No one gets an Apple Vision Pro or a Meta Quest 3 and thinks, “Let’s do active shooter training or learn about harassment.”
But that’s what Sisu VR offers — an immersive way for companies to train employees for a day they hope never comes.
A necessary evil?
CEO Jocelyn Tan founded Sisu VR based on her own experiences working as an engineer manager at various Silicon Valley tech companies.
“I faced quite a bit of discrimination, harassment, and bullying,” she told The Hustle. “It was such a debilitating experience that I said, it can go two ways: I can completely leave STEM or I can do something about the problem.”
Sisu’s first project was VR harassment training, using scenarios taken from interviews with professionals who’d experienced misconduct.
Trainees play victim, witness, manager, and perpetrator roles, navigating situations like microaggressions, workplace politics, and how to apologize to give feedback.
The immersiveness may heighten empathy because VR:
- Allows trainees to embody new identities — e.g., a different gender.
- Can trigger “phantom touch,” the illusion of “feeling” virtual characters or objects — e.g., someone invading their personal space.
Sisu next partnered with MindGlow…
… a startup it ultimately acquired in 2022, on a VR active shooter training.
Trainees identify gunfire and its source, and practice hiding, defending themselves, and evacuating a building. (See a video here.)
It’s not graphic — the shooter is a “cardboard cutout,” not a real person — but the idea is that by physically performing the actions, people are better prepared than they’d be if they only watched a video.
“You have to identify where [the shooting] is coming from so you don’t run in that direction. When you’re hiding, you have to move to a hiding spot and physically duck down,” Sean Rossi, CTO and head of engineering, said.
It’s also timed, requiring trainees to improve their response speed.
If that sounds dystopian, well, it kinda is. Tan admits it’s not always an easy topic to discuss with people, but in the end, the hope is to protect and empower people — and maybe save lives.