The concept for the VGo Robotic Telepresence System started to take form in my mind one day while I was sitting in a conference room looking at and talking to a face hanging on a wall... I thought, there must be a better way. The vision of having a device which truly could deliver the promise of being in two places at the same time came from years of watching how the videoconferencing industry was falling short of the promise that video communications always held. This was my motivation to invent the product - in short, to take the frustration out of being stuck on a wall or stuck on the screen of a computer and empower a remote person to have the rewards of instantly transporting themselves to a second location. In this location they could see, hear, and move - totally interact - with patients, co-workers, students, teachers, the applications are endless.

The team formed as the vision took shape. With Grinnell More and Tom Ryden, both from iRobot, we rounded out the robotics knowledge. We adding financing via Castile Ventures and within 14 months had the first Alpha units in testing. Shortly thereafter we had completed the initial feature set and shipped the first VGos.

Now with hundreds of VGos in the market, we are constantly tuning the features. We have a firm hold on some of the early markets; education, health care, and remote workers, and are busy adding new features all the time. (Currently, we are in Beta testing for a Mac client. Follow us on Twitter for our latest product announcements).

For me, the most rewarding of our customers are the students and handicapped individuals that would never have the mobility and contact they can feel when using the VGo. To say VGo is a full avatar may be a bit over reaching, but it is the closest solution the market has today. We are very proud to be changing so many people's lives, to quote Lyndon Baty, who uses his VGo to go to high school because of his weakened immune system. "It is the best thing that has happened to me since I had my kidney transplant." What an incredibly powerful - and humbling - statement. 

The future will include many, many VGos and we are happy to be the leaders that have contributed a small part to improving the lives of so many and of those in the future.