Neil Mathew is the Co-founder and CEO of Vertical, a Y-combinator backed startup, building a visual persistence API for mobile AR apps. Essentially, this lets developers permanently attach AR content to indoor physical spaces without GPS or markers. His team specializes in indoor location-based AR experiences and, so far, has worked with museums, retail stores and industrial clients among others.

Before Vertical, Neil spent 8 years building 3D mapping and perception technology for tiny autonomous drones. It was through this work that he realized the need for a robust visual positioning system as a critical piece of the puzzle for real world AR applications.

Neil’s vision for Vertical is to use AR to build a better user interface for the real world and he spends most of his time trying to build a practical roadmap towards this vision.

His favorite business quote is, “Build something you want and hope you’re normal”.

You can find him on twitter as @neilxm or email him at neil@vertical.ai