"If a client likes what you're doing, is using your product, and is paying for it, then the financial aspect takes care of itself. It all goes hand in hand"
Ainars Klavins Tweet
Welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview with Ainars Klavins, co-founder of Overlyapp. In this interview, Ainars shares his insights on revolutionizing the world of augmented reality (AR).
Ainars’ passion for accessibility shines through as he discusses the wide range of applications supported by Overlyapp, from trying out furniture to creating immersive museum experiences.
With a deep understanding of AR’s potential, Ainars highlights the exciting opportunities in ecommerce. Overlyapp is leading the way in bringing AR to online shopping, allowing customers to visualize products in their own environment for a better shopping experience.
Join us as we explore Ainars Klavins’ vision for Overlyapp and the transformative power of AR in our digital world. Discover how this technology is shaping industries and enhancing user experiences.
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Ainars Klavins: Hi everyone, my name is Ainars, and I’m the co-founder of Overlyapp. We’ve created a platform to help people create their own AR solutions without any coding or AR knowledge necessary, making what is otherwise a super-inaccessible technology approachable for the average person.
The kinds of AR applications we support have a super wide range – like trying out what a new couch would look like in your home, bringing a photograph to life, or creating immersive museum experiences.
I’ve spent nearly a decade getting to know these technologies, understanding the opportunities, and no less importantly – their limitations (especially when it comes to quality).
And I love understanding how we can help businesses make the most of them. Right now one of the areas I’m most excited about is ecommerce – we’re seeing that the tech is there to bring AR to online shopping, I feel like we’re right on the cusp of a major AR explosion.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Ainars Klavins: I would hold out my phone and say, “How much longer will we be looking at these small boxes to access the digital information we need? We can only be either here (in the elevator) or on the phone.
I think that’s going to change soon. Augmented reality will change how we use and experience digital information – soon, our physical environment will be overlaid with digital information.
That is why I founded Overlyapp. We have to start somewhere, so we’re starting with changing the way people shop with AR, but this is just the first stepping stone – would you like to know more?”
What advice do you wish you had received when you started your business journey and what do you intend on improving in the next quarter?
Ainars Klavins: When I started out, I thought that my value was directly tied to how much work I put in – how much I hustled, how much time I worked, and how much output I squeezed from my team. Only with time did I realize that this was not the case and that all this mindset led to was burnout. That one of the most important skills is learning to say no.
We’re living in a world where entrepreneurs are glorified. As a result, people go into it for the wrong reasons – for glory, fame, and money. And they do it at the cost of the integrity of their business.
They don’t care what they’re selling, what value they’re adding, or the collateral damage they’re leaving behind. If you only focus on the income, the math, sooner or later, that business will fall apart. The entrepreneur will burn out, the clients will leave, society will turn their backs.
Meanwhile, if you’re doing everything for the sake of building value, of helping others, then the financial benefit will follow. I suppose that’s the advice I would have wished to receive earlier.
Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?
Ainars Klavins: It’s clear that we’re living in an increasingly remote-enabled world. Location and geography barriers are losing their importance, and people are expecting to be able to access a variety of services and opportunities regardless of where they’re located.
One major trend is the rise of ecommerce, and we’re seeing that people expect to be able to buy, and to a certain degree, to try out, their products before purchasing.
Augmented reality is going to enable that even further, letting people see how an item will look like in their environment – this will then lead to fewer returns and happier customers, regardless of how near of far they are from the store in question.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Ainars Klavins: We’re living in a time when technology is developing at its fastest pace ever. While that comes with a lot of cool benefits, one consequence is that technology experiences hype really quickly and really early, before it has the chance to develop and demonstrate its value.
People get really excited, major investments are made, expectations are high, and then the tech ends up disappointing. This is called the Gartner hype cycle. Tech is discarded before it gets the chance to truly grow into itself.
Think autonomous vehicles, drones delivering us pizzas, even QR codes, which are only now maturing. This hinders good tech’s ability to draw the investment it needs to develop and mature, because with all hyped tech, it needs that runway to grow and develop.
We’re seeing the same thing with augmented reality, which was super hyped back in 2014. While the technology has incredible potential, investors and users feel let down by its inability to perform back in the 2010s.
But now the technology has developed, and there are new opportunities, and the challenge is to convince society to give it another chance.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Ainars Klavins: The most underestimated part of running a company is how much business owners actually have to work on themselves, and how much that impacts founders and their leadership abilities.
I’ve come to the realization that our personal traits and characteristics have a massive impact on business. Very often we don’t realize that our business problems are directly related to our personal problems.
For example, when Overlyapp has experienced periods of stagnation, that was because I wasn’t able to see where I personally was dragging the company down.
And when I finally opened my eyes to my own impact, then Overlyapp made massive strides forwards. I’m certain that business problems are 60-70% actually founders’ problems. And when we truly see those, then we can start solving and building up the business.
What does “success” in 2023 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Ainars Klavins: It might be trivial, but success right now looks like if a client says that our product is really cool and that it’s brought value to them. I value that higher than financial success.
Because if a client likes what you’re doing, is using your product, and is paying for it, then the financial aspect takes care of itself. It all goes hand in hand.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Ainars Klavins for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Ainars Klavins or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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