Jeri Ellsworth (Tilt Five) on Perseverance and the Pursuit of Passion (Part 1)

The Guest

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.

Jeri Ellsworth

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Tilt Five

The Conversation

I last chatted with Jeri as she was wrapping up a Kickstarter campaign for Tilt Five, just prior to COVID.

In this conversation, the first of two parts, we rewind the story back to its origins at Valve and the early decisions about what to do with their technical innovations. We continue the story through the trials and tribulations of an underfunded hardware company fighting to survive, and Jeri brings us to the present day, sharing many insights along the way.

Jeri describes how she and her team have found a solution to a difficult set of problems for AR glasses, and now Tilt Five is generally available and establishing a niche that combines the best of board games and video games.

Jason McDowallhardware, AR smartglasses, optics, enterprise, consumer, games