Community Member Spotlight: Monroe Ramsey
Meet Monroe Ramsey, founder of Virtual Air. He is also a Tech Square ATL (TSQATL) Social Club member and a recent TSQATL Space Soirée winner of correctly guessing the EXACT number of Orbit gum packs we had in a glass jar. In his spare time, he enjoys attending startup-related events and tries his best to balance his time between IRL and VR.
Virtual Air and Founder Monroe Ramsey continues their trajectory with bleeding edge 4D air haptics – Hardware/Software/SDK adaptable to any audio visual (even retail) experience.
As part of our Community Member Spotlight series, we caught up with Monroe about any new projects he’s working on, his favorite restaurant in the neighborhood, and what TSQATL means to him.
Q: What’s one new/interesting project you're working on right now?
A: I am currently working alongside my team at Virtual Air to scale up our hardware/software products and business. You can think of us as “The Surround Sound of Air,” and our goal is to solve the problem of experiences/entertainment that only activate Audio/Visual senses. We will remain focused on keeping our haptic air products human-centric, seamless, and something you would be proud to incorporate into your current setup. We’re bringing sexy-tech back, if you will.
Monroe created the original default typographic motion graphics for the 34ft CMII LED screen overlooking Woodruff Park and downtown GSU (25 Park Place, Atlanta, GA).
Q: What's your favorite food or beverage place in Midtown?
A: J.R. Crickets. I once ate 24 wings there on my 8th birthday at their old location across from The Varsity. That was back when the wings were smaller and my dad would have to shield my eyes from whatever was going on in the old back alley parking lot (a stark contrast from the Tech Square/Midtown area we know today).
Monroe presents a low-fi prototype constructed from spare PC and speaker parts alongside an original Oculus DK1.
Q: What's one thing you would tell people about Tech Square ATL Social Club?
A: TSQATL Social Club is at the epicenter of a city, university, and startup culture that is exploding with growth in all directions. So what better place to nerd out than with the amazing leaders and community at TSQATL? The culture around TSQATL is so hungry and tenacious that you can’t help but just take it all in and join the community. The atmosphere definitely embodies the city's notorious "too busy to hate" motto as well.
Virtual Air took home the “Flying Pigs/Popular Vote” Award at the GSU ENI Business Model Competition. Monroe is confident that flying pigs are far more innovative than terrain-bound pigs and would make a better startup as well.
What are some experiences/entertainment that would benefit from “surround sound of air” that only activate Audio/Visual senses currently? Let us know in the comments below.