Reinventing Virtual Reality! Vrushali Prasade

I was in the third year of my college when our product was ready. We realized it was the right time to go out in the market, so we all dropped out of college

Ever since Vrushali was young, she wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. This quiet girl joined BITS Pilani for under-graduation in 2012. Since her first year in college, she was working with her batch mates, Shubham and Hari in the field of medical instrumentation and medical imaging. “We read about Virtual Reality (VR) while working on medical instrumentation, and the concept fascinated us. The problems and challenges the current technology was facing were interesting, and we got lured into it.”

The energetic trio has gone to build a Wearable Virtual Reality Headset, Tesseract that lets users play any 2D game (or watch any movie) in 3D with complete 360-degree field of vision.

Vrushali, Shubham and Hari started to work on the device in their second year. What differentiates this from its other competitors like Oculus is that it is compatible with all existing PC games, movies and can also live stream from online gaming communities. It can also be used with mobile phones through devices like Chromecast.

The journey was pretty adventurous. But as the product developed, we all decided to drop out of college. My parents were a little concerned about my decision. However over time, they have gotten to supporting me in this endeavour of mine, she adds smilingly.

The Journey hasn’t been easy.. Family

“My dad believes in studying hard, going to a good college and landing up with a good job. It was difficult for him to accept my decision of dropping out of a prestigious institute like BITS Pilani.”

My mother was the one who convinced my dad of the opportunities this decision provided me, professionally. He still hopes that I finish my graduation someday, and I am not called a class 12^th pass out!

We asked how the society reacted to her decision, and she said, “I don’t pay a lot of attention to what people say, so their opinion does not matter much. But people who matter to me, my family and friends have been very supportive and encouraging.”

What keeps her going..

No morning is the same for this young entrepreneur. Nights are spent working, and days are spent solving problems coming in various domains. What keeps the oil burning is the idea that a product is being created that will add some level of comfort and engagement in people’s life. “Simply the idea that I am bringing better technology into this world is exhilarating enough to keep me motivated every single day,” she adds with enthusiasm.

Entrepreneurship has released me from those chains of the conventional monotonous lifestyle a lot of people are forced into living today.

On Being a Womenpreneur..

Vrushali believes that women are strong and have the ability to balance their act.

“Financially secure and well educated women will mean more open mindedness and better development of children,” says the 21 year old.

While working on her start-up Absentia, she had to sacrifice pocket money, social life and grades. “It’s all worth it, we made our idea a reality,” she adds. Their product Absentia is ready with their pre manufacturing prototype.

Challenges..

One of the biggest challenges that Vrushali and her team has faced was educating the Indian market about the existence of Virtual Reality. Their product competes with Oculus, a virtual reality product that Facebook bought for $2 Billion. “Delivering a product that can compete at a global level was also a challenge for us when we started. A year down the line, we are confident about what we have done. We will soon be able to educate everyone about VR,” she says with positivity.

The entrepreneurial spirit! 

“I was one of those people who did not consider depending on others to get a job done, but starting up has helped me work in a team. I have learnt delegating work and trusting my fellow team mates.”

This journey has taught her a lot. Right from being able to present an idea to a group of people, to championing it till they buy your point. Vrushali claims that she has never been much of a social speaker and always kept her views and opinions to herself. So this journey has helped her a lot in opening up her mind, and evaluating & accepting other views.

Advice to all the Women Techies 

 You can always work your ass off to make someone else’s vision come true. But only so often do you get a chance to make your dream a reality. Dream big and work harder so that you know you are working on something that matters to you the most, something which can bring a meaningful difference in the world!