SX Startups: wrnch Expands Interaction
The Forrest Four-Cast: February 14, 2018
For the 2018 SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event, 50 startups will show off their skills on March 10 and 11. Winners in each of 10 categories will be honored at the Accelerator Award Ceremony at 7 pm Sunday, March 11 at the Hilton Austin, Salon AB. The SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event takes place within the Startup & Tech Sectors track of programming.
Based in Montreal, Canada, wrnch is computer vision/deep learning company teaching computers to read human body language. The wrnchAI engine is a real-time AI platform to digitize human motion and behavior from standard video. CEO Paul Kruszewski (in middle of photo above, holding Molly the office dog) took some time to chat about his latest project. See wrnch live as a finalist in Augmented and Virtual Reality Technology, pitching at 3:30 pm Saturday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin, Salon AB.
You can also meet wrnch on Monday, March 12, at the SXSW Accelerator Demo Day, at the Hilton Austin, Salon C.
What does wrnch hope to achieve in 2018?
2018 is going to be a huge year for wrnch. We want to make the wrnchAI engine the de facto standard for visual human machine interaction. We have been working on the engine for two years with key partners and will be officially launching it at NVIDIA GTC in March.
What is your startup’s competitive advantage?
We have an unparalleled amount of experience in building real-time AI systems for computer graphics applications. Our team members have literally been at the bleeding the intersection of real-time AI and computer graphics since 2000. It boils down to our culture. It’s the right mix of hacker and science with a focus on shipping. We have a just right blend of deep learning, video game tech and software engineering.
What inspired wrnch to apply for SXSW Accelerator?
We are team of hard-core engineers who live to build deep computer vision technology, but the real magic for us is when creative teams use what we have developed to create interactive experiences the world has never seen before. The SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event presents us an unparalleled opportunity to get on the radar of the world’s most creative people.
As this will be the first time your team has been at SXSW, what is the most intriguing thing that you have heard about the event?
The depth and breadth of the people attending and presenting is mind blowing. It seems like a Davos of the creative class. Who knows what kind of crazy, amazing applications are going to come out of our meetings? We can’t wait.
Which sessions are you most excited about attending at SXSW 2018?
“Innovate or Perish: How Tech Will Shape Fashion” is very specific, but super interesting for us. Long term, we believe that AR is going to completely change the retail experience. Right now, we are working a “Magic Mirror” demo for the show that allow people to walk up to a huge, 100-foot vertically placed TV and see themselves beamed into cyberspace. They can try on a chicken suit right out of “Los Pollos Hermanos” and if they flap their arms, they will even lay an AR egg that they can kick with their feet. Today, this is an entertainment experience, but with time it will become a photo realistic experience that is literally a mirror. I am interested in this because, in the late ’90s, I was the architect on “My Virtual Model” when I developed the first virtual human system to try on clothing. It was a very humbling experience about just how complex clothing is. The technology wasn’t there then, but with deep learning and computer graphics it’s getting closer. My son Vejas is young fashion designer and we often like to debate and discuss the intersection of technology and fashion.
What are the goals for wrnch at SXSW 2018?
We believe that the wrnchAI engine is a unique AI technology that is going to revolutionize how humans and machines co-evolve. We have worked hard to build the technology and now is the time to let the world know about it. To which, we are laser-focused on trying to win the AR/VR category at the SXSW Accelerator competition.
Tell us about your experiences at previous tech conferences.
We are big believers in solving the unsolvable and not showing anything until there’s a huge non-trivial wow factor. We began previewing the technology last year, starting at NVIDIA’s GTC last May 2017. The interest from the audience blew us away. Next, we presented at Augmented World Expo in late May. There was an incredible energy. The show had more than doubled in size since the year before and it was clear that AR was starting to explode. SIGGRAPH led us to our first partner. After the initial NVIDIA GTC, NVIDIA started a road trip around the world including Munich, D.C. and Tokyo. We went along for the ride and finished the GTC tour in Japan in December.
Have you previously been involved with other startups?
This is my third startup. My first was AI.implant in 2000, which allowed non-programmers to create and simulate huge crowds of interacting autonomous characters. We got to work with amazing visual effects and video game customers including Disney, Lucas Films, Bioware, Midway and Electronic Arts. Maggie Zhang (wrnch’s VP of Development) joined AI.implant just after it was acquired. In 2007, I founded GRIP to use AI (behavior trees) to create high fidelity autonomous characters capable of rich and complex behaviors. Again we got to work with amazing customers including Bioware, Disney, EA and Eidos. GRIP was acquired in 2011 by Autodesk, the world’s leading developer of software tools for digital entertainment. For the rest of the team, it’s their first. To quote Cliff Bleszinski (the legendary designer of Gears of War), it’s an excellent mix of “old bones and fresh blood.”
What has the startup experience taught you about life?
It’s all about the vision and the people. If you know where you want to go and if you are with the right people, you can do anything — and it’s an insane amount of fun in the process.
What can you tell us about the startup ecosystem in Montreal, where you’re based?
We can’t imagine a better place to build a computer vision company focused on augmented reality. Montreal helped created the visual effects industry and has been a hot bed of video game development for almost 20 years. wrnch was a spinout of TandemLaunch, a deep tech incubator in Montreal. TandemLaunch’s founder/CEO, Dr. Helge Seetzen, is true visionary and a pleasure to work with. Our sister company, (another TandemLaunch company) sportlogiq, is doing great stuff in AI-driven sports analytics and ElementAI’s monster $100M round has squarely put Montreal on the map as a deep learning hub.
