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Mar 11, 2017 · 16m · top-founders

EP 595: nDreams is #1 VR Application Creator, 250,000 Sold, $6M in Funding with CEO Patrick O'Luanaigh

Patrick O'Luanaigh · 8m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this episode of The Top, host Nathan Latka interviews Patrick O'Luanaigh, CEO and founder of VR game studio nDreams, exploring the company's $6M venture funding, sales metrics, and agile game development strategies in the nascent virtual reality market.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 40.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 2.7 Guest teaching 1.7 Guest disagreement 0.8 Nathan pushing back 1.7
05100:0010:000:50–3:41 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Preview of Upcoming Founder Interview Latka introduces O'Luanaigh and quickly dives into unit economics and adoption bottlenecks in the nascent VR market. O'Luanaigh readily provides data on their top title, Perfect Beach, while Latka calculates the unit volume share.3:41–6:04 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Internal Game Ideation and Prototyping Process O'Luanaigh outlines nDreams' internal ideation and rapid prototyping workflow. Latka runs quick arithmetic on their minimum pricing and sales volume to establish baseline product revenue.6:04–9:12 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Market Data Transparency and Competitive Landscape O'Luanaigh explains the severe lack of transparent sales data in the VR industry and details nDreams' fundraising and revenue trajectory. Latka presses for exact top-line figures and valuation methodology in an unprofitable emerging category.9:12–11:41 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Evaluating VR Hits, Misses, and Co-Funding Latka uses the Zynga analogy to ask if nDreams has a hit-making formula and names underperforming titles from their catalog. O'Luanaigh clarifies why certain titles lagged and explains non-dilutive platform advance funding from headset manufacturers.11:41–14:24 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 Upcoming 2017 Releases and Channel Strategy O'Luanaigh discusses digital store distribution relationships and retail download cards before transitioning into the Famous Five rapid-fire segment. The tone is entirely friendly and cooperative.14:25–15:13 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Interview Summary and Closing Thoughts Latka delivers his closing monologue, summarizing nDreams' key traction metrics before transitioning into sponsor promotions and next episode teasers.0:50–3:41 · Guest teaching 2/10 Preview of Upcoming Founder Interview Latka introduces O'Luanaigh and quickly dives into unit economics and adoption bottlenecks in the nascent VR market. O'Luanaigh readily provides data on their top title, Perfect Beach, while Latka calculates the unit volume share.3:41–6:04 · Guest teaching 1/10 Internal Game Ideation and Prototyping Process O'Luanaigh outlines nDreams' internal ideation and rapid prototyping workflow. Latka runs quick arithmetic on their minimum pricing and sales volume to establish baseline product revenue.6:04–9:12 · Guest teaching 3/10 Market Data Transparency and Competitive Landscape O'Luanaigh explains the severe lack of transparent sales data in the VR industry and details nDreams' fundraising and revenue trajectory. Latka presses for exact top-line figures and valuation methodology in an unprofitable emerging category.9:12–11:41 · Guest teaching 3/10 Evaluating VR Hits, Misses, and Co-Funding Latka uses the Zynga analogy to ask if nDreams has a hit-making formula and names underperforming titles from their catalog. O'Luanaigh clarifies why certain titles lagged and explains non-dilutive platform advance funding from headset manufacturers.11:41–14:24 · Guest teaching 1/10 Upcoming 2017 Releases and Channel Strategy O'Luanaigh discusses digital store distribution relationships and retail download cards before transitioning into the Famous Five rapid-fire segment. The tone is entirely friendly and cooperative.14:25–15:13 · Guest teaching 0/10 Interview Summary and Closing Thoughts Latka delivers his closing monologue, summarizing nDreams' key traction metrics before transitioning into sponsor promotions and next episode teasers.0:50–3:41 