Ascend Venture Capital LP Profile: Walter Delph, Magic Leap #openlp

When I was a founder, I had no idea what a Limited Partner in a venture capital fund was. Now that I run my own fund, I want to bring transparency to founders and let them know where our money comes from. Our LP’s are an incredible group of individuals who often advise our founders and myself as we strive to create the next generation of world-changing startups (and funds!). -KW

I’ve known Walter Delph, Chief Business Officer of Magic Leap, since we were college football teammates. Walter has built an incredible resume as an executive at Verizon, Fox/News Corp, BCG Digital, and a stint as startup CEO. He’s on the board of the NHL’s LA Kings, and faces his latest challenge in changing the face of augmented reality and spatial computing at Magic Leap. Ascend is fortunate to have him in our corner, and I’m even more fortunate to call him a friend.

You're running revenue for the most heavily funded AR startup in the world. I won't ask you what keeps you up at night, but rather, what gets you excited every morning?

The market opportunity is real and customer needs are accelerating. Massive opportunity in this space. According to IDC, the AR/VR market is expected to grow to nearly $140 billion by the end of 2024. The media often fixates on the consumer side while there are significant near-time opportunities in the enterprise.

- COVID has accelerated the need of many customers as the way we work is fundamentally changing.

- Magic Leap has been working in this space for a long time and they have developed a strong technology platform with one of the most robust IP portfolios I’ve seen for a company of this scale.

- As we have narrowed our focus to the Enterprise, we have growing customer relationships and partnerships. We have a manufacturing customer right now that is using our technology to improve remote assistance on the factory floor, which has proven even more valuable with COVID travel restrictions. We also worked with a large university to enable one of their graduate cohorts to have interactive lectures in full augmented reality when their in-person classes were cancelled due to COVID.

- Think of this technology as similar to the early days of the mobile phone. Enterprise was the first adopters in those days as well. Even though size and weight were larger than our mobile phones of today, the tech was able to provide clear ROI to customers, for instance those who worked from their cars and had the need to stop and check in often with their home office throughout the day. The mobile products from those days fit the needs of those enterprises and delivered ROI to those companies who deployed them across their teams.

We played a little football together back in college. Is there anything about your experience as an athlete that informs how you approach business?

Be prepared for a response filled with cliches. Let's take football, a team sport that fields 22 positions to play the game. 22 players and the bench need to be bought in to the mission passed down from ownership, the coach and the on-field captain.

It is your opponents job to find weaknesses, and that weak link, if not properly trained, can ruin the best laid plans. So it is the job of the team to be as prepared as possible. To execute better than the person across from him/her. These simple lessons learned when I began team sports in 3rd grade and still hold true today.

What do you like most about early stage venture as an asset class?

An idea CAN change the world. Early stage venture is the rain the nourishes the technology ecosystem and there is nothing more exciting than being apart of that change.

That being said, I for one think early stage can be more ambitious. More ambitious with regards to changes to how people do business today. More ambitious as to who we fund, women and minorities.

What's the best advice you have for a founder just starting out at the idea stage?

Test multiple business models until you see that step change and then focus relentlessly on execution. Many entrepreneurs think about a few types of revenues models but gaining meaningful traction with customers takes time. Be wary of anchoring too soon. You may have the wrong model.

What do you think the next ten years look like for spatial computing?

This idea of “Spatial transformation” is well-positioned to become an enterprise-wide strategic priority in this era of Covid.

Today, the stakes have never been higher, with more than half of US CEOs (62%) expecting global growth to decline over the next 12 months. (PwC).

So, a spatial-first digital strategy can help eliminate distance, bringing together distributed teams in virtual settings, which also has the side benefit of cutting travel costs and emissions. It will help manufacturers precisely design products even when their employees are not co-located, with the ability to analyze, test and modify before production and reduce waste. It will close the skills gaps with immersive training and expand access to talent, ultimately reducing workforce expenses.

Being a spatial-first company, we believe we can deliver on that promise of an infinite world without fixed physical screens. We’ve powered businesses with the hardware, the inspiration to understand how to apply the tech to their enterprise problems, and an open ecosystem of partners that build custom solutions. We are literally rewriting the rules of work through this technology.

CUSTOMER EXAMPLES:

We have a manufacturing customer using our technology to improve remote assistance on the factory floor, which has proven even more valuable with the COVID travel restrictions. The factory worker does not have to be the expert on every machine, but with remote assistance can be guided through a process with an expert that “sees what they see” but from perhaps a continent away!