Pierina Merino: Bringing Digital and Physical Spaces Together (Full Transcript)
Ronen Ainbinder
On today's Halftime Snack, we have a very unique guest.
A Venezuelan entrepreneur, who's innovating daily, and she's pushing the boundaries of technology to bring the physical and digital world closer together.
Her creative industry experience covers everything from designing architectural projects with one of the greatest architects of our time (Frank Gehry) to leading the design strategy for premium VR experiences for fashion brands.
Today, she is the founder and CEO of Flickplay. A platform that combines immersive video technology with gaming tools to create a new and innovative experience.
It is my honor and pleasure to host such an icon in today's podcast.
Ladies and gentlemen, Pierina Merino!
Pierina Merino
Thank you for the invite, Ronen.
Ronen Ainbinder
No, thank you for accepting my invitation, Pierina! It's great to host you! I want to start straight away by talking and asking you about your story and your background. I want to ask you what experiences specifically drove you into design and architecture? Why did you decide that that's what you wanted to do?
Pierina Merino
I have always been very visual. From a very young age, I could easily deconstruct things, see how they were assembled, and see how they were going to come together. And that was something that really fascinated me. Later on in my career, as I started my undergrad in architecture, it really helped me push myself into the technology space rather than traditional architecture.
Ronen Ainbinder
Were you interested in Legos? Or in specific paintings? Or what were the things that you were passionate about when you were young that drove you a little bit into design?
Pierina Merino
It's kind of funny that my first startup was a jewelry brand. Because in South America, a lot of jewelry brands are done very in a very analog way. They're kind of handmade there. Every time I would go to a jewelry store or see something that was very articulated with different parts, I would always go to my mom and tell her, "Hey, can you get me these materials because I think that I can do it myself and I don't need to buy it." I always had that. I first seen how things kind of come together and always push myself to try to find a way to put them together. I was also born in the same city as Jesus Soto, one of the most non-kinetic Artists of the 21st century. And I actually lived very close to his museum. So obviously, his art is very three dimensional, even those most of a portion of his work are paintings. And that was something that really inspired me to push. How can you three-dimensionalize the elements and the implications of perception on how he comes to the final piece.
Ronen Ainbinder
That's fantastic. I'm sure this you get this question quite often. Still, I'm really curious to know what working with Frank Gehry actually taught you about creativity?
Pierina Merino
That's interesting. I'm never gonna forget. Every time a new intern came into the office, he's like, "oh, how long are you staying here? And he's like, oh, two months, three months? And he'll be like, "okay, that's too short to doctrine you." One of the most fascinating parts of working for Frank was that it doesn't matter what stage in your career you get into his office; you do need to learn what his basics mean to him. That is not something that you learn working for 10 years in another architectural office. You learn, being the woodshop, cutting wood, and learning how he pretty much designs. Being in his office for a couple of years taught me how the physical elements you build with paper can be used with robots and bring into the digital space and improve based on the perception. Or whatever that output gives us and bring it back to physical that that intersection between how the physical helps the digital and how it helps the physical? And how you find the balance between the two of them.
Ronen Ainbinder
Would you say that Frank is somebody that works a lot on the fundamentals? The basic, most fundamental thing you can know about architecture? Is that something that he works a lot on? And that's from where he pushes out and starts building up? Or how would you explain his mentality towards that?
Pierina Merino
He has a very interesting process because, currently, there are two spectrums. You have the extremely traditional architects, and that still do everything in a very, let's call it old fashioned way. And then you have the novelty of architects pushing everything that technology gives them to create the next version of I think that Frank and his office have done an amazing job of finding the balance between the two worlds. When you think of Frank's buildings and designs, there is a sense of imperfection. Nothing is ever perfect; a window is always tilted. And that's not intentional. That is because every designer that is in his office use their hands to put a little Plexiglas in a physical model. And if the hot glue that you're using kind of tilts a little bit that window and Frank think that does the way is to get built, it gets constructed that way. We use those models, and we push it into the digital space; we 3D scan it and optimize it. Once we get something from technology that cannot be achieved through physical models, it gets rebuilt into physical. He has found a balance to maintain the character of his design and the sense of not call it traditional, but primitive, these primitive shapes, how primitive shapes come together, and use technology to push how he not only gets constructed? But what are the versions of our physical resolve? How can that get achieved? And with the use of new technology?
