Western Standard - EXCLUSIVE： Aurora Townsend of Planet Theta

00:00:00.000 Thank you for having me. I'm always excited for another opportunity to talk about Planet

00:00:05.240 Theta. It's kind of been my baby project since COVID has started. So I'm really excited for

00:00:10.840 this opportunity. Thank you. Yeah. So this is an aspect of a virtual reality world. And it's,

00:00:16.920 I guess, very focused on the dating thing, right? Like you can hold virtual dates. I saw things

00:00:21.220 such as a virtual coffee shop, you would presumably hook up, meet somebody there and

00:00:25.540 socialize within this virtual setting. Yeah. So in Planet Theta, there's so many ways that you can

00:00:30.920 meet people and date people. You can do it the more old fashioned way where you can go to like

00:00:35.060 one of our bars or dance clubs and, you know, you can chat people and, you know, see if you have

00:00:39.380 chemistry that way. We have a thing called micro dating, which allows you to have three one-on-one

00:00:45.640 like 90 seconds sort of like speed dates with people. And you can match people that way if

00:00:50.820 you're not comfortable with just walking up to people in a bar. But not only that, you get to

00:00:56.280 actually go on dates with people. So it's like you can have the experiences of going to the theater

00:01:01.300 or playing mini golf. So if you're long distance, it's a perfect opportunity for you to keep building

00:01:07.240 connections with one another. I would hope and imagine though, I mean, is the intent? Well, I guess

00:01:12.100 some people will be content just to always have a virtual relationship, I guess, but maybe eventually

00:01:16.360 moving on to meeting in person. Like, I just worry that we're creating a lot of introverts sometimes

00:01:20.900 with some of these new ways of meeting. I completely agree. Actually, I don't think

00:01:26.880 it's going to turn solely into VR relationships only. I mean, think about dating apps. The majority

00:01:33.060 of people meet through dating apps. And that's cool. They continue to have relationships, people get

00:01:37.660 married, but they still have that blend of digital and the physical world. And that's where I think

00:01:42.800 Planet Theta will be. It'll kind of be not necessarily replacing dating apps, but it'll allow

00:01:48.620 a new avenue for people to date. Yeah. And I mean, I met my wife quite some years ago, and we met

00:01:54.920 actually online through a dating app way back. One of the ones that would be considered primitive now.

00:01:59.460 But people at the time were even saying, oh my God, you can't meet people on there and it can't be

00:02:02.560 serious. Well, no, lots of people do now and it's commonplace. You know, how much did you learn in the

00:02:07.660 old days? You know, people as gray as me when you had to meet somebody in a loud bar when you're half

00:02:11.920 drunk and try and determine if it's an appropriate relationship, a lot of fails. But something that

00:02:16.960 was interesting, I guess, some of the aspects of reality and a bad aspect of reality that creeps in

00:02:21.720 is there's been issues that you're addressing with harassment and problematic people, even in the

00:02:27.060 virtual environment. So you can't necessarily escape the creeps even when you go virtually sometimes.

00:02:32.520 Well, for that reason, we have been really focusing on security and supportment of minorities and

00:02:38.260 women specifically because of all the harassment that we've come to accept as part of our dating

00:02:43.340 culture. And we're trying to provide tools to women and just everyone in general so that they have a

00:02:48.580 feeling of like being safe and protected, whether that's being able to mute someone, being able to

00:02:54.400 block someone in a public setting so their avatar cannot interact with you ever again, to not being

00:03:00.040 able to message your partner until you guys like actually both match like consent to it.

00:03:05.820 So that way it avoids random messaging to people because I cannot tell you how many times random

00:03:11.620 men messaged me and harassed me and it's frankly annoying. So we want to prevent that.

00:03:18.020 Yeah. And I can see the levels of, I guess it's a way a person can ease in carefully and feel safer

00:03:24.360 if you're starting a relationship through that aspect of things. Something else is you allow a lot

00:03:29.860 more diversity in relationships. It's open to LGBTQ community members and people such as that.

00:03:37.960 Yeah. Actually, fun fact, the majority of VR users are in the LGBTQA space. We allow people a safe

00:03:45.540 avenue to express their true feelings for one another without being afraid of whatever cultural

00:03:52.380 traditions that are being put upon them. It's a space for everyone to experience love. And I truly

00:04:00.320 believe everyone deserves a chance to love and to be loved. And we don't have that across the whole

00:04:05.360 world. And in Planet Theta, you can do that. And one of the great things about that is too,

00:04:11.580 it's for adults only. We are very strict on 18 plus. If there's any ounce of a kid kicked off

00:04:18.680 immediately until we manually review the account.

