Makers of The Metaverse: Zach Schleien Of Filteroff On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Aside from dating, the metaverse will provide people an environment to stay connected with family and friends in a more intimate experience than a FaceTime.
The Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Industries are so exciting. What is coming around the corner? How will these improve our lives? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? Aside from entertainment, how can VR or AR help work or other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewing Zach Schleien.
Zach Schleien is the CEO & Co-founder of Filteroff. Zach launched Filteroff as a way to meet people, not profiles. Filteroff has now raised $2.5M from a Fortune 500 company and has run over 14K virtual speed dating events as well as in-person singles events for a variety of communities.
Zach’s passions lie in technology, health, and creating authentic connections. When he is not working, Zach loves to travel the world, listen to podcasts, and work out.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?
I grew up in Westchester, New York. For college, I went to Syracuse University. I started working on my first startup in my senior year of college and fell in love with building startups/technology. After graduation, I started working for Johnson & Johnson in IT while working on my startup in the evening and on weekends.
Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Tim Ferriss book The 4-Hour Workweek played a significant impact on me. I realized building a business is all about being efficient, outsourcing when needed, and putting your health first. I really learned to work on the most important things versus just staying busy.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
I would go on dates that I met from Tinder or Bumble, and literally 60 seconds into the date, I realized I didn’t want to be there as we had zero chemistry. Soon after, I would ask the dates that I would match with if they’d be open to video chatting. The one’s that agreed to chat over video was a valuable experience. I could tell if we had chemistry and whether we were attracted to one another. Video dating is the most efficient and authentic way to meet people prior to the first date.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
We had a Jewish Syrian community contact us when we first launched Filteroff. They asked if they could run their own private event for their community. At the time, we didn’t have this capability. After coming to an agreement, we built the functionality for their community to run their private events. From that community alone, we created five marriages. We soon started introducing this self-service model for any sort of community to host virtual speed dating events for their members. Since then, we’ve added a slew of features such as ticketing, video introductions, custom branding, and more.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When we first launched we hosted virtual events for a large community. Long story short our servers were not having it. I had to get on the phone with the organizer to try to calm him down. Luckily, our app is much more stable now and supports thousands of attendees at an event at any given time.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I’m very grateful to my co-founder, Brian. He provided me with a ton of coaching while I was raising our seed. He had been through the process in the past, so he had some valuable insight on questions to ask investors and how to present to them most effectively.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Right now, my focus is on Filteroff and helping people connect authentically. On the side, I have a PR course to help people learn how to get press. The site is PRFastPass.com
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?
For the next generation dating in the metaverse won’t be optional. There will be a blurry line between an in-person date and being on video. The audio will be spatial. The video will be immersive. And video dating will change as we know it.
What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?
Addiction to dating in the metaverse and not dating in real life, cheating in the metaverse, using avatars in the metaverse (leading to a ton of catfishing).
I think the entertainment aspects of VR, AR and MR are apparent. Can you share with our readers how these industries can help us at work?
Dating in the metaverse will help singles improve on how they date. It will provide singles practice so they can then use their skills in the real-world.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
Aside from dating, the metaverse will provide people an environment to stay connected with family and friends in a more intimate experience than a FaceTime.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
Online dating works! People care immensely about shared values, passions, and meeting like-minded people.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I truly believe in the power of video. Whether or not you use Filteroff I highly encourage that you hop on a quick video chat before meeting up in-person. It’s a great vibe check and allows you to get to know someone briefly prior to the first date. This can prevent catfishing, will save you time, and will lessen bad first dates.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I’d love to have a breakfast with Tom Brady. He comes off as extremely authentic, has always had a chip on his shoulder, and brings his best self everyday. I admire his discipline and determination to be the best.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success in your great work!
Makers of The Metaverse: Zach Schleien Of Filteroff On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
