Meet Richard Hurrey | Founder, Head of Product

We had the good fortune of connecting with Richard Hurrey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Richard, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I was ready to forge my own path, and take all I have learned over the years and create tools and educate other artists out on how to think about 3D character creation differently. I also knew running a business on my own would be difficult, and knowing my streagths and weaknesses, partnered with Peter McGowan and the Storland Studios group when we founded Ozone.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Ozone is a technology company that is building next generation character rigging tools. The goal is to create the best character creation tools that have ever been made. Allowing artsts, for the very first time, true interoperbility to create a character once and animate it in any environment, all in real time and without any compromise.

That’s a mouthful I know 🙂 But it is what I am most proud of… building a real tool, for real aritsts, to solve real problems. Not just a shinny AI package that demo’s well. Not that we do not have a solid AI plan, we do, but it is designed to put the artist first and help them bring amazing characters to life more easily and faster than ever before.

What I have leanred? There are too many leasons to list here, what I have learned is that everything changes all the time, that software development is hard, and things always takes longer than you want or expect.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Gosh, I just love Culver City… the old LA vibes, how close a lot of the production companies are, the Culver Hotel, all of it. So when I am in LA I always find time to get back to the west side for Culver and the beaches.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First and foremost, my wife Kelly. She is my partner and my person and there is no way that I could have achieved the success I have in my life, let alone start a business, without her love and support. We are on the this journey of life together and I am beyond blessed and lucky to have her by my side.

Next, Ozone would not exist without the support from my business partner Peter McGowan. From the first days I left Pixar he has belived in me and the vision for Ozone and has done everything he can to help make it a reality. I could not ask for a better friend and mentor than Peter.

From there, the list is quite long… from great friends like Eric Soulvie, Jason Bickerstaff, Jason Davies and Brian Tindall for wanting to join this merry band of pirates trying to change how characters are made. To Robin Riley our COO that has brought amazing talet, insight and structure to the Ozone organization. There are more names, more people than this short list… as it really does take a village to amke something great. The idea is the easiest part of building a business… actually building it and making something is the hard part.

Website: https://ozone3d.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ozone-story-tech/

Twitter: https://x.com/OzoneStoryTech