Ex-eBay executive RJ Pittman, is taking the leadership reins of virtual 3D tour startup Matterport, as CEO Bill Brown steps into an advisory role, the company announced on Monday. The announcement of Pittman as the company’s new CEO comes less than two months after Matterport confirmed to Inman it’s suing GeoCV, a rival 3D tour company, for patent infringement.
“We are approaching a tipping point in market adoption of 3D models to transform how building environments are designed, developed, experienced and managed,” said David Gausebeck, cofounder and CTO of Matterport, in a statement. “The commercial applications are quickly unfolding, and Matterport’s industry-leading technology is well-positioned to drive rapid market expansion,”
“[Pittman’s] operating experience at scale, paired with his entrepreneurial DNA and deep product vision, will be instrumental to unlocking the full potential of our breakthrough technology and unparalleled 3D media and data,” Gausebeck added. “His reputation for driving transformation and creating high-performance teams will invigorate our organization, attract world-class industry talent, and accelerate our next phase of growth.”
Pittman comes to Matterport from eBay, where he was the chief product officer, overseeing product, design, engineering, mobile, payments and brand. Before joining eBay, he worked for both Apple and Google in various roles. Pittman was also the co-founder and CEO of Groxis, a search engine startup that claims to have created the graphical information interface used by Google, Yahoo, Amazon and others.
“I have long awaited a company to get a virtual tour done right,” Pittman told Inman, when reached by phone Monday. “And there’s been many different variations over the last 10 years that have come and gone and none that have really met the quality threshold where they can hold their own against high-quality, high-definition, professionally-shot photography.”
There’s room for Matterport to drill down on its core service area and capture more of the market, but also there’s an open-endedness to the technology that will allow them to even go beyond in the residential, commercial, architecture, engineering, construction and insurance spaces.
“The evolution of capture tech is so exciting,” Pittman said. “The proliferation of 3D models to go from millions to tens of millions in the Matterport ecosystem opens up the doors to a lot of interesting exploration around the data side of Matterport’s business.”
“The smarter we can get about what we’re actually capturing in the spaces – like what the actual objects, machinery, equipment, furniture, artwork is that you see in the spaces – think about the kind of value that we can unlock for our customers,” Pittman added.
Brown has been with Matterport since 2013. He’s held the CEO role since November 2013 and will continue to serve in an advisory role.
Under Brown’s leadership, Matterport has quadrupled its revenue growth, according to the company, and expanded beyond residential real estate into the commercial, architecture, engineering, insurance, travel, hospitality and e-commerce spaces.
“It’s hard not to be extremely impressed with all that Bill and the Matterport team have accomplished over the past several years,” Pittman said in a statement. “Specifically, the company has achieved an industry-leading position and global product-market fit, powered by a unique hardware and software offering that separates the Matterport experience from the pack.”
Matterport notably announced in October it was suing GeoCV, a rival 3D virtual tour company for patent infringement. The suit alleges that GeoCV’s offerings, including 3D scans and virtual open houses, infringe on at least six Matterport patents, and the use of Matterport’s technology is a reason for GeoCV’s rapid growth.
