Teooh’s avatar social platform aims to beat the odds

The success stories of failed gaming startups that went onto strip elements of their infrastructure and pivot into wider markets like Slack has led plenty of game developers to “platformize” their tech to varying degrees of success.

Teooh is looking to create an avatar-based events platform centered around startup culture. The startup is launching its product into private beta today at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin’s Startup Battlefield.

Co-founders Don Stein and Jon Hibbins leverage connections with startup ecosystems to create a platform structured around entrepreneurial content. They’ve tested meetups with organizations like Startup Grind alongside events like AMAs with venture capitalists like Tim Draper.

Hibbins previously founded Psytec, a game development studio that built VR titles like the Windlands series. Stein spent the past several years in Silicon Valley investing in AR/VR companies and sourcing deals for larger venture firms.

Teooh won’t be available in VR, instead focusing on mobile and desktop platforms, hoping to pitch an alternative to teleconferencing software like Zoom that is more bespoke for meetups where participants can single out and chat with individual users in a virtual environment.

The U.K. team is admittedly entering a difficult space.

Few areas have seemed to earn more entrepreneurial attention and less traction to date than avatar startups. Most of these startups have been VR-based which hasn’t exactly widened their addressable user base, but Teooh is hoping that its focus on more accessible platforms can minimize the friction of users adopting a more cartoonish approach to interacting online.

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