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Preview of Upcoming Founder Interview Latka introduces O'Luanaigh and quickly dives into unit economics and adoption bottlenecks in the nascent VR market. O'Luanaigh readily provides data on their top title, Perfect Beach, while Latka calculates the unit volume share.3:41–6:04 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Internal Game Ideation and Prototyping Process O'Luanaigh outlines nDreams' internal ideation and rapid prototyping workflow. Latka runs quick arithmetic on their minimum pricing and sales volume to establish baseline product revenue.6:04–9:12 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Market Data Transparency and Competitive Landscape O'Luanaigh explains the severe lack of transparent sales data in the VR industry and details nDreams' fundraising and revenue trajectory. Latka presses for exact top-line figures and valuation methodology in an unprofitable emerging category.9:12–11:41 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Evaluating VR Hits, Misses, and Co-Funding Latka uses the Zynga analogy to ask if nDreams has a hit-making formula and names underperforming titles from their catalog. O'Luanaigh clarifies why certain titles lagged and explains non-dilutive platform advance funding from headset manufacturers.11:41–14:24 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Upcoming 2017 Releases and Channel Strategy O'Luanaigh discusses digital store distribution relationships and retail download cards before transitioning into the Famous Five rapid-fire segment. The tone is entirely friendly and cooperative.14:25–15:13 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Interview Summary and Closing Thoughts Latka delivers his closing monologue, summarizing nDreams' key traction metrics before transitioning into sponsor promotions and next episode teasers.0:50–3:41 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Preview of Upcoming Founder Interview Latka introduces O'Luanaigh and quickly dives into unit economics and adoption bottlenecks in the nascent VR market. O'Luanaigh readily provides data on their top title, Perfect Beach, while Latka calculates the unit volume share.3:41–6:04 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Internal Game Ideation and Prototyping Process O'Luanaigh outlines nDreams' internal ideation and rapid prototyping workflow. Latka runs quick arithmetic on their minimum pricing and sales volume to establish baseline product revenue.6:04–9:12 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Market Data Transparency and Competitive Landscape O'Luanaigh explains the severe lack of transparent sales data in the VR industry and details nDreams' fundraising and revenue trajectory. Latka presses for exact top-line figures and valuation methodology in an unprofitable emerging category.9:12–11:41 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Evaluating VR Hits, Misses, and Co-Funding Latka uses the Zynga analogy to ask if nDreams has a hit-making formula and names underperforming titles from their catalog. O'Luanaigh clarifies why certain titles lagged and explains non-dilutive platform advance funding from headset manufacturers.11:41–14:24 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Upcoming 2017 Releases and Channel Strategy O'Luanaigh discusses digital store distribution relationships and retail download cards before transitioning into the Famous Five rapid-fire segment. The tone is entirely friendly and cooperative.14:25–15:13 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Interview Summary and Closing Thoughts Latka delivers his closing monologue, summarizing nDreams' key traction metrics before transitioning into sponsor promotions and next episode teasers.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 73.3% · guest 26.7%0:00 · Nathan 73.3% · guest 26.7%3:00 · Nathan 24.1% · guest 75.9%3:00 · Nathan 24.1% · guest 75.9%6:00 · Nathan 14.6% · guest 85.4%6:00 · Nathan 14.6% · guest 85.4%9:00 · Nathan 27.7% · guest 72.3%9:00 · Nathan 27.7% · guest 72.3%12:00 · Nathan 41.5% · guest 58.5%12:00 · Nathan 41.5% · guest 58.5%15:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%15:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 9:34 Reframing Skydiving and Gunner performance

