It’s happened to many of us before: After ordering something online, the product that’s delivered to your doorstep is not what you expected. Maybe it’s too big, too small or just doesn’t look like how it was online.
But there’s a Lehi-based tech company that can help.
SeekXR and its augmented reality capabilities allows for consumers to simply scan a QR code and that couch you’ve been eying or a new desk can appear in your living room through the screen of your smartphone.
Though much of the company’s business deals with this type of augmented reality, Seek’s founder and CEO Jon Cheney said the company has an eye geared toward another realm of potential tech and business: the metaverse.
Cheney said that the company is aiming to deal more in the metaverse as demand grows. Cheney said the metaverse can “be as simple as just viewing a product on your phone or your screen to a full-on game that is fully immersive, whether that’s on a computer or on a (virtual reality) headset.”
The metaverse — a term increasingly thrown around and the focus of expansion by tech giants like Facebook and Google — can mean different things to different users. Digital services like the video game Fortnite and virtual world the Sandbox can be described as metaverse platforms where users can buy and sell digital goods or attend online events like concerts, among other experiences.
As companies in tech and other industries look to enter this new space of tech, Cheney said Seek is an asset for businesses looking to tap into the emerging market for businesses looking to expand its reach through augmented reality or expand into the tech realm of the metaverse.
“We can help any brand or company onboard into the metaverse … in a way that starts to interact with their customers in a much more positive and meaningful way than was ever possible before.”
‘Seek and you will find’
Cheney said he didn’t get into the business of augmented reality and the metaverse on purpose.
While seated in the company’s new office in Lehi, he says Seek first started as Treasure Canyon, a company that put on treasure hunts where customers would pay to participate in the search. Cheney points to a treasure chest on a bookshelf in his office, explaining that it was once filled with a $10,000 prize and lugging it up a mountain to hide is no small task.
Treasure Canyon shifted in 2016 with the release of Pokemon GO, as the hugely popular app used augmented reality so users could catch their favorite Pokemon while out in their community. Cheney saw the tech in action and wanted to apply it to Treasure Canyon, which by that time had an app. The change brought a new name, too.
“We called the app Seek, like ‘seek and you will find,’ that’s where the name came from,” Cheney said, referencing a phrase that can be found in versions of the biblical books of Matthew and Luke.
Soon the company added developers to their staff, and it began moving toward augmented reality. That shift continues to the present day, as Seek continues to move toward an emphasis on extended reality, or XR, which Cheney said can be more broadly defined as the metaverse.
Augmented reality as a consumer tool
As of now, the bulk of Seek’s business, Cheney said, is driven by its ability to take …….