00:04:22.920 Yeah. So, and I mean, that's really good. I mean, there are people in different situations,

00:04:26.620 as you said, whether it's culturally or they might be in a rural area where it's, there's just not many

00:04:30.940 opportunities to get out, you know, in a city, a person could go out to different types of

00:04:34.280 establishments where there's, there's more people in those communities so that they could get involved

00:04:39.280 with, without having to travel. And, you know, especially if they're exploring something new and

00:04:44.260 they're younger, it's a safe environment to try and do such.

00:04:46.620 Exactly.

00:04:48.400 So when you were talking about, though, about then establishing whether somebody is an adult,

00:04:54.000 how can you do that? Like, I imagine you've got to protect the elements of privacy at the same

00:04:59.380 time as trying to find a way to confirm that these are appropriate people on there.

00:05:04.900 Well, in your account setup, you know, we ask for, similar to Tinder, we have a, you know,

00:05:09.940 photo verification to make sure you are who you say you are. We have, um, uh, photo, uh, other types

00:05:17.460 of photo identification for, like, AIs to determine your age. We also have come up with different ideas

00:05:22.540 of being able to, like, scan the back of your ID, similar to, like, bars and anywhere where you need

00:05:27.900 to be 21 plus, at least here in the U S we do that. Um, and a lot of apps are kind of turning to that.

00:05:34.120 And we are thinking about implementing that to just to make sure that you're over 18, uh, because,

00:05:39.480 you know, we don't want to put any children at risk here. And we also want adults to feel safe,

00:05:45.560 to talk to random strangers. Yeah. So is this, uh, like an independent app or is this integrated

00:05:51.980 with another platform? Like, like how does somebody get, uh, I guess, into this, this virtual

00:05:56.960 universe? Uh, well, we are on the headsets, uh, VR headsets. Uh, you can see here, my buddy over

00:06:03.560 there, uh, he's wearing one, for example. Um, you can get on there and that's how you get into the

00:06:09.880 planet data, into the VR world. Um, however, we do have an accompanied phone app where you can

00:06:15.160 upload pictures, add to your account message with the people you are in relationships with. So you

00:06:20.520 don't always have to be in VR. And if you're not fully comfortable yet with releasing your personal

00:06:24.200 information, you can talk to them through there. Um, you can't really access the app through the

00:06:30.680 mobile app. You have to have the headset on, uh, we will be coming to like PC VR, uh, later this year,

00:06:37.400 but at first we'll be releasing on the standalone headset itself. Okay. So a person needs some degree of

00:06:43.880 hardware as well then to, to properly, uh, take part in this virtual world as well. Are you just,

00:06:48.440 you're running them by the mill laptop. You won't quite be able to do it. Well, I mean, yes, no,

00:06:53.160 like, um, it's not necessarily out of reach for the majority of people. Cause, uh, compare the Oculus

00:07:00.040 Quest 2, for example, a Quest 2 typically runs about 299 US dollars. Your phone costs about 1500,

00:07:07.640 1200 gaming consoles cost about 900 these days. If you think about it, it's really affordable to

00:07:14.680 access. It's cheaper than your laptop and headsets are, um, aiming to replace your work, your laptop,

00:07:21.800 your phone within the next five to 10 years. So it's kind of easier to jump on the bandwagon now.

00:07:27.720 And like, I truly believe too, with the, um, new headsets coming out, it's just going to keep

00:07:33.960 getting cheaper and cheaper and more accessible to people. Oh, certainly. And technology does. And,

00:07:38.920 and, uh, you know, a few nights in the bar could cost upwards of what that equipment would cost you

00:07:43.240 as well. Anyways, with the price of drinks and getting around and Uber and all the rest of it.

00:07:47.480 Exactly. So is this a, like, does this tie into more though, I guess, then beyond the, the, um,

00:07:54.040 the dating aspect of it, you know, there's whole virtual reality worlds being created out there and, and

00:07:59.320 themes and platforms, is this just sort of independent and focused on dating or, or is it

00:08:03.720 going to be kind of part of a broader whole, uh, you know, universe out there?

