We’ve landed a heavyweight hire

Silicon Valley veteran Jakob Soderberg is joining us from Upodi, where as the Chief Revenue Officer, he recently helped lead an acquisition with powerhouse Visma. In addition to mentoring startup hopefuls on everything from fundraising and sales strategies, he also spent 3 years in San Francisco with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs helping companies make the leap to the US investor market. Jakob has an incredible ability to mentor, coach, and execute and his International experience and go-to-market acumen come at a time of rapid growth for SynergyXR.

We sat down with Jakob to talk about why he chose to pivot to SynergyXR and what he’s most excited about in the XR space today. Here’s what he had to share:

It’s all about the Tech, People, and Timing

The Tech

I remember watching “The Lawnmower Man” with Jeff Fahey and Pierce Brosnan back in 1992 and got intrigued by virtual reality (VR) and the possibilities connected to VR. I think that sparked my initial interest in VR. 

Then almost 10 years ago I joined an accelerator in Silicon Valley and was introduced to a company called “Meta”. I realized back then that commercial VR still needed some years to mature. 

Fast forward to 3 years ago when I returned from almost 3 years in San Francisco. I met SynergyXR co-founders Mads, Sune, and Thomas and they showed me what they had been working on over the past years. They had created a platform that would enable companies to quickly create their own “Corporate Metaverse” and potentially help a lot of businesses worldwide embrace this new technology. 

At the same time, Augmented Reality became mainstream with Pokemon Go. Devices are still following Moore’s Law and iPhones, Hololens, Oculus and many more have become so powerful and mainstream that we are at a place now where the timing looks really interesting. 

The People

Having worked intensely with tech startups over the last almost ten years I have learned that the team is the pillar of any success. 

The team around SynergyXR strikes me as a very strong team with different competencies, and that is paramount for the future success of any business. It’s important that all people involved, from investors, board to the executive team and everywhere else in the organization are passionate and share a common vision of what the future of work might bring.

I can “easily” see SynergyXR become for the Corporate Metaverse what Unity has been for game developers over the last decade.

Jakob Soderberg I New Chief Sales Officer at SynergyXR

The Timing

You can say many things about the last two years around the globe. One thing that we all learned is that working remotely is a valid option.  We should definitely embrace this new mindset and incorporate the technology in AR and VR and the combination to further accelerate this shift to save travel expenses, reduce down-time costs and overall take better care of our environment. 

The XR space today is in my opinion at a very interesting place on the “Technology Lifecycle Stage” The early adopters have been around for a while and have paved the way for a more commercial acceptance of the technology and the many use-cases associated with this. 

I can “easily” see SynergyXR become for the Corporate Metaverse what Unity has been for game developers over the last decade.

And I am thrilled to be part of that journey.