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AJ 'Dr Doom' Shewki

CEO @ LIV | Building the leading XR content creation platform

AJ Shewki, also known as "Dr Doom," is the Co-founder and CEO of LIV, a company focused on building the leading XR (extended reality) content creation platform.23 He describes himself as a ramen-obsessed, video game and death metal enthusiast, and power-lifting nerd with a passion for technology.1

Professional Background

Shewki's professional experience primarily revolves around his role at LIV, where he has been working on developing innovative technologies in the XR space. Recently, he announced a multi-year partnership between LIV and Meta to bring their technology to the Meta Quest platform.2

Education

Shewki's educational background includes studying at King's College London.1

Personal Interests

Beyond his professional pursuits, Shewki has a diverse set of personal interests that contribute to his unique persona:

  • Food: He is self-described as "ramen obsessed"
  • Entertainment: Enjoys video games and death metal music
  • Fitness: Engages in power lifting

Social Media Presence

Shewki is active on LinkedIn, where he shares updates about LIV's progress and partnerships. His LinkedIn username is indeed "ashewki," as mentioned in the query.123

Highlights

Sep 11 · linkedin

My fellow nerds -- it's time for Meta Connect again and we're excited to be showing up with Alexander Brook Perry, Demo Akuro, David Quinn and myself representing LIV and LIV Productions.

We'll be ready to talk about & show LIV Creator Kit (LCK)-- our upcoming Quest and PC camera SDK that brings the very best learnings from building camera technologies for 7 years into a new, cross-platform solution for VR app developers.

If you've been considering building better tools to create & share content from within your VR apps, I'd love to show you what we've been cooking up for the last year. And of course, take the opportunity to get in front of Touge & Demo to book some time in for 2025's trailer calendar. We still have some capacity to book in for 2025!

DM me to get some time in the calendar, or grab someone wearing a LIV shirt while @ Connect!

Jun 26 · linkedin

My fellow nerds,

Today I’m excited to announce our multi-year partnership with Meta to bring LIV’s tech to the Meta Quest platform! As part of this, Meta is retiring their own tools and promoting LIV as the official solution.

Starting today, our new SDK V2.0 is available in beta. It supports all the Meta Quest Presence Platform features like passthrough, hand tracking, spatial anchors, and more. So, if you’re developing an app for Meta Quest, you can now capture it authentically with LIV.

As part of the news, we’re also announcing that we’re doing integrations with some of the top games and studios in the world. First up, the one and only Gorilla Tag by Another Axiom. I want to share my gratitude to David Y., David Neubelt and Kerestell Smith for putting your trust in us. We can’t wait to see what the creator community does with LIV X GT. Secondly, we’re also announcing an integration into Racket Club by Resolution Games, and once again I’d like to extend my thanks to Mathieu Castelli (don’t let it get to your head mate) and of course Tommy Palm for also trusting us to put our tooling into the hands of your players & creators.

And that’s just the beginning! We’ve got more great games coming on board in the next few weeks and months. If you’re a Meta Quest developer and want to integrate LIV, hit me up, reach out to Justin Lagtapon or head straight to our developer portal (https://dev.liv.tv) to make an account.

This partnership has been a long time coming. It all started 5 years ago with us powering the Defy Reality trailers. We’ve kept a friendly but competitive relationship with Meta since then. As a founder, you often get asked the question: “what will you do when Google/Meta/Apple/Nvidia enter your space”, and my answer has always been: we’re going to keep working until we become undeniable. It took 7 years, but it looks like it worked… :  )

We started LIV in my living room in San Francisco back in 2016. It’s been quite the journey. The #XR industry has had its ups and downs, but as we enter the 2nd half of 2024 it’s clear that the industry is here to stay, with the most important demographic for new (gaming) platforms, young teens, attaching & retaining. The future is bright.

I’d also like to highlight the work done by our Meta counterparts. I’ve been in contact with Jonathan Lindo and his team for the last 5 years, sharing our work and plans with Meta. It’s a real honor and pleasure to have him run the partnership on Meta’s side, aided by one of my favorite VR OG’s Hunter Kitagawa and two newfound friends in Samuel Wu and Conrad Kutsch. Last but certainly not least, a massive shoutout to Xiang Wei who has been involved in mixed reality capture since the early days and is contributing to our work together.

Onwards, friends -Dr Doom

(video: our latest trailer for Racket Club, using the new SDK, filmed by the talented folks in our production studio, LIV Productions: Demo Akuro, David Quinn, Kye Johnson and Michael De Vries)

Related Questions

What inspired AJ Shewki to start LIV?
How did AJ Shewki come up with the nickname "Dr Doom"?
What are some of the key achievements of AJ Shewki at LIV?
How does AJ Shewki balance his passion for video games and death metal with his role at LIV?
What is the significance of the partnership between LIV and Meta?
AJ 'Dr Doom' Shewki
AJ 'Dr Doom' Shewki, photo 1
AJ 'Dr Doom' Shewki, photo 2
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Location

Berlin, Berlin, Germany