Tom Emrich
Senior Manager at Meta
Tom Emrich
Senior Manager at Meta
San Francisco, California
Overview
Work Experience
Senior Manager, Product Management - Mixed Reality Developer Platform
2024 - Current
Tom leads a team of product managers responsible for empowering and growing the developer ecosystem for mixed reality devices built with Meta Horizon OS, including the Meta Quest. His team is passionate about enabling developers to succeed with their mixed reality content at every step of the journey, from project start to publishing and monetization.
Author - "The Next Dimension"
2023
Author of "The Next Dimension: How to Use Augmented Reality For Business Growth In The Era of Spatial Computing". Available on Amazon, Target, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org. Pre-order it now; link in bio. Your guide to transforming your business with spatial computing, featuring real use cases and proof points of augmented reality in marketing, advertising, and sales. Ready to revolutionize your business? The Next Dimension, by Tom Emrich, explores the power of augmented reality (AR) to propel your business strategy into the next wave of computing. Learn how AR is reshaping the digital landscape, crafting a new marketing mix, and evolving retail into a brand-new consumer experience. Gain valuable insights on realizing success with AR across the marketing funnel, activate and engage ‘Generation AR,’ and move beyond traditional ads with immersive campaigns that are co-created with your consumer. With real-world examples from brands like LEGO, BMW, Walmart, Gucci, Diageo, and more, this guide equips you with everything you need to use AR technology for immediate and impactful results. Bonus for book owners: This book is AR-activated. Bring the cover to life with a WebAR experience created by EyeJack. PLUS, talk to an AI about this book with ‘The Next Dimension Book GPT.’ Pre-order it now; link in bio.
Director of Product Management, Augmented Reality Platforms
2023 - 2024
Tom was the product lead for Niantic's Augmented Reality Platforms, leading a team of product managers to create, nurture, and grow the developer ecosystem for its native and web-based tools. This included leveraging these tools to create new products and features for NIantic's popular games, such as Rewarded AR ads in Pokémon GO. Tom was responsible for setting the vision and strategy for AR Platforms and collaborating with his team on roadmap development and backlog prioritization. He worked closely with cross-functional senior leaders to set and achieve business objectives and product goals.
Director of Product Management, 8th Wall WebAR Platform
2022 - 2023
Tom led product strategy, product development and product marketing of Niantic's web-based augmented reality development platform, 8th Wall. 8th Wall is the world's leading WebAR platform equipping developers, agencies and brands with a complete set of tools to create web-based augmented reality content — no app required. Among many powerful capabilities, 8th Wall features Metaversal Deployment which enables developers to build once and deploy everywhere including smartphones, computers and now mixed reality headsets.
Board Member
2021 - 2024
Tom was a member of the IAB Augmented Reality Board. During his time, the Board published an "Augmented Reality ROI Creative Showcase" report to illustrate to brands through case studies how AR can drive measurable results across the full marketing funnel from awareness to purchase. They also published "Augmented Reality Measurement Guidelines" to establish clear and consistent definitions and measurement guidelines for ads within Augmented Reality campaigns.
VP of Product
2019 - 2022
Tom led product and marketing at 8th Wall as VP of Product from 2019-2022. In March of 2022, 8th Wall was acquired by Niantic, a leader in augmented reality and best known for Pokémon GO. 8th Wall's mission was to make augmented reality accessible to everyone. It equipped developers, agencies, and brands with powerful tools to create augmented reality for the web, which is best known as WebAR. Learn more at https://www.8thwall.com/.
Advisor
2019 - 2022
Tom was an advisor for eyecandylab. eyecandylab's computer-vision software solution uses videos as a trigger for augmented reality content on mobile devices and AR glasses. eyecandylab was acquired by Accedo in February 2023.
Board Member
2017 - 2021
Tom was a board member of AugmentedReality.org the non-profit organization behind AWE, the world's #1 spatial computing event series and community. AugmentedReality.org (AR.ORG) advances Augmented Reality to advance Humanity. Our moonshot goal is to Inspire 1 Billion active users of augmented reality by 2020. AR.ORG unites hundreds of companies, and thousands of entrepreneurs, engineers and designers – committed to advancing Augmented Reality – an emerging technology that digitizes interaction with the physical world. Learn more at https://www.augmentedreality.org/
Co-Organizer: AWE Nite SF
2016 - 2021
Tom was a co-organizer of AWE Nite SF, the San Francisco AWE Nite meetup chapter and the largest augmented reality meetup group in the Bay area. He worked with the organizing team to plan and produce regular meetup events (both virtual and in-person) and to grow and nurture the San Francisco AR community.
Co-Producer
2014 - 2019
Tom was co-producer at AWE for nearly 6 years producing all AWE conference and expos in the USA, Europe, China and MEA and supported and grew a network of meetups globally. With over a decade in the space, Augmented World Expo (AWE) is the leading AR/VR event series in the world. AWE hosts four annual events (Silicon Valley, Munich, Asia, Tel Aviv) and has meetup chapters all over the world. Forbes calls AWE “the most essential AR/VR conference and expo.” AWE also supports a network of independently organized meetup chapters dedicated to building a hub for augmented reality in their city called AWE Nites. There are currently 16 AWE Nite meetups around the world including Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Chicago, LA, New York, San Francisco, Phoenix, Vancouver and Toronto. AWE is owned and operated by AugmentedReality.org, a non-profit organization on a mission to advance augmented reality to advance humanity. Learn more at www.awexr.com or on Twitter @ARealityEvent
Mentor
2019 - 2020
Tom was a Mentor for the RLab. A partnership between New York City and its universities, RLab is the nation’s first city-funded center for research, education and entrepreneurship in virtual and augmented reality and related technologies. The RLab supports new ventures in VR and AR and spatial computing by connecting early-stage companies and entrepreneurs to resources, funding, mentors and a community of support. Learn more at https://www.rlab.nyc/venture-programs.
Advisor
2019 - 2020
Tom was a mentor and advisor for Super Ventures, an early stage fund dedicated to augmented reality.
Partner
2016 - 2019
Tom was one of the founding partners of Super Ventures, the first early stage funded dedicated to augmented reality (AR). Super Ventures leverages in-depth expertise and extensive ecosystem relationships to selectively invest in promising companies that enhance perception, situational awareness, and power to act — creating computer-mediated “superpowers” through Augmented Reality, unleashing our full potential. Investments include: Gravity Sketch, 6D.ai (acquired by Niantic), Forcite, Quantum Capture, Nitero, Cognitive 3D and more. Learn more about Super Ventures and view its portfolio of startups at www.superventures.com.