You can read about past times from books, look at old photos and movies or listen to stories, but have you ever got a chance to step inside the history? This is the mission of BLUERAY. They know how to experience history as if on your own skin. BLUERAY makes the impossible possible and brings the past to life. It offers virtual time travels as a service, and they do custom solutions for others.

Egle Rääsk, the founder of BLUERAY, shares with us the history of this special entrepreneurship and their experience with the Loyverse POS app. 

When did the journey of BLUERAY start?

We started in 2017. We are a University of Tartu spin-off company, and we offer VR solutions for others, and we do our own developments as well.

Why did you decide to be an entrepreneur?

I was studying Entrepreneurship and Technology Management (MBA)  in University. I had to write a paper for a business idea with all the detailed steps for one of the courses. We had this VR idea and I thought if I already had everything written and done so many calculations why not try it for real. I run BLUERAY together with my husband. 

How do you advertise your business?

We have a website and we use social media as well: Facebook and Instagram. Regarding our own development, we have 2 recording time holes that are located where the action takes place. We use brochures as well. 

What is unique about BLUERAY that makes it stand out from other competitors?

The unique thing is that, as we are a  University of Tartu spin-off company,we value the learning a lot and everything that we do is based on the knowledge that we ourselves have acquired and the knowledge of our scientist as well. We don’t know any other company in Estonia or in neighboring countries that is offering VR solutions in the same way that we are doing. We are offering VR solutions outside for customers and we have practical knowledge from the field and we are not only doing customer gatherings but we are doing tests for ourselves as well. 

3D view of the great hall of a destroyed palace

How did you find out about Loyverse?

When we came out with our first time hole in 2019, we started searching for an easy and free solution as a point of sale. I found Loyverse searching on the web. 

What attracted you about Loyverse that you decided it was the right solution for your business?

I liked the idea that it is very simple and clear to use. Other systems got complicated very soon. Since our business is quite different from other shops, cafes, or other usual businesses, Loyverse suited us very well. 

Can you describe the workflow of your business and how is Loyverse incorporated?

My employees use the system at the time hole to sell tickets for the time travels. We also sell souvenirs apart from other services that we offer. I use the Back Office more to see how the day has gone, to check how many visitors we had, how many souvenirs are sold, how many are left, and so on. 

What feature of Loyverse would you point out as most useful for your type of business?

The main thing I use is the statistics to compare the sales per day and per employee. I can evaluate in this way if the sales are increasing or decreasing and investigate if this is happening because of an employee, is one of them working more than the other, or is it related to a working day.

What would you like to see in Loyverse in the future?

Maybe, to be integrated with more card payment systems in Estonia. 

What is the goal that you want to achieve with Blueray?

We want to move with our apps online and also outside of Estonia. At the moment, we are operating only inside the country. We sell our services to tourists that come to Estonia, but the next step would be to “sell” Estonia abroad. 

The Toila-Oru palace in 3D

Was your business affected by the COVID? 

Yes, since we are offering our services outside, we were closed several times. The situation is still not the best for us since the number of tourists is small because many borders are still closed, and it is not very convenient to travel. We are like a local attraction, or a museum and tourists are our main customers. 

What message would you like to young entrepreneurs?

If they have an idea, then they definitely need to try it. I recently heard a businesswoman, and she said it very nicely, like “When I no longer cope, someone else can come and continue.” Basically, you don’t have to think that if you fail, it is fatal or something like that. You need just to try your best, and sometimes the idea is ahead of the market and will fly/flourish with followers.  And that`s OK.  Then, you can try a new thing, and in the end, you have still changed the world with your thoughts and doings. One thing is sure, if you only think about your ideas, nothing will happen. 

You have to be prepared to learn lots and lots of things. We ourselves are an organization that is based on learning. The idea is that you can make mistakes, and it is fine, but you learn from it and the next time, you don’t make the same mistake. You can make a new one, but you learn with every new mistake that you make, and you have to be ready for that. You must be able to take it all in because everything is constantly changing. 

Anything you want to say to the Loyverse Team? 

I appreciate that you reached out for this interview and just wanted to say that we are happy with the system.