on Augmented Reality and Building a Startup in a New Market

Hu describes AR as a combination of computer vision, graphics, systems engineering, hardware, and optics. Her background in cloud television, recommender systems, computer vision, and semiconductors led her to see spatial computing as a next step after desktop and mobile. She says AR’s appeal is that digital information can deepen engagement with the real world.

Using economist Carlota Perez’s technology-cycle framework, Hu says AR is in an installation phase: the tools and abstractions needed for broad applications are still being built. She compares the need for better AR development tools to the way web development advanced beyond assembly language. Games are an early fit because they already use 3D environments, and Niantic uses its real-world games to inform its Real World Platform.

Hu says AR has a long history, from early experiments such as the Sword of Damocles to high-end flight simulators in the 1990s, but consumer adoption depends on technology becoming affordable. Mobile supply chains now provide components such as sensors, cameras, and processors that can also support AR devices. She points to improvements in computing efficiency and wireless bandwidth as trends that could help headsets meet power and data demands.

Hu advises founders in early technology markets to consider building core technology and infrastructure before betting on a killer app. For her company, ARKit’s launch and a cross-platform multiplayer demo helped attract attention; the team used an AR version of Pong as a proof point. She says emerging-tech founders may need investors who understand the long timeline, and that receiving noes is part of finding people who believe in the vision.

Hu says continuing the original vision, gaining trust from Niantic’s founders, and learning to lead at a larger scale helped her team after its acquisition. She compares joining a larger company to immigration: integration takes patience, mutual respect, and time. Drawing on her own move from Chile to the United States as a teenager, she says immigrant founders can find room to explore, while also needing to learn relevant cultural norms and laws.