From School Dropout
 to Silicon Valley 
Gaming Legend

Life's most extraordinary careers rarely follow a straight path. Sometimes what seems like a random collection of passions can weave together into something groundbreaking - you just need the courage to follow where they lead.

Take Jeri Ellsworth - a high school dropout who became a pioneering AR technology founder. Her journey spans from building race cars and running computer stores to creating aerospace navigation systems and leading hardware innovation at Valve Corporation. When her first AR startup failed, an unexpected call from Atari's founder helped her bounce back to create Tilt Five, launching the largest AR Kickstarter in history.

Reed our favourite 5 facts from Jeri’s legendary bio and watch the full interview to get inspired by her remarkable journey that proves there's no "right way" to build an extraordinary career.

She dropped out of high school and never went to college, yet became
a chip designer, inventor, and successful entrepreneur.

‘I don't recommend it. It's a big uphill battle trying to break into these industries, but you can absolutely do it if you surround yourself with the right people.’

Early in her career, her passion for race cars led her to find her first mentors - machinists who taught her in exchange for her help.

‘When I had this wild hair to decide to build race cars, I went to machinists and exchanged labour for them mentoring me: taught me how to build the cars.’

She built a navigation system for the Astro rocket despite having no aerospace experience.

‘I don't know anything about aerospace but I had an opportunity to build the navigation system for the astro rocket. Why not? I'm super proud that it didn't
tip over and blow up.’

She accidentally discovered technology behind CastAR and Tilt5 (her startups) while working on VR glasses – by mistakenly projecting images onto
a special reflective surface.

‘I saw this beautiful image way across the room many meters away in this like reflector.’

After her first startup, CastAR, collapsed in 2017, and she laid off 90 employees, she felt defeated. Until Atari's founder called unexpectedly...

‘I don't know how he got my phone number. He's like, “I love what you're doing. I want to give you an advice. You need to figure a way”.’

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