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XSanta Monica Is Using the Metaverse to Gamify Its Shopping District
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Last week, the app FlickPlay announced it was partnering with Santa Monica (which is where the company is based) so that it would become the first U.S. city to have access to the metaverse through its app.
After all the Facebook hype, I wanted to find out what the metaverse looked like and why a city would sign on.
So, standing on the bustling corner of Santa Monica Blvd and 3rd Street, I scanned FlickPlay’s interactive map on my phone in search of tokens.
A blue coin users can pick up in the FlickPlay app.
Previously a social wallet app designed to work with various types of digital art and collectibles; the app now works in downtown Santa Monica as a way both to draw you into storefronts and gamify the experience. That could be good business for brick and mortar stores and the city’s tax base.
Finding tokens wasn’t too difficult: The map was filled with glowing yellow, blue, and green dots indicating I was in the right place to cash in on tokens in FlickPlay’s new metaverse social app.
Similar to TikTok, the explore page on FlickPlay features full-screen, looping videos set to music that often include people dancing and utilizing their exclusive collectibles as a backdrop. The experience can be enthralling.
As a user, you have the option to like, comment and share on other social platforms. While apps like TikTok and Instagram focus on the subject, FlickPlay is focused on the landscape around them - bridging the gap between physical and digital spaces. At one point I became disoriented from the physical world.
FlickPlay allows people to collect tokens to unlock and show off videos through the app using their rare filter-like collectibles - most of which have a limited quantity.
Currently, the app doesn’t have any challenges, but like the NFTs there is a scarcity factor that increases the value of the collectibles. This gives the user the opportunity to monetize their digital collectibles. Like most mobile games, FlickPlay is free to download, but offers players the opportunity to use the tokens they earn in exchange for tangible goods.
Tokens are categorized into three colors: yellow, blue and green, and can be earned by visiting the map on the FlickPlay app. The yellow coins act as the player’s currency to unlock experiences or purchase items from local retailers, blue coins unlock collectibles, and green coins (the rarest) come with a reward.
If a token is nearby, you tap on its location on the map and the token will appear on your phone. I saw one token was further away and the app led me right to it. The token amount I received ranged from a value of 150-250 per coin and was stored in a digital wallet within the app. That token brought me to a Dodger’s Clubhouse on the Promenade.
While I received some odd looks walking around with my phone pointed toward the sky—there were tokens to be had!— I also saw some curious faces.
If FlickPlay founder and CEO Pierina Merino is right, that will soon be a familiar scene and everyone will be on the metaverse. “In the next two years, we're all going to own something digital,” she said. “We are all going to have some sort of wallet or digital inventory of objects.”
Merino established FlickPlay in 2019 and has grown the company to include 20 employees. Earlier this year, FlickPlay raised $5 million in seed funding backed by global VC firm Lightspeed Ventures and co-lead by SF-based seed investor, Abstract VC.
FlickPlay founder and CEO Pierina Merino hopes to create more activity in parts of Santa Monica that have traditionally been less trafficked.
Before Merino founded FlickPlay, she launched the startup Pemier, a 3D printed product line that was picked up by Nordstrom in over 30 stores six months after its launch in 2016.
But what was lacking was the inability to interact with the consumer. “As a founder, it was crazy to think that I made it to one of the top retailers in the U.S. and I was still not talking with my customer,” she said.
During this time she saw how the Museum of Ice Cream created communities where people can create shareable content as well as Pokemon Go’s impact in the way that people interact with the real world. With FlickPlay, Merino is hoping she can help create more activity in parts of Santa Monica that have traditionally been less trafficked—and are thus more susceptible to crime.
“It has been proven that activating unused city spaces with art reduces crime rates,” she said. “There is no better incentive for us than building a metaverse ecosystem with strong values and purpose that have a direct impact in the world we live in."
Merino believes her app can help the local economy, too. “You’re not only activating the city from a creative standpoint, and enabling the city to control the narrative and the storyline of how people interact with their different locations, but it also involves local retailers,” she said.
As someone who has never been interested in gaming, I found the app entertaining. It even brought me to stores I’ve never been to before, like BookMonster. Even though I didn’t earn enough tokens to purchase physical items in one of the retailers, I’d consider coming back to rack up more tokens once more local retailers jump on board which would incentivize shoppers like myself to go out and play.
After about three hours of participating in the metaverse, My token counter hit just over 2,000—finally I had enough to unlock some rare collectibles. I gravitated toward the Los Angeles Lakers collectible which cost me 900 tokens. Once unlocked, I was able to “flex” the purchase by showing off my new collectible in a video.
Merino, meanwhile, has plans to expand FlickPlay to other cities -- including New York, Miami and Chicago -- as early as next year. FlickPlay has also partnered with some local shops like fashion retailer JapanLA and Mexican restaurant Lanea to allow users to shop using their digital wallets.
