Interview: "A lot of startups have great ideas, but have a hard time presenting it in a good way."
12.05.2016
CatchEye won the second stage of Venture Kick and its CHF 10’000 of pre-seed capital, in May 2016. We spoke now with Chief Technology Officer Jan Rüegg, who graduated in 2012 from ETH Zurich with a master's degree, specializing in visual computing, about the great news - and his plans for the future.
 Jan Rüegg and Claudia Plüss, team members of CatchEye
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Dear Jan, what will you do with the funding from Venture Kick's first stage?
The money will enable us to get more users to test CatchEye, as well as to validate if our prototype is ready as an MVP and at the same time validate our value proposition.
What kind of technology are you developing?
We develop a software that is plugged between a (3D-) webcam and any video conferencing system like Skype or Hangouts. The goal is to improve the image from the camera, to eventually bring the conversation much closer to a face-to-face meeting than current video calls. By making use of the 3D information, our (patent-pending) algorithms reduce distractions and increase trust. This is achieved through various enhancements like eye contact, an out-of-focus background and improved virtual lighting.
What stage is your startup today and what do you plan next?
We're currently two people working on the project (me and Claudia Plüss), with the support of various mentors and professors. At the moment, we are looking for seed funding, so we can accelerate development and add some sales expertise to our team.
How did the idea of your startup come up?
The initial idea of the startup was to develop a software that enables eye contact in video calls. This was based on work that Claudia had done in her PhD. However, we realized after some time that we wouldn't be able to build a company around this single "feature". So gradually we evolved the idea to what we have now: The vision of making (digital) communication better and more natural, using whatever methods and technology make most sense, and can reach the most people.
What distinguishes your technology from your competitors’?
This depends on what competitors you are talking about.
On one hand there are various hardware providers that improve communication using specialized equipment. For example companies that build “boxes” with a built-in camera, half-transparent mirrors and so on which enables eye contact. Or think of lamps and lighting equipment that can be used to make video calls better. Compared to them we are much more mobile and versatile as a software solution: No need to take bulky equipment with you when you want to do a video call with your laptop.
On the other hand there are software solutions that plug into video conferencing. Most of them, however, focus either on fun features (like putting a virtual mustache or changing your face to an avatar) or very isolated improvements (like “only” background replacement, or “only” color enhancement). We instead bring a complete package, specifically targeted at improved communication, with some features that are not yet existing as software solutions (like eye contact).
Why did you apply for Venture Kick and what are the benefits of such a program for you?
Of course the money will give us a boost in what activities we can pursue in the short term. But equally important was the feedback we expected to get from the jury, as well as during the kickers camp. Then Venture Kick is also quite well known, and the ability to show the Venture Kick logo in our pitch and possibly get some more publicity through the Venture Kick website and newsletter is of course very helpful in convincing prospective customers or investors.
In your opinion, how did you convince the jury on stage one?
We put a lot of effort in designing, improving and also practicing the pitch, and I think that helped a lot. A lot of startups have great ideas, but have a hard time presenting it in a good way. It’s not an easy job to condense all the information, knowledge and passion in a 10 minutes presentation. The challenge is to figure out the important parts and put them in simple enough words for a first-time audience to understand, and then create a good and consistent "story" around it. This takes a lot of time and effort. For us, this process didn't only involve the PowerPoint slides. It also forced us to clarify and rethink our business model and go-to-market strategy, which was a lot less clear before we started working on the pitch.
But of course, I believe we also have a vision and product with great potential and a very good team… otherwise the best pitch wouldn’t get us very far :D
And how do you think you will convince the jury at the second stage?
Working on the pitch, and also gathering feedback from various sides, we realized the main area that currently still needs improvement: While our ideas on the business side sound quite good, we need more evidence that our value proposition really holds, that our assumptions on early adopters are correct and the pricing model makes sense. This is not only important for the Venture Kick jury, but also for potential seed investors. So our current focus is to try to validate all of this, by giving our MVP out to users, observing how they use it and what they like, and improving on the feedback. At the same time we want to try to sell our “value proposition” to future customers, to find out if and how much they would be willing to pay for it.
Last but not least, please tell us a fun fact about you.
