Featured Episodes

The AR Show

Smartglasses are head-worn computers with see-through displays that overlay digital information on the real world. They will transform how we discover, make decisions, and interact with the people, objects, and information around us. Once they have been fully realized, smartglasses will enable each and every person to be more creative and productive, and to achieve greater enlightenment and accomplishment.

Smartglasses will do this by improving the connection - the bandwidth - between our brains and these external compute and communication resources. This improved connection will reduce the time from our desire to know or do something, until it’s complete - and completed correctly - by more than ten times over today’s computers and smartphones.

Imagine having the answer to the question on the tip of your mind the moment you touch your phone.

While there are some impressive early attempts to create smartglasses, and a growing community of companies tackling the many challenges behind the technology, those challenges are still many. The hardware is still hot, heavy, power sucking, and delivers a poor visual experience. People are hesitant to wear computers with cameras on their face, and the user experience is still awkward and inefficient.

There’s a lot of work to be done. To be truly wearable for extended periods of time, the hardware needs to be comfortable and provide a captivating visual experience. To be socially acceptable, the aesthetics and usage need to bolster confidence and consent. And to breakthrough to mass adoption, the user experience needs to be highly effective and efficient.

The purpose of this podcast series is to accelerate learning within the smartglasses ecosystem through revealing interviews. Guests include entrepreneurs and executives who are tackling these challenges, as well as the investors and early adopters taking risks alongside them.

In addition to discussing technology and products, each interview explores the path taken by the guest to get to where he or she is today. We explore lessons learned and advice worth sharing.

Check out the introductory episode to get a deeper overview.

The Host

My name is Jason McDowall, and I believe smartglasses will have a bigger impact on the human experience and society than mobile phones, PCs, or the current internet.

I’m coming at this podcast with a deep desire to understand and share. And I bring with me a handful of perspectives including as an entrepreneur, advisor, angel investor, executive in the space, product guy, and overly curious person with an engineering background.

Back in the day, I studied Electrical & Computer Engineering (and Economics) at Carnegie Mellon University, earning a B.S. and M.S. After school, I served as an officer in the US Air Force. I earned an MBA from UCLA Anderson, and then embraced my true passion: starting companies and building teams.

I went on to co-found three companies (mobile, enterprise SaaS) and worked as the director/VP/Head of Product at a couple of others, including Salesforce.com.

Currently I’m an executive at a core-technology startup in the smartglasses space. We’re still being stealthy, and I look forward to sharing more when the time is right.

Note: Some of the links included in the episode notes are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and buy the item, I get a small commission. You don't pay more by clicking these links than if you just went to the retailer’s web site on your own. I use the proceeds to defray the costs of recording and editing equipment and services. Thanks for your support!