Stepping up the Game: Officially Introducing holoride’s Advisory Board

Announcing the formation of our stellar advisory board with major industry leaders and pioneers from tech, mobility, and Hollywood

holoride advisory board with founders
The holoride Advisory Board with our three founders Marcus, Nils and Daniel

We’re beyond excited to finally break the news as this marks another crucial milestone in our effort to turn vehicles into moving theme parks and to have a profound impact on transit time to be never perceived as wasted time again.

A strategic committee of trusted advisors

In our endeavor to drive the future of in-vehicle entertainment, we’re excited and proud at the same time to have gathered eight brilliant individuals from key industries to form holoride’s advisory board and join us on our journey. This esteemed group will deepen our company’s relationship with the global technology industry, advise on enterprise opportunities and provide guidance on growing product innovation.

We’re thrilled to add some of the world’s most talented industry leaders and pioneers to our advisory board

says Nils Wollny, CEO and co-founder of holoride. “While breaking new grounds,“ Nils adds, “it’s critical that holoride is equipped with experts that touch each key audience segment. From entertainment, to transportation, technology, and finance, holoride is tapping into a diverse suite of entrepreneurs to move our company forward.”

holoride’s advisors include:

Anthony and Joseph Russo, Directors, Marvel Avengers Infinity War & Endgame — Anthony and Joseph Russo, collectively known as the Russo Brothers, are American film and television directors. The Russo Brothers are best known for directing four installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and most recently, Avengers: Endgame (2019). They are the Chairmen and Founders of AGBO Films. AGBO is an artist-led collective focused on creating global content for film, television and digital platforms headquartered in downtown Los Angeles. The Russo Brothers will be advising holoride from an entertainment and storytelling perspective.

Todd Makurath, Founder & Chairman, Superconductor — As Founder and Chairman of Superconductor, Todd Makurath brings a deep connection to Hollywood storytellers, talent and production capabilities. Alongside the Russo Brothers, Todd is also co-founder and Vice Chairman of AGBO Films. In addition to advising holoride from an entertainment perspective, Todd will connect the company with other industry leaders to bring its virtual reality experiences to life.

Dirk Ahlborn, Founder & Chairman, HyperloopTT — Dirk Ahlborn is an entrepreneur, investor, founder and chairman of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc., a new mode of transportation. He is known for his unique approach to bringing paradigm-shifting businesses to life. His work has focused on leveraging the full power of crowd-collaboration, the Internet, and exponential technologies at the vanguard of the global sharing economy. Dirk will advise holoride on innovation and opportunities within the mobility industry.

Palmer Luckey, Founder, Oculus VR (Facebook) — Palmer Luckey is an entrepreneur and the founder of Oculus VR and creator of the Oculus Rift, a high-quality virtual reality headset display. Oculus VR is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality industry thanks to Palmers vision and was acquired by Facebook in 2014. He also serves as the founder of Anduril Industries, a defense technology company focused on autonomous drones and sensors for military applications. Palmer will advise holoride on technology and product innovation.

Thomas Alt, Founder & CEO, Metaio AR (Apple) — Thomas Alt is an entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of working globally in the software and consumer electronics industry. Thomas founded Metaio AR in 2002, which was then acquired by Apple in 2015. He currently serves as a Partner at Atlantic Bridge, a global growth equity technology investment firm with over €750m of assets under management across six Funds — Machine Learning, Robotics, Computer Visioning, Cloud, IoT and Big Data. Thomas will advise holoride on augmented reality, virtual reality, and product innovation.

Kathleen Cohen, Thought Leader & Tech Humanist, Founder, The Collaboratorium — Kathleen Cohen is a creative, immersive strategist within emerging tech. In 2005, Kathleen founded The Collaboratorium, a production consultancy leveraging the best digital, XR, AI/ML, computer vision and experiential, thought leaders to solve enhanced guest experiences within multi-use environments. Kathleen has previously held roles at Disney Parks & Resorts, DreamWorks, and IBM Innovation and is deeply connected within the attractions and entertainment industry. Through her work as it relates to the Metaverse, speaking engagements, and research projects relating to virtual humans, Kathleen provides an ethical angle to holoride’s business and technology.

Greg Castle, Founder, Anorak Ventures — Greg is the Managing Partner of Anorak Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on emerging technology. Based in Silicon Valley, the firm has 42 portfolio companies in areas including VR/AR, robotics, computer vision, deep learning and artificial intelligence. Prior to becoming a venture investor Greg held senior strategic and marketing roles at Scaleform (acq. 2011), Autodesk and Glassdoor (acq. 2018). Greg will advise holoride on funding and financial opportunities.

Group picture of people, back (left-to-right): Dirk Ahlborn, Palmer Luckey, Anthony & Joseph Russo, Thomas Alt // Front (left-to-right): Kathleen Cohen, Todd Makurath, Greg Castle
Back (from left): Dirk Ahlborn, Palmer Luckey, Anthony & Joseph Russo, Thomas Alt // Front (from left): Kathleen Cohen, Todd Makurath, Greg Castle

What’s next?

After our very first holoride Advisory Board Meeting along with a fruitful discussion back in the beginning of March, we feel strongly encouraged and highly motivated to continue our quest to change in-car entertainment forever. Knowing such a stellar group of experts and mentors having our backs helps to follow this ambitious goal. While the coronavirus is a challenge for everyone, we remain positive and resume working tirelessly on our next projects. Updates on exciting projects will be following soon.

About holoride

German startup holoride creates an entirely new media category for passengers by connecting Extended Reality (XR) content with data points from the vehicle in real time. These data points include physical feedback, like acceleration and steering, traffic data, as well as travel route and time. holoride technology provides a new type of immersion into any kind of VR content, creating a breathtaking, immersive experience, and significantly reducing motion sickness. The tech startup was founded at the end of 2018 in Munich, Germany by Nils Wollny, Marcus Kuehne, Daniel Profendiner, and Audi, who holds a minority stake in the startup. It was hailed “Best of CES” four times (Las Vegas, January 2019), recognized as one of the 100 Best Inventions of 2019 by TIME Magazine and is part of the global innovation platform “STARTUP AUTOBAHN powered by Plug and Play.” In 2021, holoride went on to win the prestigious SXSW Pitch and was also named Best in Show.