducted during Barcamp Malaysia, a 2 day (26-27 July) un-conference attended by an amazing mix of startups, veteran entrepreneurs, bloggers, media and VCs.
Roni Shah Mustapha - CEO & Founder behind Ureka Labs
[SocialTalkr]
Hey Roni, thanks for interview!
So describe what are you trying to do in UrekaLabs?
[Roni]
Well, we’re looking to change the world! We’re looking at how to improve things, improving quality of life. We’re in the business of creating convenience and making things better and more efficient in particular areas.
[SocialTalkr]
Give us some examples of projects that UrekaLabs is working on?
[Roni]
2 Projects at the moment. First, we have an interior design visualization project. It’s called roo.my. What is it? Think Autocad, Maya, 3D Objects. Think free, think easy to use… Think interior design meets web2.0.
[Roo.my is in development but you can sign up for more info here http://www.roo.my/roomy.htm]
[SocialTalkr]
Like a Zoho for interior designers?
[Roni]
You can say that, yes but the idea is not to be an engineering or architectural tool. It will be more of a visualization tool. It’s going to be easy and fun. You’re going to use this tool to design your living space.
I got this idea when I bought my condo several years back. I approached many contractors and ID designers. They drew up designs on paper and showed it to me and I realized we were both visualizing 2 different things on our mind. In the end, I finally got a 3D representation model to show them what I was thinking. I had to get my brother in law who was an architectural student, to do that using some software. That’s very limiting and inefficient. What we want to do is enhance the collaboration between the contractor and customer. So that’s the value we provide.
The application we are talking about is going to be downloaded to the PC. We initially experimented with putting that application online and web-based. We experimented with AJAX, Flex, and other web technologies but realized that rendering 3D in real time on the web just wasn’t fast and efficient enough. The user experience would not be up to the standards we are looking for. There’s the question of bandwidth as well. So we sacrificed web based convenience for that. So now the user will register with our Social Network, download it, use it. The most important thing is really the end result of the design that promotes collaboration.
Users can share their designs through 3 ways, the fist via sharing images. Second is via an interactive flash file. The idea in the long term for this is to create a 3D representation of the room that is web-based and interactive in real time (zoom in and out move furniture around). What we can release at this point is a 2D version of that. The last would be a 3D tour of the room, a movie file, a fly through.
The beauty of this is, users can use all of these features for free. Again, the pulling factor as well is its going to be easy. Today, if you wanted to do this, you can always go and purchase something like AutoCAD, but you need training to use software like that. We’re trying to eliminate that. There is also Google Sketch-up but it’s not focused on Interior Design. For someone like me, a regular non-artistic person, I wouldn’t be able to build a room from scratch, but I can modify. So we’re going to provide templates, they can use templates that best represent their rooms. It’s much easier to modify than to create and design from scratch. What we can do as well is to let users upload a jpg or an image of a floor plan if available. They can then use our app to easily design and trace on top of the uploaded floor plan.
The social network part of it is to let them share and collaborate on their designs. It’s a social network for interior design enthusiasts and professionals. For casual users, they can use that to share their designs and promote it on their blogs or other social networks (like facebook etc). Another possibility is an interactive classifieds where they can promote their house/apartment via an interactive file. For professionals, they can also use it as their portfolio. They can show potential clients their previous work. Think Flickr for ID. Each design has its own page and they can elect to show who has downloaded the design as well.
Business model wise, it’s going to be free for casual users. But we will offer a premium subscription package for professionals. Casual users will probably work on 1-2 projects, but professionals will definitely work on more simultaneously. We will also offer additional advanced functionalities and features on top of that. The other revenue source is advertising and product placement. This is where furniture retailers can put their furniture into our app for brand awareness. For example, if someone sees a sofa in Ikea, he or she can then use our app to check how the sofa would fit in his or her living space. We will provide a new medium for these retailers to reach and engage their customers and potential customers.
[SocialTalkr]
So that’s the first project. Tell us about your second project.
[Roni]
As we were building roo.my, another idea came up and we wanted to pursue that as well. This second idea, we think will revolutionize the online video industry. What we’re trying to create is a platform for advertisers to reach their target market thru online videos. Let me tell you how we came up with the idea first. By the way, we don’t really have a name for it yet.
We believe, in the near future all devices will be connected. Bandwidth will be virtually unlimited and these will impact and change the way we do certain things. The area that we are focusing on is the entertainment industry. The Music industry for example is already affected by free downloads. Anyone can easily download free Mp3 files. The same is happening for movie industry. Sooner or later they will start to see revenues from ticket sales and DVD sales declining rapidly. We feel that in the future, advertising will start becoming a major and bigger contributor to their revenue stream. Right now, there is already advertising in terms of product placement in movies. However, It happens before the movie is shot. An example is I-robot where Audi paid to put an Audi car in the movie. It’s a one-time payment, and that’s it.
We think, in the future, product placements will happen in real time, as the movie is watched/streamed. With this, the producers can perpetually be making revenue from advertising every time the movie is being watched even years after it is released. We are now working on a technology that could make this possible. Take I-robot as an example again; instead of using Audi cars before the movie is shot, the producers can shoot a movie with a generic brand less car. Then, using our technology, if Audi wants to advertise and bid, some viewers will see the movie with Audi in it, and the same goes for BMW or Mercedes and so on. With the Internet, the ads are also going to be targeted and demographic specific depending on the viewers. It’s like Google’s AdSense and Adwords but on Video, and instead of just text or images; it can be a real live 3D representation of a product.
