Eagle Wu, the co-founder and CEO of Vinci VR, is breaking the college-dropout-entrepreneur trope and going back to Babson College to finish what he started - a bachelor's degree in business administration. But not before his startup signs a deal with the DoD.
Vinci VR, a virtual reality startup, makes a training simulation platform. It's work caught the eye of the U.S. Air Force, which signed a contract with the company and will use the startup's software to train its engineers on aircraft maintenance.
In Vinci VR's 3D simulation, pilots will be trained to "feel" like they're inside the plane - they can check engine's oil and walk around in the cockpit.
"They can do everything they have to do in an actual plane," Eagle Wu said.
The three-year-old startup was signed on by U.S. Air Force's Small Business Innovation Research. Having worked with the U.S. Army to run similar training simulations, this is not the startup's first contract with the DoD, but it might be the last.
Wu, who was featured as an innovator in BostInno's 25 under 25 list last year, enumerated the challenges involved for a small growth startup like his while working with the government.
"This air force will be our last major government endeavor," said Wu. "There is a lot of baggage that comes with these contracts, customer discovery is really difficult, getting paid is hard and not to mention the paperwork and red tape."
Turning his attention to the private sector, the company is also having initial conversations with an undisclosed oil and gas extraction company to design a spatial planning simulation for its offshore wind turbines.
Vinci VR has five employees based out of the Cambridge Innovation Center in downtown Boston; it currently operates on the nondilutive grant awarded by the Air Force.
Apart from its own innovation research grants, the Air Force also works with TechStars on a three-month program to identify ten heavy-scientific startups products the U.S. Department of Defense could find helpful.