I use a special keyboard layout (called “Neo”) which is much more efficient to type with than the normal German or English keyboard layouts. This took quite some time to learn, since all the letters and special signs are on different keys. So its always very funny when someone who doesn’t know asks me to quickly use my computer. They usually start to type some letters, and then get very confused at why only gibberish appears on the screen! For example, typing “SBB timetable” in google would result in “IZZ wgmlwuztl” on my keyboard :D
The money will enable us to get more users to test CatchEye, as well as to validate if our prototype is ready as an MVP and at the same time validate our value proposition.
What kind of technology are you developing?
We develop a software that is plugged between a (3D-) webcam and any video conferencing system like Skype or Hangouts. The goal is to improve the image from the camera, to eventually bring the conversation much closer to a face-to-face meeting than current video calls. By making use of the 3D information, our (patent-pending) algorithms reduce distractions and increase trust. This is achieved through various enhancements like eye contact, an out-of-focus background and improved virtual lighting.
What stage is your startup today and what do you plan next?
We're currently two people working on the project (me and Claudia Plüss), with the support of various mentors and professors. At the moment, we are looking for seed funding, so we can accelerate development and add some sales expertise to our team.
How did the idea of your startup come up?
The initial idea of the startup was to develop a software that enables eye contact in video calls. This was based on work that Claudia had done in her PhD. However, we realized after some time that we wouldn't be able to build a company around this single "feature". So gradually we evolved the idea to what we have now: The vision of making (digital) communication better and more natural, using whatever methods and technology make most sense, and can reach the most people.
What distinguishes your technology from your competitors’?
This depends on what competitors you are talking about.
On one hand there are various hardware providers that improve communication using specialized equipment. For example companies that build “boxes” with a built-in camera, half-transparent mirrors and so on which enables eye contact. Or think of lamps and lighting equipment that can be used to make video calls better. Compared to them we are much more mobile and versatile as a software solution: No need to take bulky equipment with you when you want to do a video call with your laptop.
On the other hand there are software solutions that plug into video conferencing. Most of them, however, focus either on fun features (like putting a virtual mustache or changing your face to an avatar) or very isolated improvements (like “only” background replacement, or “only” color enhancement). We instead bring a complete package, specifically targeted at improved communication, with some features that are not yet existing as software solutions (like eye contact).
Why did you apply for Venture Kick and what are the benefits of such a program for you?
Of course the money will give us a boost in what activities we can pursue in the short term. But equally important was the feedback we expected to get from the jury, as well as during the kickers camp. Then Venture Kick is also quite well known, and the ability to show the Venture Kick logo in our pitch and possibly get some more publicity through the Venture Kick website and newsletter is of course very helpful in convincing prospective customers or investors.
In your opinion, how did you convince the jury on stage one?
We put a lot of effort in designing, improving and also practicing the pitch, and I think that helped a lot. A lot of startups have great ideas, but have a hard time presenting it in a good way. It’s not an easy job to condense all the information, knowledge and passion in a 10 minutes presentation. The challenge is to figure out the important parts and put them in simple enough words for a first-time audience to understand, and then create a good and consistent "story" around it. This takes a lot of time and effort. For us, this process didn't only involve the PowerPoint slides. It also forced us to clarify and rethink our business model and go-to-market strategy, which was a lot less clear before we started working on the pitch.
But of course, I believe we also have a vision and product with great potential and a very good team… otherwise the best pitch wouldn’t get us very far :D
And how do you think you will convince the jury at the second stage?
Working on the pitch, and also gathering feedback from various sides, we realized the main area that currently still needs improvement: While our ideas on the business side sound quite good, we need more evidence that our value proposition really holds, that our assumptions on early adopters are correct and the pricing model makes sense. This is not only important for the Venture Kick jury, but also for potential seed investors. So our current focus is to try to validate all of this, by giving our MVP out to users, observing how they use it and what they like, and improving on the feedback. At the same time we want to try to sell our “value proposition” to future customers, to find out if and how much they would be willing to pay for it.
Last but not least, please tell us a fun fact about you.
I use a special keyboard layout (called “Neo”) which is much more efficient to type with than the normal German or English keyboard layouts. This took quite some time to learn, since all the letters and special signs are on different keys. So its always very funny when someone who doesn’t know asks me to quickly use my computer. They usually start to type some letters, and then get very confused at why only gibberish appears on the screen! For example, typing “SBB timetable” in google would result in “IZZ wgmlwuztl” on my keyboard :D