00:08:07.720 Well, right now our focus is on dating, but one of the main reasons why we chose the name planet

00:08:12.360 Theta was because we wanted to make a universe to make a world like that you can access part of your

00:08:20.120 life and your friends that are across the world together in one space. Uh, however, our main focus is

00:08:25.800 dating just because there's not really a platform that supports this. And, um, I still believe that

00:08:32.280 people need a new way to connect in dating compared to dating apps because frankly, they're awful.

00:08:38.120 Yeah. So, uh, I guess I, I just want to, I mean, it all sounds fascinating. I see a lot of benefits. I

00:08:43.400 just worry about some of the drawbacks. Like if somebody has a negative self image, things like

00:08:47.480 that, and that's part of what keeps them out and they've created a new one in a, in a virtual world,

00:08:52.120 but you know, could it help unfortunately entrench some of their negative personal feelings, you

00:08:56.520 know, outside of that world? Like at what point do they, they take off the mask if they've developed

00:09:00.360 a relationship and let that person see what you really look like, or is it all based on an avatar?

00:09:04.520 Like, well, it's a great thing about it. Uh, so fun fact, our avatar, um, settings right now are really

00:09:13.880 great in the sense of to build your avatar. You can just upload a selfie to yourself and an AI will build

00:09:20.120 that avatar to look as you do in that picture. So you're, it's kind of you, uh, but at the same

00:09:27.000 time, if you're dating someone after so many like little dates and meetups and planet data,

00:09:31.560 you do have the option to share your pictures with them. So you can be like, Hey, I'm comfortable with

00:09:36.600 you. Here's what I actually look like. And if you like that, great. If not, oh, I wasted a few days

00:09:43.560 getting to know you that sucked. I mean, like at least we had some chemistry and some fun times.

00:09:49.000 However, I really don't think that that will really happen. I think people are going to connect

00:09:54.040 with one another and kind of feel the chemistry. If they really like connect with someone,

00:09:59.320 the element of vainness is a little less prevalent, I suppose.

00:10:06.120 Okay. So is there a ways that it can be separated regionally though? Like if a person's intent, I guess,

00:10:11.160 is to eventually perhaps meet somebody that they'll meet in person and develop a broader relationship.

00:10:16.920 It'll be more problematic if they're on the other side of the continent or the planet. So can they

00:10:20.920 kind of narrow who they're going to be meeting by, by regional basis?

00:10:24.440 Oh yeah. Uh, we actually give that opportunity to all users where you can either do your state,

00:10:30.280 sort of like your region, the whole country or the world, uh, really, uh, we'll be launching worldwide.

00:10:36.360 So obviously there's going to be some language barriers because we are available in like 15

00:10:42.200 different languages or something like that. A large number for my head to remember. Um, but yeah,

00:10:48.280 so you'll be able to base it off your location if you so choose. If you want to keep your relationship

00:10:53.320 in VR, sometimes it's a little better to do the whole worldwide thing. Or if you just want like friends

00:10:58.360 everywhere, you can do that. Or if you actually like plan to meet this person, you can definitely set it

00:11:04.680 for like your town, your few towns, your state. Cause you know, we want them to bring that

00:11:10.360 relationship in the real world too. We're, we're not trying to get people solely focused in VR.

00:11:15.400 We want you to live your life in the best way possible. And we want to provide that tool to

00:11:19.640 people. Yeah. And that's part of what I kind of keep poking at a little as I hope that, you know,

00:11:23.240 it's still, it could still be a place people could continue to visit, uh, you know, for a long time,

00:11:27.640 but you want them to develop eventually a broader and larger relationship. Well, it depends on the

00:11:32.520 individual, what they want to do, I guess some people might just want to dip in and out of VR

00:11:36.120 rather than, uh, pursuing a full relationship, but, uh, just to, you know, you get those visions

00:11:41.000 of somebody who never leaves their home and has nothing but a cap on. And I don't know if it's

00:11:44.760 a healthy development for them. That's true. However, I don't think that's the majority of people

00:11:49.800 that are using VR. I mean, obviously there are some, but like, at least with like my generation,

00:11:56.440 there's a lot of people that are super into VR that are as so outgoing in normal life where

00:12:02.280 they're just like event after event. And then they're just like, I'm done. I just want to go

00:12:07.160 play some VR for a while. Yeah. And it can be a break. And I mean, I know for people not familiar

00:12:12.280 with it, but things I liked even way back in the, the, the dating apps I used when I met my wife,

00:12:17.400 but you could get a lot of just deal breakers out of the way early too. It depends on what you're

00:12:21.160 looking for. I mean, you know, I wasn't looking for a casual relationship, so let's just get that out

00:12:25.480 of the way off the start. Uh, you know, I'm older. I've already had children from a past relationship.

