Somnium Space: Down the Rabbit Hole into the Shark Tank

The title may seem utterly confusing. For those roaming VR world Somnium Space, however, it’s clear as crystal. Last night, on the shores of beautiful Deep Oasis Lake and for the first time in history, the Somnium Space Creators Fund live pitch event was held in VR. In front of a panel of judges and an audience, 10 creative VR entrepreneurs made business presentations in the hope to get their ideas funded through the Somnium Creators Fund.

This is Shark Tank meeting the Late Night Show in Virtual Reality.
Artur Sychov, founder and CEO of Somnium Space

10PM CET. Lights on. The 10 entrepreneurs, nervous as a baby bird that is about to fly, line up to do their pitch. The 4 judges, Chris Bell, Artur Sychov, Artific and Natural Warp give them a last motivational speech. This is serious business. One by one the entrepreneurs take the spotlight and present their ideas.

Celebration

The audience is at times loud and cheers on the chosen ones: Good luck! Awesome presentation! Musical intermezzos by Quartz (who will perform live in Somnium on Friday the 2nd of July) frame the event. Even though this is serious business, the evening develops into a celebration. Not only of the participants’ ingenuity and creativity, but of Somnium Space as a platform where people can come together, where geographical boundaries disappear and real life physical appearance, abilities or disabilities play no role whatsoever.

As the evening progresses, the awareness grows that everyone present today is making history. The impact of this event goes far beyond this venue and the individuals that hope to get their ideas funded. Ideas are flowing, people connect and discuss possible synergies. The world has never seen anything like it.

The amazing atmosphere during the ‘Somnium Creators Fund’ live pitch event.

The Mall of the Metaverse

Somnium Space as a VR platform is unparalleled. Many people have hailed its second to none immersive qualities, its richness in terms of utility. As a platform it facilitates people to come together, socialize, do business, develop groundbreaking ideas and have fun.

Olysound s pitching her project.

And for the first time, the Somnium Space Creators Fund brought people with ideas together in one VR space. Somnium Space combines gamified elements with a an open, blockchain based and persistent platform. To call it a game would be as misguided as calling a large shopping mall for a bookstore just because one of the many shops happens to be a Barnes & Noble outlet.

A better analogy is that Somnium Space will be hundreds of malls in one giant, persistent VR world. There will be something for everyone. You want to play games? There are plenty of them. You want to do business and start selling NFT’s or even create an extension of your real world business? Somnium Space is the perfect platform for that. Or maybe you want to go to a live music concert or dance to the beats of an EDM DJ? There are already numerous music venues around.

Or maybe you want to do all of the above. Like a mall, all the destinations are in one place.

The Creators Fund

The live pitch event on June 28th was for the July batch. More events will follow.

If you have a great idea, make sure to check the rules in this Medium post and submit your project. Then we may see you during the live event next month!