S2 Ep1: Aela Callan | head set

RAT.HUB | Dein Startup Podcast vor 4 Jahren

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I am very honored to be calling Aela Callan as my first guest on
the second season of my podcast RAT.HUB. Aela is an award-winning
journalist and filmmaker, she worked as a foreign correspondent
at Al Jazeera and produced documentaries for Al Jazeera's 101
East program. She was selected for a prestigious John S. Knight
fellowship for journalism innovation at Stanford University and a
few years ago she started her own company called head set.

When I met Aela more than five years ago, we regularly discussed
how virtual reality is going to change journalism and how it can
help tell better stories. How times have changed. I remember Aela
always went to all the international conferences to see the
latest and best VR experiences and she's had a very clear
understanding of what immersive technologies can do for
journalism. i am beyond excited to speak with her.

Some key takeaways:

head set is an immersive technology company that offers
virtual reality training for people who work in high-risk
environments, e.g. journalists, humanitarians and diplomats. head
set develops immersive scenarios that help prepare physically and
emotionally for what happens when you are in the midst of a big
story.

She understands herself as a journalist first rather than an
entrepreneur, so setting up a sales process has been something
completely outside of her comfort zone.

Aela underlines: "Journalists are on a 24/7 frontline now,
whether it's physically covering unrest in the streets because of
Covid protests which is very relevant to our scenario or on the
frontlines of Twitter with the cyberbullying and harassment that
goes on now. We have a culture of many different parties
attacking the media."

VR training sessions are different from traditional training
sessions - "Journalists find it more realistic and more
emotionally impactful than scenarios played out by actors."

With regards to her company, she states "I don't think you
ever finish product development."

She tells us how she set up her company team and highlights
"recruitment is difficult [...] Knowing what you need is half of
the battle. But then being able to ask helps with attracting the
right talent to your team and being able to keep them with
interesting work and interesting projects."

Some management tips for a digital-first company:

during the pandemic, she has managed her team via zoom
and slack

regular stand-up meetings help - open for anyone on the
team (even if it is not their specific topics being
discussed)

leave quietly at any time is possible

every day of the week is devoted to something: product
development day, dev days, co-founder meetings

regular lunch roulettes

Friday open door coffee for non-work related subjects

read-outs from every meeting with specific action items
is imperative

As a manager, you want to be checking in, not checking up.

Some tools to use

Canva

Miro

Trello

Keybase

Slack

Whatsapp

Google Drive

"An exit doesn't have to look like what investors say an exit
is"

More links:

head set

Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University

Uncanny Valley

UK Research and Innovation

Prof. Albert (Skip) Rizzo - here is one of his talks: VR
Exposure Therapy for PTSD

Bethnal Green Ventures

Fire Panda

I am Rohingya

Welcome to the international edition of my podcast RAT.HUB. I am
your host Linda Rath and I interview entrepreneurs who I admire
and look up to. I want to know more about their business AND:
What drives them? What inspires them? I believe you need so much
more than just talent and skills to be successful in business.
So, let's find out what secrets our entrepreneurs will reveal to
us.

If you have any questions or want to share some thoughts, feel
free to contact me via Twitter @Lynda420. I am your host Linda
Rath and I am looking forward to connecting with you in my next
episode.

This episode is brought to you by Media Tech Hub Potsdam. It is
one of 12 digital hubs in Germany, initiated by the Federal
Ministry of Economics and Energy – and the only one with a focus
on MediaTech. it encompasses a working space, an accelerator and
an annual conference and i highly recommend you check it out if
you want to start a business and look for networking
opportunities. I am an entrepreneur myself and our startup
Vragments used to be located at the media tech lab in Potsdam.

Credits:

Produced by Linda Rath

Photo Aela Callan by Aela Callan

Photo Linda Rath by Stefan Walter for Causalux Fotos

Podcast Cover by Nicole Koppe

Episode Cover Art by Stephan Gensch

Music/Jingles by Mara Niese