Un-Augmented Reality:

Tales from the AR Trenches
by Si Brown, Founder & CEO, skignz

Long time readers of this blog – friends and family of skignz – know I’ve been pursuing the very real dream of making Augmented Reality easy, fun, and useful for the masses.

In the beginning, finding articles on the topic was as rare as finding Venusaur, Blastoise, or Charizard in Pokemon Go!. (Of course, back when we started, there was no Pokemon Go!) Try as I might to find something tangible, most of the articles were related to the promise and potential of the technology.

As time passed, it got a little easier because 'the space' was heating up. However, we still couldn't find much in our specific territory. (Don't get me wrong...that's not a bad thing!). The growing amount of information was about AR triggered by images (e.g. a QR or UPC code) or 'features' (e.g. logos or open spaces in a kitchen to place an augmented microwave). 

While location-based (what we use) is another known trigger, it’s surprisingly rare. In fact, we studied the 109 applications in Super Ventures AR Landscape and could only find a couple of possible examples.

Then came two thunderclaps: Pokemon Go! and Apple’s AR kit announcement. 

Boom. Boom.

Pokemon Go! was indeed the game changer that it gets the credit for. It taught us all lessons about the possibilities and established a credible example of how a niche technology could explode into the main stream. ARKit clearly will do all that and probably more.

Add Facebook’s pronouncements and you might think skignz would want to crawl into a virtual cave. 

How could a small angle-round startup possibly compete? This is how:

* We use 'geofencing' in a very different way than all other location-based experiences (AR or other)

* We don’t place content in the App (we’ve <5 MB on your phone vs +300mb for Pokemon Go!) Take a look for yourself www.skignz.com/download 

* We have real use cases under our belt and a growing sense of what works (and what doesn’t) for our particular flavour of AR see www.skignz.com

In addition, those same longtime readers know skignz has been identified by some of the largest brands in the world (Coca-Cola, IHG, Cox Enterprises, Porsche, to name just a few) and have selected us to be part of The Coca-Cola Bridge Community program. That prestigious recognition gives our partners the opportunity to bring location-based AR to the masses.

For this we offer our very real thanks to the teams at companies like Apple, Niantic and others for doing what we couldn’t do by ourselves: Make Augmented Reality a 'reality'.

Credit: Apple's WWDC 2017 KeyNote

If you want to find out more about skignz, then please visit our website (www.skignz.com) as well as the usual social media channels.

skignz accepted onto Atlanta Bridge Community.

It’s exciting times for the skignz team; we are pleased to announce that we have secured a place within the Coca-Cola led Atlanta Bridge Community.


This is amazing news for our innovative geo-location based Augmented Reality platform. skignz Chief Operating Officer says:, Jamie Clarke
"The Bridge Community gives skignz an opportunity to collaborate on a number of levels with some of the biggest companies and Brands on the planet. 

We are humbled and rightly excited about Atlanta is one of the fastest growing technology ecosystems in the US. It is the largest economy in the southeast and home to over 30 Fortune 1000 companies, including the Coca-Cola Company.

The Bridge Company is a unique entrepreneurial community model backed by an exclusive set of large corporates focused on growing communities through corporate start-up collaboration. 

It was founded by Coca Cola and now includes some major businesses such as Cox Enterprises, Coca Cola, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Porsche North America, SunTrust Bank, Capgemini and The Weather Company are just a few who wholeheartedly support and contribute to the Atlanta Bridge Company.

The Bridge Project started in 2014. The success of this fantastic opportunity shows in their figures; with 10 start-ups and five large corporations starting 2014, which enabled 9 pilots and proof-of-concepts. Collectively these start-ups hired 32 employees, increased their revenue monthly by 150% and raised $2.9M in VC funding.

So you can imagine how ecstatic we were when we realised skignz had been chosen as one of the 22 companies to be part of this amazing project that helps companies take a huge step up on the commercial ladder.

We are thrilled with the opportunity to receive tactical, in-depth training from an enterprise perspective including marketing branding, sales and negotiation tailored to our individual needs. The idea behind such training is to accelerate us into our targeted marketplace. We will have access to internal and external mentors from some of the top companies across Atlanta / America / Globe

The Atlanta Bridge Community Model truly cares about the start-ups on the program; their aim is to help them build a global businesses. They ask for no financial investment, equity stakes and all start-ups maintain ownership of their IPR.

So you can see why we are so excited about this amazing opportunity. 

'Above we can see Jamie Clarke, skignz COO, in full-swing engaging with some amazing companies.'

Jamie added... "It's such an exciting opportunity for us to engage, not only with some of the biggest brands in the world, but also embed ourselves into the Tech ecosystem in Atlanta.  The partnership opportunities with the companies who are also part of the Bridge Community is an added bonus."

You can see more from other companies such as, Tech-Up Techwire and PR Web, who are finding this news just as exciting as us.

You can find out more about how you can apply to be part of the Bridge Community.

If you want to find out more about skignz, then please visit our new recently launched website (www.skignz.com) as well as the usual social media channels