StarStuff came out of Stealth at Slush 2023

Slush mainstage acted as a platform for company launches and product announcements, and the Media Area right behind the stage had instant Q&A session with the launchers and announcers. What a great concept, hoping this would cover even more of the speakers.

One of the launches was Starstuff, that came out of the stealth mode with bells, whistles, Hanna and Mikael (aka deata) with an important mission “We are all one, and as one, no one should ever feel lonely again. Because  we are all made of Starstuff“

Wow. So, we had a chance to dive a bit deeper into the Starstuff over coffee, as we wanted to know a bit more, also some secrets on the founding of the new company, as well as its future plans.

Mikael & Hanna from Starstuff at Slush 2023 media area

Alright, we know with Hanna from way back when, from SXSW tech & music festivals and other startup action, so seeing Hanna on stage (link at the end) with a mission and story was really awesome, and gave us the glimpse that something amazing was about to happen: Bringing togetherness and depth into Internet, fighting loneliness, pointing out that we are all one is a good start.

We are all one. And as one, no one should feel lonely again! That is one powerful statement. And there were more to come while chatting with Hanna and Mikael.

So what is Starstuff, and this new depth in Internet?

Simply SGI, Spatial Generative Internet. Our stellar mission to turn your camera roll into living experiences with others. Free to be you, with others. It is the new era of human connection – the interactive generative dimension

On Hanna’s stage launch, the shown video described the social disconnection and how, through combining special imaging and AI, like in social multiplayer gaming. Bringing a social network interface to bring your camera roll alive into multipliable experiences with others.

As Esther Perel has said: “Quality of our relationships equals quality of our lives” and that is another powerful message Hanna packaged nicely into the story.

Wanted to hear about the secrets behind this launch, and even if it was mostly revealed in coming out of Stealth presentation, we hopefully we were able to dig a bit deeper into the founding story and future plans:

The company was officially founded in January 2023, but the work as the founding team started much earlier; smaller group threw out ideas of combining gaming, VR, AI, social communities and the fact of increasing loneliness since September 2022, and Hanna herself were vibing about this already way before, at least in spring 2022.

It is a long journey to build something new and massive, with a mission and awesome founding team, and it led Hanna, an annual Slusher to be the forst female founder to launch on a Slush main stage. Wow.

Within the first official 11 months, they have created altogether 10 prototypes with amazing development and experiences, made two significant creator partnerships, and one really creep meme generator generative AI . And with these, they have created an awesome Hydraulic Press Channel, got youtuber Iha Just Imus, Deata (co-founder) and a solid follower base 30 Millions. Another good start, with aim to 10 x that in no time.

So how to build a dream team, such as the five founders plus the pretty amazing employees to start with. It’s all about having an amazing story, mission and vision, to be backed up by great early stage funders. Starstuff is backed up by Icebreaker, FOV Ventures, Atomico Angel Fund and TK Ventures. Another good start for the world domination Hanna has in her plans.

The founding team of Starstuff is Hanna, Mikael, Jaakko, Ari and Kosti – and the growing team has already the first employees Laura and Jugi. And they are hiring! more; senior level tech/server people, focus in AI/ML and gameplay experiences, and also raising the next level seed in 2024

So what’s next Hanna?

There has been sooo much interest, already on the stealth, and especially now after the launch. This venture will go global fast, and for that we are already raising more money, to go global. Definitely SXSW 2024 in plans, expanding to USA, Asia (especially Japan and more within the EU.

 

Wishing you the best of luch wioth the new venture on figting the “Loneliness Epidemic”

/Peter