How long has the wrnch team been together?
We founded wrnch in April 2014, but our collective roots are video games and AI. Like most Canadians, we pride ourselves on our diversity; 75% of our team wasn’t born in Canada, but we all call Montreal our home. In previous lives, our team members have developed computer vision systems for industrial robots, game engines, crowd simulators, tank training systems and commercial “AAA” video games. We started in image processing for Hollywood and pivoted into AR in early 2015.
Looking at the entire tech industry, what technology do you think is most overrated?
Cryptocurrencies. Long-term this is going to be the evolution of money, but right now this is clearly a bubble. When a company can add “Blockchain” to its name and its stock surges almost 400%, we might be into “pets.com” territory.
What about underrated?
Reinforcement learning. Currently all of the big gains in machine learning use supervised learning. However, reinforcement learning may be poised to massively change the way the world works. The top no-limit Texas hold ’em player right now is an algorithm (Libratus) that used reinforcement, self-learning techniques (along with some experience playing against top players) to essentially teach itself how to win. A number of other games (e.g. Chess, Go) are also currently dominated by AI players. There are a variety of real-world applications (in economics, trade, military strategy, diplomacy) that could also be naturally viewed as games and which might be soon dominated by AI players.
What are some of your team’s favorite podcasts?
On a very technical level, we are listening to hard-core stuff like CppCast and “Talk Python To Me” because we just love C++ and Python. On a broader level, we enjoy NVIDIA’s series on the applications of AI. We find it extremely inspirational.
What aspects of the startup experience do you enjoy most?
It is pure joy to assemble a team of smart, nice, hard-working engineers to solve the unsolvable, and watching customers’ eyes light up when we enable their dreams. Sort of “Ocean’s 11” for nerds. Nothing beats being at a trade show and watching people walk by, look at the demo and drop their jaws. It’s a total rush.
What about least?
The hardest part of being in a startup is getting the timing just right. You need to be sufficiently ahead of the curve but not too much. The second hardest part is the rejection when people don’t get the vision. What can be crystal clear in our minds isn’t in others. This is a blessing and a curse. We used to take this personally. Now we have come to understand that it’s not them, but us. That we have to do a better job of explaining the vision.
What do you know now that you wish you had known before you began the startup journey with wrnch?
Just how big of an impact deep learning would have. We started off in traditional image processing. We build a great system for its time but already DL is beating it. Our approach now is DL-first. Whenever we tackle a problem, our reflex is to always ask first: Can with do this with DL?
What does work-life balance look like?
The cliché “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” is, like most clichés, true. I am notoriously structured like a clock. I believe deeply in the old school notion of 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. I get up every morning at 5 am and run 10K with my dog Molly (who also works at wrnch as the office empath). I drop off my youngest daughter at school and am in the office by 8 am.
We are an extremely structured and focused team. We don’t like drama. The mood at the office is fun but serious. Visitors to the office are often shocked how silent it is. There are no Nerf gun wars going on like you see in the movies. Everyone is quietly and happily in the flow of writing amazing code.
We are blessed to have one of the best gyms in the city in our building and many of us like to go there at lunch to recharge with a workout. The days usually end with an interview from 5:30 pm to 7 pm. The bar for working at wrnch is exceptionally high and so it usually takes a good 20 interviews before we find a candidate who is the right fit for us. My house is just a few blocks away and so I am usually home by 7:15 pm to start cooking and reconnecting with my fiancé and two teenage daughters. Cooking for me is a way of concretely loving my family and doing something extremely hands-on after a day of 1s and 0s.
Other than wrnch, what is world’s the most exciting startup?
Without a doubt, MagicLeap. The hype and expectations are off the charts. We can’t wait to try it out.
Person, company, thing or goal. What inspires your team to work harder?
Discreet Logic put Montreal on the map 30 years ago as the center of computer graphics technology for film production. The development of the game industry in the 2000s furthered Montreal’s reputation as a hotbed of computer graphics creativity. Deep learning work at MIRA laid the foundation of the AI explosion that is happening in Montreal today. wrnch is focused on the interaction of AI and computer graphics. We feel that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build something exceptional in Montreal. To not to take advantage of this amazing opportunity would be criminal.
You can invite any three living people from anywhere in the world to dinner. Who do you invite and why?
First I would invite ubershark Mark Cuban. He is on our board and a mentor of mine. No one exemplifies entrepreneurial grit like Mark. I can write him anytime of the day and will get a razor sharp answer back in minutes. Next would be Jensen Huang, the Founder & CEO of NVIDIA. I don’t think any other single person on the planet has done more to accelerate the democratization of AI across the world. Every time I listen to him talk, I am blown away by breadth of his vision and the depth of his knowledge. My third invitee is Melinda Gates, Co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I have so much respect and admiration for not only her philanthropy, but for doing it in a scientific way that is based on measured results. I am certain that her approach will have a positive impact that is even bigger than the Gates Foundation. I would love to have the three of them together to see what would come out of this mix of entrepreneurial grit, AI vision and unparalleled philanthropic spirit. I think the world could really use this right now.
Look for interviews with other SXSW Accelerator finalists in this space between now and March. Startups already profiled as part of this series include 70MillionJobs, Apptronik, ARwall, Bluefield, Cambridge Cancer Genomics, Commutifi, DashTag, FanFood, Goalsetter, HealthTensor, Instreamatic, Leaf, Moms Can: Code, Pawame, PolyPort, Sceenic, Switchboard, UPGRADED, USHR and Vochlea.
Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; other times they focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.
