On its website, startup company Holos calls itself “the schoolhouse of the future,” and with an educational tool that allows users to create training experiences in virtual reality (VR), it is certainly helping instructors keep up with what co-founder and COO Tyler Waite calls “the speed of relevance.”
Waite says he and co-founder and CEO Daniel Borkhus founded Holos in 2016, inspired by a project they worked on together at UW–Madison. Waite’s degree is in Chinese language and literature, and he has additional background in computer science, engineering, and art, while Borkhus has a degree in economics. So, why develop an instructional tool like Holos?
Says Waite, “As a designer at my core, I was always super excited whenever a new technology paradigm came along … My mom is a second grade teacher, and my co-founder was previously at an edtech startup in Madison, so we had a solid network in place to validate our assumptions and to start building a valuable product.”
Waite says Holos empowers instructors in constructing immersive learning experiences and believes the tool fills a critical gap in current training methods. “You can think about Holos as PowerPoint in VR, except, of course, a lot more immersive and hands-on,” he explains. “We try our hardest to balance easy-to-use instructor tools with powerful capabilities for our learners.
“Virtual reality as a medium has so much potential to make learning engaging and effective in ways that textbooks and manuals cannot.”
Holos allows instructors to import a variety of existing training materials to create each learning experience and incorporate interactive elements in the virtual instruction environment. Lessons and courses can also be shared.
One of the greatest catalysts for the company’s growth has been its work with the Air Force, beginning in 2019. “As a startup with no prior experience in the military, this was intimidating at first, but we knew that in great challenges lie great opportunities,” says Waite. “I have learned to lean into the discomfort of building an airplane while flying in it.”
Waite says he and Borkhus were awarded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts — $50,000 phase I, $750,000 phase II, and a $1.6 million tactical funding increase — to construct and expand their platform with the capacity to meet the Air Force’s evolving training needs. “We have discovered that there are few, if any, organizations that run training at the scale that the Department of Defense does,” says Waite. “The problem set isn’t just defined by the sheer number of trainees that they put through annually, but also in the cost and complexity of the equipment that they have deployed.
“We believe in an open and adaptable model that puts the power of creation back into the hands of instructors within the U.S. Air Force and beyond.”
And what’s “beyond” for Holos is fast approaching. The company is teaming up with a tier-1, San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) partner (to be announced this month) on a $1.25 million phase II contract. The partnership could produce an opportunity for Holos to further optimize the speed of course creation, minimize administrative burdens, and provide intelligent suggestions for instructors.
Waite believes that this kind of support, along with expansion to other areas within the Department of Defense, and a burgeoning public interest in virtual and augmented reality, will help propel Holos forward.
“For every trial that we go through and every hurdle that is thrown our way, there is someone waiting to help us get to the next stage, and I think that’s pretty beautiful,” Waite says.
He adds one more note about the job satisfaction he derives. “There is no better feeling than seeing someone else’s life be changed for the better because of something that you created.”
Holos Inc.
228 State St., Madison, WI 53703
