SUMMARY WITH LUKA VUKOVIC OF LOOK AT

Episode 41 highlights Luka Vukovic and his awesome company, Look At. He talks with Josh about how he plans to disrupt the lucrative tourist industry with his selfie sculptures. No longer do you have to ask awkwardly for someone to take your picture or snap one yourself, this sculpture will do it for you.

We discuss the impact of Covid-19 on Luka’s business and how they are planning to work around any restrictions that come with travel this year. He has a plan for the future of Look At with an amazing web app, new AR features, and an awesome user experience. Visit Look At’s website for more information about this brilliant venture.

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Full Transcript with Luka Vukovic

Josh Barker: [00:00:46 ] How long have you been working from home for?

Luka Vukovic: [00:00:48 ] I came from Madrid like three weeks ago and I haven’t been outside for like 20 days. I put myself in isolation because I was in Spain , so I haven’t been outside in like 20 days.

Josh Barker: [00:01:01 ] Oh my goodness. Wow. Are you staying healthy you and your family and your loved ones?

Luka Vukovic: [00:01:07 ] Yeah, we are all healthy. Thank God. But there’s few people around my house who got infected. Actually our mayor is from my street and he got infected and also a few more people. And so the place around my houses kind of being smaller and smaller.

Josh Barker: [00:01:27 ] Oh man. Yikes. well at least you and your loved ones are okay, but, hopefully those around you  will get through it quickly, huh?

Luka Vukovic: [00:01:35 ] Yeah, I read in the United States. It’s a hard times, especially in New York, in Chicago, you’re in Chicago, right?

Josh Barker: [00:01:44 ] Yeah, we’re in Chicago, in West Michigan. Both areas are locked down pretty tightly. It’s definitely a ghost town, being outside. There are a few people outside here and there, but for the most part, everyone’s in their houses, not really going outside.

It’s a different world, it’s crazy.

Luka Vukovic: [00:02:02 ] It’s scary times.

Josh Barker: [00:02:04 ] Yes. Yeah, it is. Everything’s kind of changing or there’s a new sense of normal. I mean, you, like you said, you’ve been doing this for three weeks. We’ve been probably doing it for the similar amount. So we’re getting kind of used to working from home and, yeah, it’s interesting times.

Luka Vukovic: [00:02:20 ] Yeah.  I’ve been talking with some people in China and everything seems to be okay there now, so hopefully in two months, everything will be okay here too. So I like to think.

Josh Barker: [00:02:32 ] Yes, exactly. As long as we can keep the social distancing up kind of distance ourselves from one another for awhile.

Luka Vukovic: [00:02:40 ] Yeah. The bigger problem is going to be the economy after this. We are definitely heading to recession. I pray to God that there’s not going to be a depression like the one in the United States in 1929.

Josh Barker: [00:02:55 ] 1930s. Yeah, exactly. hopefully we’re not headed in that direction.

I mean, the nice thing is, I know the government in the United States is just doing everything they can to keep businesses afloat by offering grants and small business loans. A lot of loans and money that doesn’t need to be paid back. They’re trying to really do what they can,  which is good. it feels like they’re trying to react somewhat quickly to it. 

Luka Vukovic: [00:03:18 ] Yeah. That’s positive. same thing here. So hopefully, we’ll get through this.   It’s going to be interesting.

Josh Barker: [00:03:24 ] Oh yeah, for sure. Well Luka, tell me a little bit about yourself and tell me a little bit about Look At.?

Luka Vukovic: [00:03:31 ] Yeah. I’m from Croatia. It’s a small country in the EU. I’m 35 years old, married, and a father of two girls and a boy.  I’m an industrial engineer. I was a top student in my class. So before starting my own business, I worked as a project manager for nearly 10 years for one company that was into mechanical constructions.

And soon after coming up with the idea for selfie sculpture or Look At, I’ve quit my job started my own company and went all-in with Look At. So this was three years ago and now we are here. So, my company is still alive and that makes me happy.

Josh Barker: [00:04:05 ] When did you start Look At?

Luka Vukovic: [00:04:07 ] So look at has three years. Look At is a startup company, building next-generation products for tourists. We built the first selfie column sculpture that gets tourists the best possible photo of them in front of an attraction.

It also enables them to have an augmented reality photo to educate themselves about the attraction and also to send the photo. They just snap as an actual postcard worldwide.  We installed the first units last year and had great traction. Additionally, we learned a lot from watching people use our product.

We raised 100K from the U-fund to improve our product based on what they learned. And this is what we were doing in the last eight months. So. It all started with the sculpture. And now we are building a platform around it. A  platform that connects all of our sculptures in a smart city tourist guide that by making it the game for tourists, guides them through a city.

And at the same time, by doing this, it regulates the movement.  This is basically what we are doing and where we were in three years and where we stand now.  Basically I was walking one day back in my hometown, when I saw a couple of tourists, trying to get a selfie in front of one of the city attractions and they were struggling so much.  I remember I was laughing at them, trying to get a good angle. They nearly fell into the sea, looking for a perfect picture. They so badly want it. I thought to myself, there’s got to be a better way for people in the 21st century to get a picture in front of an attraction when traveling.

But there wasn’t because what are the options tourists have? They can ask a passer-by, to take the picture for them. Nine out of 10 times, you won’t be satisfied with that picture because the top of the Eiffel tower is cut off. You need to thank that person that took the picture in the first place. Already you are looking for another person to take another picture for you. There’s always a selfie, which two of these tourists are doing, but when they selfie in front of an attraction, there is always a head in the picture front and there’s little or no attraction in the back.

The only thing they want to have in the picture is the attraction. They’re going to have a memory from that city. And there’s this third option, and this is choosing someone out of your group to take the picture, but then this person gets left out of it. And this is always an awkward moment.

There are a few other options, like using certain gadgets like drones or something like tripods. People can have a personal photographer, but this all takes time. And the thing we want to do is to, help people connect with a city. We want them to enjoy the attraction and not worry about how they’re going to get this picture.

So I was looking at these people and I thought to myself, there has to be an easier way. So I said, what if there was kiosk, like a sculpture or a column or something with a camera already getting the perfect angle so they could connect to this camera. They could have a preview on their own mobile phone and pressing just one button they could have their picture saved to their mobile phone.

This seems like a good idea to me. So I send a blurb to my wife and when got back home, she was like, what was this all about? What did you send me in that message? And I was like, remember when we were in Paris on our honeymoon and how we don’t have a single decent picture from our honeymoon.

There are only pictures with you separated or with me and there’s not a single picture with the two of us together. And this is really it. And I presented the idea to her and she was like, yeah, this idea seems good. This is definitely something that I would use. So we call a few more people. We call my brother, presented the idea to a few more people and everyone seemed to like it.

Than I Googled a lot, trying to find out if there’s something similar already in the world. I didn’t find anything. Then I wanted to make sure the numbers match. I wrote the business plan and the numbers seemed good. And then I said to myself, okay, I’m going to build this device, why not? It’s going to be fun. And this is I get how it all started. 

Josh Barker: [00:08:06 ] Yeah, that’s good. I mean, I’m definitely in your target audience. My wife and I went on our honeymoon to Hawaii. And it is very similar, right? I mean it’s just the two of us you have