About VirtualSpeech
VirtualSpeech is an award-winning soft skills training platform with VR and AI integration. We focus on communication skills such as public speaking, sales, and leadership.
VirtualSpeech has helped over 550,000 users across 125+ countries to improve their skills through interactive practice exercises, and has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, BBC, Wall Street Journal, and Huffington Post.
Our Story
VirtualSpeech was founded in 2016 as a way to practice public speaking in a more realistic way. We had a fear of public speaking to the point of avoiding it altogether, and found that rehearsing in front of a mirror or to a colleague didn't prepare us for being on stage with hundreds of people staring at you, or even just being in a meeting with our managers.
We came up with a solution - using virtual reality (VR) to simulate various sized audiences and distractions, resulting in an effective way to practice public speaking and build skills and confidence for the real world.
Since then, we have expanded into other soft skills training, from sales pitching to interacting with the media, and worked with a number of Fortune 500 companies to enhance their employees' soft skills in a more interactive, engaging way.
Press, media coverage, and conferences
We've been mentioned on sites including The New York Times, WSJ, VentureBeat, Huffington Post, Forbes, eLearning Industry, interviewed on TV for the BBC, and more.
- AWE Conference: Best Practices in Enterprise Training with XR By Sophie Thompson and Višnja Cicvarić Šonje
- BBC Business Live: VirtualSpeech Interview
- The New York Times: Getting Over Stage Fright
- Forbes: Extended Reality In Education
- Training Industry: VirtualSpeech Becomes the First CPD-Accredited Training Provider
- Wall Street Journal: Want to Protect Your Job? VR Training Can Help
- New Scientist: Conquer your fear of public speaking by practicing in VR
- CPD Certification Service: Benefits of Immersive Learning for your Business
Recognized as a leading training provider
VirtualSpeech has won several awards over the last few years, including:
- Start-Up Learning Provider of the Year 2019 (winner) - LPI Learning Awards
- Design Award for Excellent Communications Design (winner) - German Design Awards
- Best Use of VR in Education and Training - VR Awards
- Most Innovative Speech Training Platform 2018 (winner) - CV Magazine Corporate Excellence Awards
- Featured in the Progress 1000 - Evening Standard
- Europe Edtech 200
- Featured training provider for training solutions in the Gartner report: Market Guide for Corporate Learning
Trained thousands of people
Over the past few years, we've trained thousands of employees, individuals, and students. Here are some of the highlights:
people have enrolled in our online courses
hours spent in the practice exercises
About Us
Meet the Team
Sophie Thompson
CEO & Co-Founder
Dom Barnard
Co-Founder
Chris Gunby
Head of Commercial
Tahlia Dowie
Myles Greyson
Customer Success Manager
Aaron Bird
Customer Success Executive
Izaskun Olarreaga
Digital Marketing Manager
Verity Gibson
Helen Hooper
Head of Learning Design
Hannah Britt
Rasool Somji
Tech Guru
Harvey Bellini
Junior Software Developer
Sam Cole
Drew Scrimshaw
Cristina Rius
Unity Developer
Scott Murphy
Cal Thorndyke
Meet the AI Team
Hugh Mann
Artificial Intelligence
Cynthia
Artificial Intelligence
Rob
Artificial Intelligence
Keyla
Artificial Intelligence
Lin
Artificial Intelligence
Fatima
Artificial Intelligence
Ken
Artificial Intelligence