A browser-based SaaS product empowering enterprises to create immersive 2D & 3D experiences in minutes. We achieved $1.5MM in first-year revenue and $3.5MM in VC funding supporting 5,000+ users.
The founders of Pixel Canvas pivoted their VR game studio into an innovative virtual events agency in the summer of 2020. I joined as the Director of UX alongside the founding and C-suite members of the team as the first female employee. These five first-time entrepreneurs were looking to bring this virtual event product to venture capitalist investors and potential clients. I have collaboratively created over 100 products in my career from ideation to launch. I used that prior experience to mobilize my team to conceptualize and deliver several MVPs that secured client revenue, seed funding, and bridge round funding.
Collaboratively Leading an Idea from Zero to a $15MM Valuation in 2 Years
Showcasing the Vision through an Animated Video Prototype
The company determined that producing an animated video prototype was the quickest path to market feedback pre-development. The C-suite provided me a market research based list of features to showcase in the animation. The key was highlighting the virtual 3D world as our market differentiator. I had this top of mind when going through the execution process of outlining, story boarding, and animating in Adobe After Effects. This video resulted in closing our first deals with several large companies and interested venture capitalists during pitches.
Building MVPs through Paid Custom Client Projects
UCLA Anderson, Verizon 5G Labs, Warner Media, and British Telecom were among the first few client contracts we signed. Delivering these projects gave us the capital and demographic to iteratively create MVPs for crucial user and market feedback. During this time I hired and managed two junior designers, two part-time contractors, led the expansion of our branding system, and instituted creative processes. Working collaboratively with department leads, web developers, Unreal Engine developers, and our clients we concepted and customized each 3D environment for their virtual event experiences.
The results of this work generated $1.5MM in first year revenue with very little marketing efforts other than our combined professional networks and word of mouth. With a more synergized team and several developed MVPs we showed promise for scalability. Our pitch opportunities intensified and our products had convinced our main funders into the due diligence process for a $1.5MM seed.
Applying the Data and Research for a SaaS Product Roadmap
Building a repeatable business model became our next focus. How might we deliver faster, more often, and in massive quantities? I directed my team to start answering this question through research via competitive analysis reports and primary and secondary user interviews. The goal was to understand what the true problem was we were trying to solve for our demographic.
My team and I cross referenced these findings with data gathered from our previous client projects. I produced and presented a product roadmap that highlighted the most impactful features for Pixel Platform’s internal use and closed alpha and beta releases. We coupled these releases with usability testing, interviews, and surveys. This resulted into landing several more clients a portion of which opted to use our SaaS platform.
Designing a Metaverse Creation Tool for a $2MM Bridge Round
When the metaverse talk boomed in 2022, Pixel Canvas’ technologies were well positioned to become the first metaverse creation tool for the enterprise. My next primary responsibility was to concept and design our new in browser 3D environment editor for the Web 3 demographic. This was in tandem with continuing to manage my direct reports in supporting marketing, client work, and design system deliverables.
My secondary role was to publicly represent the company during our weekly Twitter Spaces and Discord sessions. There I discussed our new Web 3 features to our customer base and relevant Web 3 topics. Although our virtual land sales were not as successful as we anticipated, possibly due to the cryptocurrency crash, it allowed us to refine our base product and create our 3D customizer tool which secured us a $2MM bridge round and a $15MM valuation.
