Humanity has always strived to push the boundaries of what is “real”, going as far as creating new worlds that satisfy this need when unable to do so in the real world. While we relied on oral tradition, writing, painting, and other forms of arts to achieve this for millennia, the digital revolution changed everything by allowing us to interact with those virtual worlds. Now, virtual reality and augmented reality are thinning the barrier between virtual and real-world as the development of the metaverse continues.
This process of bringing the digital and the real together has been pioneered by people that, just like others before them, chose to push the boundaries of what is possible. Few of those pioneers are a better example than FlickPlay’s CEO and Founder Pierina Merino, a female entrepreneur who has achieved great success in the tech industry by predicting what will be the next big thing.
A Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and University of California graduate, Pierina has established herself as one of the pioneers in the AR industry. What started as a career in architecture from the hand of Frank Gehry, one of the most prestigious architects in the world would eventually become an example of what can be achieved in the tech world with grit. Having worked on the design of Facebook’s headquarters and being naturally inclined on looking for what her next step would be, Pierina decided that tech could be what she was looking for.
In 2017, Pierina took the decision to leave architecture for good, founding Piemer. The company, which designs and 3d prints jewelry, would be Pierina’s first brush with entrepreneurship and the challenges that come with it, as well as the precursor to what would become her biggest passion: AR.
FlickPlay, the startup behind the engage-to-earn platform of the same name, was founded by Pierina after 2 years of bringing fashion and technology together. This Pokemon Go-inspired platform was the result of Pierina’s mission to bridge the digital with the physical, creating a more complex, fun, interactive, and dynamic reality. When using the app, users can interact in real-time with AR collectibles in the area around them, providing creators and brands to interact with their followers in new ways.
With the metaverse craze in full swing, FlickPlay has grown in popularity over the past months by providing users with an exciting way of exploring their city and interacting with other users. Investors like Lightspeed Ventures and Abstract VC were quick to see the potential of this approach, which prompted them to lead a $5 million seed funding round back in 2021.
Often described as a “TikTok meets Pokemon Go”, FlickPlay has another big trend driving its growth: NFTs. By taking advantage of how NFTs have generated an increasing demand for digital collectibles among Millennials/zoomers and their prioritization of experiences, Pierina found the perfect recipe to cater to the needs of the younger generations, becoming in turn one of the architects of the metaverse.
