Smart Glasses, AI, and AR: Inside Brilliant Labs with Bobak Tavangar

Your AI Roadmap

Bobak Tavangar, CEO of Brilliant Labs, shares his journey of building a company at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR). Brilliant Labs focuses on developing AI agents and smart glasses that merge AR and AI into a lightweight, user-friendly device. Bobak discusses the challenges and surprises encountered along the way, reflecting on the importance of data, ethical considerations, and the value of AI that understands individuals deeply. He emphasizes the need for a strong user experience (UX) and the existential purpose of the device, and shares metrics they’ve achieved in sales and community engagement on Discord. Bobak also offers advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, encouraging them to thoroughly understand their problem space. Finally, he shares a compelling case for optimism about the future of AI.
Notable Quotes:
📈 "We've more than sold out everything we bought to sell."
🔒 "We won't even be able to have access to your data...it's for your eyes only."
🤖 "We had this vision for Frame and the hardware that we do to be like a Raspberry Pi for AI, that we wanted it to be the first time that anyone with a crazy idea could count on the fact that there's a way it could be embodied."
🗺️ "If we focus on purpose, if we focus on first principles, then you're gonna get closer to Mordor."
Resources:
Season 1 Feedback!
brilliantlabs.xyz
IG: @BrilliantLabsAR
TikTok: @BrilliantLabsAR
X: @BrilliantLabsAR
About Bobak:
Bobak Tavangar is the co-founder and CEO of Brilliant Labs, a company creating an open-source AR glasses hardware platform and pairing that with powerful generative AI models to help you engage with the real world. Bobak studied at George Washington and Georgetown universities before completing a graduate degree at Cambridge University. Bobak is a serial entrepreneur with a core theme running through his entrepreneurial experiences: how to create better ways for people to find and utilize information based on the context of where they are and what’s around them.
Connect with Bobak on LinkedIn

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Chapters

1. Introduction & Episode Context (00:00:00)

2. Exploring AI Agents and Devices (00:03:11)

3. Differentiating Brilliant Labs Products (00:06:57)

4. The Hardware and AI Agent, Noa, of Brilliant Labs (00:08:52)

5. Open Source and Open Platform Approach (00:10:25)

6. Monetization Models and Subscription Services (00:11:42)

7. Considerations for Data Privacy and Ethics (00:13:20)

8. Price Point and Subscription Model (00:14:03)

9. Target Buyer Persona and Use Cases (00:15:12)

10. Data Privacy and Security Measures (00:18:16)

11. Success Metrics and Performance (00:20:17)

12. Buyer Persona and Community Engagement (00:21:36)

13. Community Building and Developer Engagement (00:23:39)

14. Surprises and Challenges Along the Way (00:25:09)

15. Growth and Capacity (00:26:55)

16. The Future of AI and AR (00:28:56)

17. Bobak's Career Path and Starting the Company (00:31:52)

18. Building the Team and Raising Capital (00:37:02)

19. Qualities of Future Team Members (00:39:09)

20. Deep Intensity and Purpose (00:44:08)

21. Bobak's Advice for Entrepreneurs (00:45:36)

22. Founder Market Fit and Venture Funding (00:49:11)

23. The Case for Optimism and Possibilities of AI (00:49:25)

24. Future Guest Nominations (00:52:26)