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Below is our recent interview with Omeed Shams, the Founder & CEO at Kwest:
Q: What is Kwest?
A: Kwest, at its roots, is all about exploration and adventure. We launched our first platform in early 2016, engaging users in location-based adventure to re-discover their city. Players would solve riddles, puzzles and clues that guided them from one amazing place to the next – completing challenges along the way to earn discounts and free swag. Think of a super tech savvy scavenger hunt, meets guided tour – with a little “Groupon” sprinkled on top.
After scaling into a few cities, our journey had taken us to a crossroads – and we ultimately had to decide if we wanted to settle into a mid-sized company, or continue chasing our dreams of turning this vision into something with mass market potential. And so we decided not to “follow the money”, take a hard pivot, and build a brand new, better, iteration of Kwest going forward.
Fast forward to today, we have grown to an amazingly talented team of 13 – and have been hard at work building this brand new version of Kwest for the world. With a targeted launch of Q1 2019, our new platform will still focus on location-based adventure – however this time centered around storytelling.
Users will be able to play stories set in the worlds of the favorite books, TV shows, movies, and more. They’ll feature as a unique new lead in an interactive narrative adventure – with their city as the setting. Compelling narrative is delivered through voice, music, and sound effects. Players make choices that mold their own unique outcomes. And characters in each story are brought to life in your city streets, through the lens of augmented reality.
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Q: Omeed, tell us more about your background. What were you doing before Kwest?
A: I come from a family of entrepreneurs, with a strong history in health tech. Before Kwest, I was working with my family’s firm, leading all of the client-facing departments – my focus on New Product Development and Patient Engagement. I would build products from the ground up, take them to market, and sell them – effectively an Intrapraneur.
Q: What is the best thing about Kwest behind the scenes?
A: Kwest is more than just a game. We’ve spent the last year and a half building this truly amazing Transmedia Storytelling platform. Our aim is to work with as many entertainment partners as possible – bringing everyone’s favorite books, audio books, TV shows & movies to life through a brand new medium. With Kwest, you now become a character in your favorite stories, and choose what happens in your own unique location-based experience.
And the most important part of the Kwest journey, and team, are our users. Right now, we’re building a great group of beta users who will get early access and behind-the-scenes info on our process and the game itself. If folks are interested, they can join us at our website!
Q: What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in launching your business and how did you overcome it?
A: This is definitely a tough question to answer, as there have been many challenges on the road thus far – and more to come. I’m not sure I can choose one particular “moment,” as they are all so different in nature, and occur at different stages.
What I can say, is looking at an early stage startup wholistically (I like to break it down into three simple verticals: Team, Product & Market) – Team is by far the most challenging and rewarding component. This last year I have focused a lot of my time and energy on trying to be a better leader for my team. A big part of that has been an emphasis on becoming a more emotionally intelligent human being – and I have a long way to go.
For those out there who neglect this component of leadership and/or business, I can confidently say you are missing out on something truly powerful.
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Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: For now our focus is on taking Kwest to market, potentially raising some money, and scaling the team and product in 2019 / 2020.
Looking at the trajectory of the market, I believe consumer AR will get its “rocket fuel” when mass market wearables come into play in 2020. I want Kwest to be poised and positioned to take full advantage of this opportunity when it comes – to be a major player in the space.
Along the way, we hope to work with the Disney’s of the world – bringing their amazing stories and characters to life through our new medium. If this leads to a potential acquisition, we are open to it.
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