Yariv Levski: Co-Founder and CEO Of Appreal-VR

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Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Yariv Levski with us. He's the CEO and co-founder of Apriil VR. So welcome to the show.

Thanks Tyler, thanks for having me.

Of course, thanks for joining us. We'll dive in. The first question I have for you today is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

I think being an Ironman, I'm not really an athlete. I'm not fast, I'm not strong, but I'm an Ironman. And most of the people, if, you know, if I will compete with most of the people in 100-meter race, they will beat me. The only reason I'm an Ironman is because I'm determined. And I think that life is like a long race. If you will attempt to win the short distance, you might lose. It's all about the long run. So I think being able to race and finish an Ironman competition, I had to fight many things like injuries, doubt, mentality, fear, but I had to stay focused on the final goal, exactly like real life. Training for Ironman, you know, taught me a lot about interpret— sorry, entrepreneurship. The need to build a plan while you know that you will face challenges that you didn't plan before. So you need to ask yourself every time, will it serve my goal? Will it help me in reaching my goal or not? So for me, you know, being able to become an Ironman means that everything is possible.

Yes, yes. And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that is within your expertise or industry?

You know, I work in VR and AR. I think people need, if they develop a game, application, whatever, they need to stay platform agnostic. No matter which platform you try to aim for, whether it's HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Gear VR, Daydream, Oculus Go, etc., etc., etc. You never know what the future holds. You don't know which device will be launched next. So in order to be, to launch a product that will be useful even in 6 or 12 months, you need to be platform agnostic. And I think the second thing is you don't need to decide whether VR will succeed more than AR or the opposite. Why? There are more than 6 million cars sold last year in the US and only half a million motorcycles. So it means that for every 12 people that buys a car, only one buys a motorcycle. Still, if you will speak with the guy that just finished a ride on his Harley, you cannot compare his level of experience with the guy that just finished, you know, driving a Hyundai coming back from Walmart. So I think you don't need to choose a platform, you need to be relevant for both.

Yes. And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.

Yeah, so it might sound a little bit like the opposite from what's being taught in business school, but I think sometimes you get to 95 and you're trying to get to 100, and everyone thinks that 100 is a must. But if you think about it, the economic cost to improve from 95 to 100 doesn't necessarily pay the price— sorry, doesn't necessarily worth the price. Whether it's money, months of development, anything else. It's called to be an optimizer. You shouldn't always aim for 100%. 95% might be good enough.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

I would say enjoy the ride. Don't be afraid to take risks. I opened my first company at the age of 41. I could have done it 10 years earlier.

And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

I'm not sure I have this answer. It's a good question. Let me know when you will find it.

I will do.

I think the best thing to do is to just work at what you like and you never feel that you're working, you know.

And what is the best book that you've read and what's the number one thing you learned from that?

The best quote?

Book.

Ah, book, right. So the best book that I read, I think it's not, you know, it's not science, it's based on historical story. It's about Ernest Shackleton. He's a polar explorer. He led like 3 British expeditions to the Antarctic. And he turned his attention, he was trying to cross the Antarctica from sea to sea. The ship was called Endurance and it was trapped between ice and it was slowly crashing. The ship was crashing and they had like, I don't know, a couple of tens of people on board. After the ship collapsed, still they managed to cross 700 miles only with 3, 4 small rowing ships. They came and arrived to the place called Elephant Island. So, you know, for me what was really, really fascinating beside the story itself is that they were managed to— they faced many, many challenges, but Shackleton, as the, you know, the team leader, the captain, he managed to keep the motivation of the team. No one lost faith, and with this huge adventure and a challenge, no one died, okay? He lost no one. So I think the team spirit is very, very important when you're facing challenges.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

One of my favorite, most favorite quotes is that a ship is safe in the harbor, but that is not why ship is built for.

Yes, I actually love that quote, by the way. And thank you so much for coming on, man. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?

I think LinkedIn. Yariv Levski, Y-A-R-I-V L-E-V-S-K-I.

Perfect, man. Thank you again for joining us. We appreciate it.

Thanks, Tyler.

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