Ronen Ainbinder
That's amazing, Pierina. Thank you for sharing that answer. I wonder what are three specific skills that you can transfer from design to entrepreneurship and business and building a company, and why would you say those skills are useful there?
Pierina Merino
I think that that first one, I would say doing Human-Centered Design. I have always been at a very interesting intersection between traditional design and technology. The next generation of consumer platforms won't be built by engineers. They will be built by people who understand people and have an eye for how parts come together to create a 360 experience for users. That's obviously something that it feels so far away. It is an architect and understanding of how digital physical and technical pipelines come together to realize a project me a lot. I remember when I started FlickPlay, I read the book High Output Management by the former CEO of Intel. He explains what high output management means for him and how he sees tasks or projects as ingredients that need to be cooked in a specific time for them to all come together. As an architect since your very first year, you're trained to not only need to design a building.
You'll need a physical model, which will require you laser cutting. It will require you to put all these parts together into a physical model and print and to glue the wall. You need to become a manager since the inception of your education. And you need to understand the timing behind each different part to make it into a final product that I'm in either location or scale. When you get on a bigger scale. You have consultants, constructors, and all these different regulations that you need to comply with to meet not all the construction deadlines but the internal deadlines for a project. So I think that I never thought that they're good actually be that much alignment. But I always thought about how we as an architect have these such a holistic general understanding of making things happen. In entrepreneurship, you're pretty much building a plane falling from a sky rise. Being able to make sure that through that process, you're kind of delegating, and putting the parts together is a big important component of it.
Ronen Ainbinder
I think that the way your mind gets structured through building and designing and putting things together is a way of understanding how things work before you or you plan them. Then you can use it in entrepreneurship in business. That's great, Pierina! I want to switch gears a little bit now to talk about FlickPlay. The company that you currently run. I want to ask you about its technology. Specifically, how can flick place technology improve our lifestyle daily?
Pierina Merino
FlickPlay is a gamified video sharing social app. We use both gaming and AR content tools to power a new canvas for social storytelling. We believe that our stories have always been better told when we can use context to add meaning to them. What we do is that we have two ways for users to interact. On FlickPlay experiences, it's either through our gamified map and through our camera. Once videos are shared within Flickplay, the community can interact with them by leaderboard challenges, points, and have a closer interaction with where they live and the places they can be visited and have a fun interaction with.
Ronen Ainbinder
That's sounds super fun. I can't wait to try it. Pierina, I'm sure I mean, you have many, many projects coming up and many plans that you want this technology to support. But I want to ask you specifically in terms of like health and wellness is there's, is there an application from this technology towards it? Can it support it in the future?
Pierina Merino
I believe that we're living at a very transformative point in time. We are all cultural animals, and the environment, the things we see, have always had a big impact on social behaviors. I think that COVID-19 will be remembered as the tragedy that it has been. It is also the starting point for a new social behavior in which the digital and physical elements become a fundamental part of our everyday lives. And I'm really excited to be being building FlickPlay at this point on time. We engage every day in zoom calls. We add backgrounds to build a perception or feel that psychologically feel that we have a real ecosystem in us. And when we engage in a call, and we see I see you with what your ideal or would look like. It's not about that office being real or not. It is about representing your style, how you portray yourself, and the things that identify you. To me, those are the qualities that will matter moving forward. And that will have a big impact on how we perceive the little things. It won't be about the fictitious-ness of it. It will be about the emotional connection of that person using that element to connect with his community with his friends with his family.
Ronen Ainbinder
I feel like nowadays (with all social networks and stuff), there is this misconception or alternate reality in which the social networks actually make us less social. You know how they say like, "don't spend time on your phone, try to be more present at the moment if you're with family and friends try to be there." Do you think that your platform is trying to bring both together so that it's not anti-social? In a way that it's inclusive so that you can actually use it for a positive thing in human lives? What do you think about that?
