Chris Shaw, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Kansas City-based startup accelerator and business incubator Think Big Partners has been selected by Google to be a beta tester of its exclusive Glass hardware. Google selected only 8,000 people worldwide to be part of its Glass Explorers program, an initiative to test the limits of the Glass wearable computer hardware.
Google Glass is a head-mounted display unit that connects with the user’s mobile phone to allow for seamless communication over the web. Glass also has a video camera that allows for pictures and video to be streamed over the web.
Chris Shaw, a serial entrepreneur who founded LexSpot and has advised over a dozen technology startups, said he wanted to use Glass to give back to the community that enabled his success.
“Glass is a truly innovative way to tell stories and share experiences,” says Shaw. “While our primary use for Glass will be for developing mobile applications in spaces like healthcare and enterprise, we wanted to test the media capabilities of Glass in a unique way.”
As a result of this thought, Herb Sih, Founder and Managing Partner of Think Big Partners encouraged Chris to create Tech Trek, a Glass-enabled documentary that explores the different startup hubs, technologies and innovations throughout the country.
“When Chris said he wanted to give folks a birds-eye view into what it’s like to be an entrepreneur, we were enthusiastic to support Tech Trek,” says Sih. “Think Big has started dozens of companies either directly or indirectly and we feel like we have an obligation to give back to the community.”
Tech Trek is using Kickstarter to raise funds for the ambitious project to tell the story of technology entrepreneurship in the tech hubs of Silicon Valley, Ca., Los Angeles, Ca., Las Vegas, Nv., Boulder, Co., and Kansas City, Mo.
In addition, Shaw explains that some of the funds from the Kickstarter campaign will be used to sponsor entrepreneurs to attend Tech Trek who cannot afford to visit the cities and companies that Tech Trek will feature at incubators like Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Science and TechStars.
“Our goal with Tech Trek is to show people what we do and how technology and entrepreneurship are building the future of our world,” says Shaw.
Spencer Walsh is an independent film producer and director who will be filming and producing Tech Trek.
“Google Glass provides a very unique opportunity for documentary work. I’m already excited to capture the effect this new technology has on the people interacting with it physically and virtually,” explains Walsh. “Also, most of my productions are for startups so I know how creative entrepreneurs are. In my opinion, the possibilities of Glass will really begin to reveal themselves as Chris interacts with these established and growing communities. This might be selfish, but I feel like I’ll be getting a glimpse into the near future.”
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