00:12:29.560 I'm not having more. So let's just wipe that out because the people are looking,

00:12:32.120 there's no sense wasting each other's time. Uh, and, and you can, I guess you could filter

00:12:36.120 in a way that you didn't have prior. I mean, you met somebody at the supermarket, you met somebody

00:12:39.800 at the bar, uh, or even at a workplace, you don't necessarily know those details. You could be a lot

00:12:44.200 more candid in a virtual environment. Oh yeah. It gives people the confidence that they probably

00:12:49.800 didn't have before, which is why I think that people will take that kind of confidence that they

00:12:55.320 gain in VR into their life. At least that's my hope. Uh, because it's a way to, uh, experience new

00:13:01.800 things, you know, things that are a little uncomfortable that give you confidence as a

00:13:05.960 person. And I think that that's going to explode a bit more as VR kind of takes over mainstream media.

00:13:12.760 Yeah. Or I would hope, I guess. So, I mean, if a person developed a relationship with somebody

00:13:16.840 and the time came to meet, I'm sure it'd still be a nerve wracking and an exciting moment, but if they've

00:13:21.720 already broken through and gotten good, comfortable discourse and done that in the VR world a bit,

00:13:27.240 it'd be easier to get it flowing, uh, you know, once they met in person, uh, presumably, uh, because

00:13:31.800 they, they've realized that they've got a lot in common or things they like to share. Yeah, exactly.

00:13:36.840 And, uh, if you use our micro dating option to meet people, the AI algorithm will kind of filter other

00:13:43.480 people. So you'll fill out a questionnaire. It's short, but if you want to do a longer one, more extensive

00:13:47.960 to make sure that you're matched with people you like, uh, you can do that. And the AI will match

00:13:53.480 you with people that answer similarly, or, you know, however you answered. So then you guys will

00:13:58.280 have a lot of common. So it's really, it's much easier to filter as you were saying.

00:14:03.160 Yeah. So, well, it's, it's really easy to, or interesting to watch. And I mean, as, as, uh,

00:14:09.000 processing power and communication speeds rise and everything, I imagine this, this world,

00:14:12.840 this environment is going to continue to grow in the years to come as well with, with more

00:14:16.840 activities and regions you can do, uh, within the day. Oh yeah. It's, it's going to be nuts.

00:14:23.640 I'm so excited to see where we grow. Like we already have so many plans to, after we launch,

00:14:28.920 just to keep growing worlds, dates, all these different fun opportunities for people to grow

00:14:35.000 and connect. And not only just with your like partner, like your romantic partner, but also

00:14:38.840 with like your group of friends that you may be separated because I know so many people that had

00:14:44.120 friends, but you know, got a job or left college or something and moved across the world. And it's

00:14:49.400 like, Hmm, I miss you. Wish we could hang out. Planet Theta.

00:14:53.080 Oh, right on. Well, so when is the formal launch going to be, or is it projected to be?

00:14:58.680 Uh, it is projected to be this fall. Uh, we should be up and going by November at the latest.

00:15:05.960 Great. So where can, uh, before I let you go, then where can people find more information about,

00:15:10.440 uh, Planet Theta and, and that, uh, whole VR world in general?

00:15:13.480 Well, you can find us at our website at planet-theta.com. We also have like every social

00:15:19.560 media imaginable at just Planet Theta. Uh, you can also reach out to me on my LinkedIn,

00:15:24.600 Aurora Townsend. I try to respond as quickly as possible. Um, and again, you can go to our website to

00:15:30.840 find all of our latest news and sign up for our, uh, future beta test that we'll be having before

00:15:35.720 launch. So if you want to sneak peek before everyone gets the cool stuff, you know, sign up on our

00:15:40.760 website. Oh, great. Well, thank you very much for joining us today to explain what that's all about.

00:15:45.320 I hope the, uh, launch goes excellently. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. It was so nice

00:15:50.360 talking to you. Great. Perhaps we'll check in again once it's up and running and see how everything's

00:15:54.360 been developing. Awesome. Thank you.

Western Standard - June 14, 2022

EXCLUSIVE： Aurora Townsend of Planet Theta

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