Marcus Richards
JP Mentors is a VR training company that is making classic training modern again by working with retail and commercial business to improve their staff training programmes
Tell us about yourself?
I had a career in retail for Iceland Foods and Russell and Bromley for almost a decade where I redesigned the management training programmes. With a personal interest in technology, I decided to start a business that could take training to the next level.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Keep in control of the finances but try to worry less and believe more. Not everyone will believe in your solution when you’re ahead of the game using VR, but your time will come and they will see what you see.
What problem does your business solve?
Making classic training modern and more relevant for today’s workforce. Being able to recreate situations which were impossible, training in new shop designs before they are made or health and safety scenarios you wouldn’t recreate in real life.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
I wanted to travel the world but still work remotely, back in the days before it was all forced upon us. I started to wonder how I could deliver training remotely, but give the experience that I was right there. VR seemed like the logical solution to providing remote training, locally.
What is your magic sauce?
We employ consultants who have years of experience giving classic training in big corporate environments and developers who are building the future of modern training. No one combines the two with a personal level of service quite like it.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We want to start having partnerships with some of our big retail clients to design training programmes within VR and the metaverse.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Being involved in VR before it became trendy. It took a long time to convince clients about its potential and use cases outside of the high risk health and safety scenarios. It made us become leaner, more in control of our finances and more adamant to stay alive long enough to see VR become mainstream and ride the wave to some extent.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We combine experience of the ‘old school’ with know how for the ‘new age’. Our clients and our projects speak volumes. We are know looking for retail partnerships where we can make a big impact on their training of new and existing staff. We can be reached on [email protected]
