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Our vision is to give the world a voice through virtual and augmented reality. We’re building the future of entertainment, a future where everyone has the tools to bring their imagination to life and to share it with the world.
VR and AR are incredibly complex technologies that are reshaping how we interact with computers and with each other, but that complexity leaves many would-be creators on the sidelines. At Flipside, we’re building a much simpler way of doing things so that everyone can join in.
Flipside started in 2014 as The Campfire Union. Flipside the software began in early 2016, evolving out of a series of experiments in virtual performances and social VR. We’re a small team of developers and artists who believe technology should make things better. Join us in making a future that empowers everyone to share their imagination with the world.
CONNECT WITH FLIPSIDE
Interview with Les Klassen, Founder and CEO
Flipside XR (formerly known as The Campfire Union) is a five-year-old development studio founded by three long-time friends who all have a passion for combining storytelling with emerging technology to bring new realities to life. In 2013 before our company started, the founders were part of a project that aimed to teach welding through virtual reality. Getting our hands on the first version of the Oculus Rift (DK1) was the start of our obsession with Virtual Reality. At the start of 2014, we decided to start Flipside XR with a focus on creating the future of VR animation.
Flipside XR is a real-time animation company that empowers creators and streamers to make virtual reality shows and experiences for their fans and audiences through the Flipside Studio virtual reality app. Simulating a television studio in virtual reality, creators embody animated characters to tell stories, play games, and lead fans through virtual experiences all while broadcasting these shows online.
Embracing new technology was the reason that Flipside XR (aka The Campfire Union) was formed. The progression in the VR/AR/XR space, new hardware releases, and new trends in virtual performance and motion capture are directly guiding what we do.
Over the past five years, we have made well over a dozen experiments in VR in order to learn best practices in this new medium, have been recognized internationally for our work in accessibility and user experience design, and also have a strong background in backend development, which helps us build more connected experiences.
In 2015, we released Yana, a virtual relaxation experience, and Lost Cities VR, the first virtual reality board game, to the Oculus app store.
In 2016, we made the decision to exclusively focus on our Flipside Studio software. Our goal is to build an enduring platform for XR entertainment that is highly social, interactive, and rich in the variety of content it enables creators to make. With this project, we placed third in the Innovate Manitoba Lift’Off challenge and won a 100K prize to help extend our runway.
In 2017, we were accepted into the Boost VC Accelerator program where we were able to work one-on-one with mentors in Silicon Valley for four months. At the end of the program we closed our pre-seed round of investment, moved into our own office, and were well underway with developing Flipside Studio which was launched in Steam Early Access in Q1 of 2018.
With assistance from the CFC IdeaBoost accelerator program, which we were accepted into at the start of 2018, we started focusing on producing content with select partners. In 2019, with support from the Canada Medium Fund, we’ll be focusing on developing the next phase of our vision for Flipside.
The major factor contributing to our success is unapologetically sticking to our vision that XR lets you create and connect in ways that have previously been impossible.
The major challenge for us has been staying alive in the early days of an emerging new medium. We started developing our first app when there was no commercially available hardware. VR was so new that the majority of people couldn’t fully understand what it really meant to be in virtual reality beyond what they’ve seen in sci-fi movies. A lot of our work in our early years was just as much explaining the hardware and trying to convince people that VR was going to be a thing as it was selling our development skills and expertise.
When things get tough, we lean on each other for support.
Being around nice people doing interesting things inspires us. We’re so lucky to be in Winnipeg where the community embraces collaboration instead of competition. From co-working spaces, to game jams, to community events, being able to see what others are creating inspires us in our own development journey.
We try to be involved in as many different tech and IDM communities and events as we can. This gives us a chance to get to know others in the same industry and see if they would be a good skill set and cultural fit.
The main characteristics we look for is a skill set that fits what we’re hiring for, a willingness to learn, and a collaborative spirit.
We try to foster a culture of support and inclusivity.
The type of person that works at Flipside is kind, driven, and goes with the flow. Since VR in this iteration is so new, things change at a fast pace and we need to react just as fast. This can be stressful and in order to still have fun during the stressful times we need to be supported by our teammates, be focused on our end goal, and be flexible on the path we take to get there.
As our company has evolved, the types of skills required to grow a company have changed too. Before we started, we had little experience understanding business KPIs, user growth metrics, and user-community management. Our desire to create a VR app, then launching it, and now growing it, require different skills and as founders, we’ve had to wear many hats and have learned through trial by fire, all while committing to a medium that most of the world has yet to even experience. Needless to say, our work is always changing.
Anyone interested in starting a career in tech needs to get involved in the tech community (locally or virtually). Having a successful career isn’t all about your technical skill set. Many of the opportunities that we’ve been given have been because we’ve made genuine connections with other like-minded people. If you get involved and give back to your community, they will support you and that is key.
Support from others has been a huge factor in our growth. We’ve been able to access funding through various accelerator programs and pitch competitions, advice from other community members and advisors and tax credits through several different government programs. Now we look to our users to shape our app and customers drive revenues.
New Media Manitoba is genuinely a part of the Flipside family. They have been there from the start of our company and are always willing to go above and beyond.
They have helped us connect with the right people on the business and talent side through direct introductions and networking events, guided us when looking for funding, put on training events that have directly impacted our development, and have helped spread the word about our company.
We can’t stress enough how much impact NMM has had on us. They are the heart of the IDM community.