Kelly Peng & Garrow Geer (Kura) on Breaking From the Past to Build the Smartglasses of the Future

The Guest

Kelly Peng and Garrow Geer of Kura Tech. Garrow is the COO, and Kelly is the founder and CEO.

Kelly has a background dotted with many innovative projects, including building brain-computer interfaces, integrated circuit design, and a new type of engine for flying cars.

Together with the team at Kura, they are building a new kind of optics and display module that will enable smartglasses to achieve a groundbreaking set of specs: 150° field of view, 95% transparency - meaning the outside world isn’t shielded by dark sunglasses, as well as high brightness for use both indoors and outdoors, and an eyeglasses form factor.

kelly garrow combo.jpeg

Kelly Peng & Garrow Geer

LinkedIn | Twitter

Kura Tech

The Conversation

In this conversation, Kelly and Garrow describe the pursuit of their game-changing product, something that could enable the type of smartglasses that you or I would actually wear.

They describe the startup environment they’ve created, the unique perspective they have on the technology, and their progress towards bringing their vision to life.

They also share some stories about the dark side of the AR industry. Unfortunately, they’ve experienced everything from nefarious NDAs to infiltrating spies attempting to steal their secrets. That’s not cool.

Kelly wraps up by sharing a solid piece of advice. Namely, don’t get advice from people just because they are close to you. Get advice from people who are actually experts in their field. Experts in an unrelated field don’t count. That may seem obvious, but it’s advice too few entrepreneurs follow.

Jason McDowallenterprise, AR smartglasses, hardware