That’s what we are working on making it happen in the future! Right now we already have a prototype of the technology. What we can do now is by using a specific marker; we can superimpose any image or 3D object on a streaming video.
[Check out Roni's presentation during Barcamp]
UrekaLabs Barcamp Malaysia Presentation
[SocialTalkr]
What’s a marker?
[Roni]
A marker is a pattern. Any pattern. Our system has 2 layers, first is the pattern recognition that identifies the pattern in the scene, and the other layer will overlay anything we want, on top of that pattern. For example, you can say, you want to create a billboard, and the billboard is covered with that pattern. Advertisers can then place their ads on the billboard in the video.
[SocialTalkr]
That’s pretty interesting and unique. Y combinator talked about this area being hot on their list.
[Roni]
Yes I read Paul Grahams blog regularly. We might not be entirely suitable for Y combinator but that could be an avenue that we will investigate soon.
[SocialTalkr]
It’s an interesting note that you’ve got your focus spot on. You’ve identified the area investors are looking for.
[Roni]
I certainly hope so, because again, when you ask us what we do? UrekaLabs really looks at inefficiencies in the markets today and tries to improve on that.
[SocialTalkr]
Haha ok. Let’s talk about who is the team behind UrekaLabs?
[Roni]
When we first started this. We started with the idea of roo.my. First thing we did was apply for the MDEC pre-seed fund.
[SocialTalk]
What year was this?
[Roni]
This was in 2007. UrekaLabs is really a very young startup. We finally were incorporated in Jan 2008. When we first started it was me and my brother, the COO: Razlan Mustapha.
roo.my was mainly outsourced to freelancers, but with our VideoAd we are really recruiting a core team. We’re working with a few people with the promise that when we obtain additional funding, then everyone can come onboard full time. We’ve got a very impressive group of talent working with us on this. They are the technical brains, the gurus behind this technology. We’ve also lined up a similar impressive group of people that we really want to work with. But it all depends if we can afford to pay them.
[SocialTalkr]
What has been your biggest obstacle so far and what is going to take you to the next stage?
[Roni]
I want to say its getting money. We’re struggling because for us to grow, we need money to pay our team and we don’t have the proper funding mechanism to do that. So we source from various grants for funds right now.
I also must say that Malaysians are in a very lucky position because money is available out there. There are very few places in the world where you can get money without putting your neck out on the line. So what’s the real struggle? It’s really about getting the team focused and full time on it. The money is the means to get us on our journey.
[SocialTalkr]
I agree. I’ve interviewed startups from several other countries and so far I’ve not heard of anything like what we have here. So have you started talking to investors?
[Roni]
There are still many grants that we can still apply for. The problem with that is the time frame associated with grants, both approval and payment. We still need something to start with. For this we are approaching private investors and VCs. We presented yesterday (this is Barcamp), and I’m quite happy and excited to say I’ve secured an interview with a VC this couple of days. We’ll see how that goes.
MDec as well has been very proactive about bringing in VCs. Like in WCIT, they bought in many VCs and got the local startups to pitch to them. And a lot of them were successful in getting funding. So there’s going to be another event soon and we hope to make it for that.
[SocialTalkr]
About Barcamp, I was there for the presentation yesterday. This is the first time you’ve unveiled the project to the public right? How do you feel about it?
[Roni]
I.. well we feel excited. You know, people may think it’s difficult. But I think it’s been an exciting ride. Yes there’s been stumbling blocks but I feel like we just find ways to jump over them.
I always wanted to do something like this. Once we started UrekaLabs with the funding from MDec, the whole thinking process changed. Once you’re an entrepreneur, you feel like you can achieve anything!
This is not my first entrepreneur initiative. Earlier on in 1999/2000, I was very into the whole Silicon Valley startup thing, getting funding, doing something to change the world. At that time, I was in my early twenties, I had no network or contacts and all I had were ideas, and even if you could speak to people, who would listen and actually gave money? especially in Malaysia. So I joined the corporate life. I joined an international oil n gas company and it has been quite rewarding. But then, there was always that itch that just won’t go away. So it’s really a matter of timing. I’ve grown tremendously as a person since then.
[SocialTalkr]
What do you feel about Barcamp. It’s the first of its kind in Malaysia right?
[Roni]
It’s brilliant! I would say the organizing team members have been spectacular. It’s a killer event. It’s great seeing Malaysians doing this. It’s not any one companies’ initiative. It’s just people getting together. The reward is being part of something, it’s just amazing.
[SocialTalkr]
I guess that’s it! Thank you very much man.
[Roni]
Anytime Kengyew.
[Links Summary]
Visit UrekaLabs- http://www.urekalabs.com/index.html
Visit roo.my - http://www.roo.my/roomy.htm
Roni’s Facebook - http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=633347354&ref=ts
Razlan’s Profile - http://www.urekalabs.com/coo.html
Monetizing Online Video - Technology Demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4pvAjkJiLQ&eurl=http://www.urekalabs.com/index.html
- Presentation Slides http://www.slideshare.net/ronshah/urekalabs-barcamp-malaysia-presentation?src=embed
Paul Graham and YCombinator - http://www.paulgraham.com/
Ureka Labs - Executive Summary available upon request – contact me thamkengyew[at]gmail[dot]com or get in touch with Roni via FB.
