Welcome to Manifold and Meet the Core Team!

Welcome to the Manifold blog, we are so happy that you are here!

You probably have a bunch of questions about our product, our company, and how the heck we made the most accurate iOS LiDAR scanner for construction.

We thought we would get the ball rolling by introducing our founding team and explaining a bit about how the Manifold app came to be.

Our team has been working with point cloud data for more than 10 years, and– if you’ve ever had to wrangle point cloud data for a project, you probably know– it’s a lot of work trying to turn that raw data into something usable.

When our company was started, we were focused on trying to make realistic virtual reality experiences, and thought LiDAR scans (and point clouds!) were a good way to make that happen.

But when Apple announced the new LiDAR sensor on their iPad and iPhone pro devices, we realized that all our years working on point cloud data had given us a huge head start to be able to create an end-to-end platform for professionals, to get super accurate results from their phones and tablets.

We spent hours (and hours, and hours!) talking to people who use LiDAR in all sorts of different industries, from mining, to construction, to forestry, to even forensic science! And everyone had the same complaints about LiDAR and how hard it is to a) get accurate results and b) process and view the scans.

Our mission was clear: To make an app so that anyone could get a great, accurate scan on their first try, and then have the cloud process and align the data so that anyone could use LiDAR without having to know a thing about it.

Without further ado, here’s the team that made it happen:

Erik Peterson

Erik the founder and CEO of Manifold, and a self-described “huge nerd.” His family is originally from Kansas, but he’s lived in Toronto for most of his life. He started working on spatial computing in 2005 at Columbia University testing on military grade VR equipment. He worked in finance at Goldman Sachs and built out Indiegogo’s platform on nights and weekends. He’s happiest when he’s got a hard programming question to work on, a new episode of Star Trek to watch, and when he can spend time at the cottage with his wife and three young kids Jack, Grace and Finn.

Alannah O’Neill

Alannah is a communications pro who took a slightly unusual path to becoming a PropTech founder. Before starting at Manifold, Alannah worked as an editor at ELLE Canada magazine, where she wrote about everything from design, to culture, to tech. She first got involved with Manifold when Erik was trying to pitch the company to investors, translating his highly technical ideas into something that even non-technical people could understand. She joined the team and never looked back! She loves cooking, looking up properties on Zillow and HouseSigma and daydreaming about how to renovate them.

Pearson Brock

Pearson is our construction expert and sales advisor. He’s the newest member of the team, and lives in Dallas, Texas. Before starting with Manifold, Pearson was the Chief Revenue Officer at ProsRent, an online one-stop shop for construction rental equipment. Pearson’s a family man who enjoys spending time with his lovely wife Jessica but will kick your butt in a Peloton Tread race any day of the week!