O'Luanaigh pushes back against the premise that Skydiving was a failed game, clarifying it was intentionally released as a free marketing demo that netted millions of views.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 9:12 Directly listing specific failed titles

Latka directly lists five specific titles from nDreams' catalog and challenges O'Luanaigh to name which one performed the absolute worst.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 11:08 Educating on non-dilutive first-party VR advances

O'Luanaigh educates Latka on VR ecosystem economics, explaining that hardware manufacturers provide non-dilutive cash advances to studios to seed high-quality content.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 9:00 Drawing parallels to Zynga's early playbook

Latka demonstrates industry knowledge by comparing nDreams' position in VR gaming to Zynga's early dominance on Facebook, challenging whether a repeatable hit playbook exists.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Preview of Upcoming Founder Interview 3212 Latka introduces O'Luanaigh and quickly dives into unit economics and adoption bottlenecks in the nascent VR market. O'Luanaigh readily provides data on their top title, Perfect Beach, while Latka calculates the unit volume share.
Internal Game Ideation and Prototyping Process 4112 O'Luanaigh outlines nDreams' internal ideation and rapid prototyping workflow. Latka runs quick arithmetic on their minimum pricing and sales volume to establish baseline product revenue.
Market Data Transparency and Competitive Landscape 3312 O'Luanaigh explains the severe lack of transparent sales data in the VR industry and details nDreams' fundraising and revenue trajectory. Latka presses for exact top-line figures and valuation methodology in an unprofitable emerging category.
Evaluating VR Hits, Misses, and Co-Funding 4323 Latka uses the Zynga analogy to ask if nDreams has a hit-making formula and names underperforming titles from their catalog. O'Luanaigh clarifies why certain titles lagged and explains non-dilutive platform advance funding from headset manufacturers.
Upcoming 2017 Releases and Channel Strategy 2101 O'Luanaigh discusses digital store distribution relationships and retail download cards before transitioning into the Famous Five rapid-fire segment. The tone is entirely friendly and cooperative.
Interview Summary and Closing Thoughts 0000 Latka delivers his closing monologue, summarizing nDreams' key traction metrics before transitioning into sponsor promotions and next episode teasers.

Statements from this episode (9)

Opinion
High-end VR hardware remains expensive and lacks killer apps
“At the moment, the hardware, the high-end hardware is still fairly expensive and there aren't any killer apps yet.”
Patrick O'Luanaigh Mar 11, 2017 ▶ 2:10
Insight
VR market is too early for games-as-a-service and free-to-play
“At the moment, VR is a little bit too early to do service games and to do certainly free to play titles.”
Patrick O'Luanaigh Mar 11, 2017 ▶ 3:05
Assertion Not checkable as stated
nDreams has sold nearly 250,000 VR units across all its titles
“And across all the titles we've launched so far, we've done just under a quarter of a million titles sold so far.”
Patrick O'Luanaigh Mar 11, 2017 ▶ 3:15
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Perfect Beach accounts for roughly half of nDreams' unit sales
“It's probably about half of those. I think something like that.”
Patrick O'Luanaigh Mar 11, 2017 ▶ 3:31
Disclosure
nDreams employs 50 people, with roughly 38 focused on development
“So we have 50 people here probably about 38 of those are in development.”
Patrick O'Luanaigh Mar 11, 2017 ▶ 3:49
Disclosure
nDreams has raised about $6M in total venture capital
“I've raised about six million six million dollars so far.”
Patrick O'Luanaigh Mar 11, 2017 ▶ 8:04
Disclosure
nDreams projects $2M revenue in 2017, targeting $7M next year
“So, we'll do revenue of about two million dollars this financial year which is not bad. Next year, we'll do about six, six or seven. So, it gives you an idea about how we're growing at the moment. We did about seven 50 last year.”
Patrick O'Luanaigh Mar 11, 2017 ▶ 8:50
Disclosure
nDreams aims to release eight to 10 VR titles per year
“No, I mean, we can't say definitively every game we make is going to hit, but we're doing, you know, eight to 10 titles a year, and we're learning.”
Patrick O'Luanaigh Mar 11, 2017 ▶ 9:37
Insight
VR headset makers often provide non-dilutive advances for game development
“The headset manufacturers who are working on the headsets want great quality titles, and there are quite often occasions, yeah, where you get a little bit of a hand from them in the early stages to make sure the games are as good as they can be.”
Patrick O'Luanaigh Mar 11, 2017 ▶ 11:20
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