Pierina Merino
Yeah, I think that does a pretty interesting question. I always say that the next big social platform will be a combination of social and a game. And it's on the trajectory of social media. Social media started in the one-day era as a way for us to connect with our friends. And just feel that communication that very blank connection with them across countries across time—the text-image format. And then, we moved to our second era with Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, where we told better stories through video. And in a way, it started with the high fidelity content. I share that ideal "Instagrammable" moment, which decontextualizes the reality that we live in our everyday lives. It kind of went back to the social one or the alpha. Stories are a quick way, snackable content for us to quickly consume from our audience. The interesting part is that we're starting to see that that interaction from my human consumer behavior is starting to get more and more gamified. When you think of our dance challenge, it is not about the dance being about competing with friends with a community. And they and the concept that gaming is becoming more and more social because it's becoming a more genuine way for us to connect with our community. When we think of FlickPlay as a social platform, we think about the idea of city locations and having a completely different experience than being 10 miles away from another location. So if you're in Los Angeles and walking through a boulevard in Venice, you will get your discovery page on FlickPlay. You will tell you something completely different than if you are in Melrose. Or you're in downtown LA. It will feel there that social interaction gamified experience based on whoever your friends are close to you, and what are the things that are happening around you. So it's a more genuine, more interactive way to both consume content and create content.
Ronen Ainbinder
Yeah, that's great. And I also feel like there is this element of going out, and you're not necessarily going to find the best filters or the best games at your home. You're going to have to go somewhere. So it promotes like, kind of like an active life of like, "don't stay home, go out at least." If you're going out, you're probably going to meet with someone! So it mixes up social gaming, and I feel like a kind of like a physical, active wellness type of life, which is very positive. Because it's not like you're scrolling on Instagram just on your couch. And you're just that's the only thing that you're doing. So I think that's fantastic. And I want to ask you more of like a question towards you. And I want to know what has been the hardest challenge that you faced as a woman in a mostly male-dominated industry? And how did you overcome it? Or what has been your attitude towards it? Tell me a little bit about
Pierina Merino
I think that definitely persistence. Building a company, a tech startup is not easy; regardless of gender, it's a big challenge. And the reality we live in right now is that as long as there is less female executive making the decisions of how investment money needs to be allocated. There will be less opportunity for female founders to get funding and get the necessary funding to really prove. A product needs to be validated. I think that every company has the opportunity to succeed as long as it's given the right time and resources to be executed. For us to bridge that gap, we just need to make sure that we're being critical and rational about the deployment of resources for both females and males. I think that that's been the challenge that any female entrepreneur has failed to prove and validate a bigger opportunity. I've been lucky to not only get a few strong female backers early in my journey. I also have amazing executives that have not only validated FlickPlay from an opportunity standpoint but from a leadership standpoint. It's the same process that any company has, but I think that just getting where we need to get in terms of validating when we need to validate.
Ronen Ainbinder
I'm sure it's a rough path, but it looks like you have successfully been constant and tried to overcome all the obstacles, which I think is great. And it speaks a lot about you, Pierina. Since we're running out of time, I want to ask you a more personal question. And that is maybe a funny one. But if I spoke to Frank Gehry right now, what is one word he would use to describe you on the phone? And why would you think that would be the word?
Pierina Merino
We would always fall into not arguments but "contrast of opinions." And he would always be very persistent and reminding me why his opinion was the right one. I'm never gonna forget; I remember I used the word "Ontology" when I joined the office. I gave him my thesis book. When I left, he gave me papers on why I should never use that word in architecture. So when something gets in his mind, he will do anything to kind of like push it through and make sure he proves his point. I think that that's something that I kind of mirror myself on. I'm a little bit stubborn.
Ronen Ainbinder
Well, that's fantastic! I think that's a great place to wrap today's conversation. It was amazing. It was great to have you! Your insight, and your analysis, your perception, of course, combined with all your interests and your passions. They're just one of a kind, and I really appreciate your time. I'm sure the listeners are going to enjoy this episode. I enjoyed it. I hope when this pandemic is over, we can meet up and chat about design and architecture much further. But for now, thank you so much for coming to the Halftime Snacks.
Pierina Merino
Thank you!
Transcribed by Otter.