“I like moving people through our cities,” she said. “At the same time, all these new consumer behaviors are really tied to how we're building our digital identity and the value that these offline interactions are having on how people perceive us online.”
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Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
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TikTok’s Latest Ad Strategy: Let Brands Crowdsource Creators
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
TikTok’s newest advertising program will allow brands to crowdsource content from creators.
Branded Mission, which the Culver City-based video-sharing app announced Wednesday, is currently being beta-tested. The program lets brands release briefs containing specific creative directions—such as incorporating a specific hashtag, visual effect or audio—with the goal of procuring videos that will become promoted ads. Creators with at least 1,000 followers will be compensated with cash payments if the content performs well.
Creators participating in the “authentic branded content” program, as TikTok described it, can choose which brand initiatives they wish to participate in—with each Branded Mission “page” highlighting details like how much money a creator could potentially receive for participating. TikTok told Business Insider that it’s testing various payment models, including a first-come, first-serve model as well as “boosted traffic” compensation.
“Creators are at the center of creativity, culture and entertainment on TikTok,” the social media firm said in a statement. “With Branded Mission, we're excited to bring even more creators into the branded content ecosystem and explore ways to reward emerging and established creators.”
TikTok’s previous advertising strategies have relied on creators with large followings, with the recently announced TikTok Pulse targeting users with at least 100,000 followers. Branded Mission, on the other hand, gives creators with smaller platforms a chance to make more revenue beyond programs like TikTok’s Creator Fund.
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Greater Good Health Raises $10M To Fix America’s Doctor Shortage
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
The pandemic highlighted what’s been a growing trend for years: Medical students are prioritizing high-paying specialty fields over primary care, leading to a shortage of primary care doctors who take care of a patient’s day-to-day health concerns. These physicians are a cornerstone of preventative health care, which when addressed can lower health care costs for patients, insurers and the government. But there’s a massive shortage of doctors all over the country, and the pipeline for primary care physicians is even weaker.
One local startup is offering a possible answer to this supply squeeze: nurse practitioners.
On Wednesday, Manhattan Beach-based Greater Good Health unveiled $10 million in new funding led by LRVHealth, adding to $3 million in seed funding raised by the startup last year. The company employs nurse practitioners and pairs them with doctor’s offices and medical clinics; this allows nurse practitioners to take on patients who would otherwise have to wait weeks, or even months, to see a doctor.
“This access and equity issue is just going to become more pervasive if we don't do things to help people gain more access,” Greater Good founder and CEO Sylvia Hastanan told dot.LA. “We need more providers to offer more patients appointments and access to their time to take care of their needs. And in order to do that, we really need to think about the workforce.”
There has been a growing movement in the medical industry to use nurse practitioners in place of increasingly scarce primary care physicians. California passed a law in 2020 that will widen the scope of nurse practitioners and allow them to operate without a supervising physician by 2023. Amid a shortage of doctors, there’s also the question of what will become of the largest and longest-living elderly population in recent history, Baby Boomers. Public health officials are already scrambling for ways to take care of this aging demographic’s myriad health needs while also addressing the general population.
“By the time you and I get old enough where we need primary care providers to help us with our ailments and chronic conditions, there aren't [going to be] enough of them,” Hastanan said. “And/or there just isn't going to be enough support for those nurse practitioners to really thrive in that way. And I worry about what our system will look like.”
Nurse practitioners function much like doctors do—they can monitor vitals, diagnose patients, and, in some cases, prescribe medication (though usually under the supervision of a doctor). Nurse practitioners need to get either a master’s degree or higher in nursing and complete thousands of hours of work in a clinical setting. All told, it usually takes six-to-eight years to become a nurse practitioner, compared to 10-to-15 years to become a practicing physician.
Greater Good Health’s platform puts nurse practitioners in often years-long care settings where they manage patients—most of whom are chronically ill, high-risk patients that need to be seen regularly and thoroughly. This allows them to follow up more carefully on patients they have managed for years, instead of catching up on a new patient’s history and treating them in the moment. Patients, meanwhile, don’t have to see a rotating door of clinicians and can talk to a provider they already have an established rapport with.
The one-year-old startup will use the funding to provide learning and development opportunities for its nurse practitioners and also connect them with each other through virtual support groups. Burnout has been an issue across health care during the pandemic, spurring an exodus of nursing and support staff and leaving health care facilities woefully understaffed. Greater Good hopes that keeping nurse practitioners in more stable, years-long care situations and offering them career development opportunities will help retain them and keep them in the workforce longer.
“We want them to be well-rounded and balanced both in work and life, and we see that returns us healthier, more engaged and ready nurse practitioners,” Hastanan said.
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
Plus Capital Partner Amanda Groves on Celebrity Equity Investments
On this episode of the L.A. Venture podcast, Amanda Groves talks about how PLUS Capital advises celebrity investors and why more high-profile individuals are choosing to invest instead of endorse.
As a partner at PLUS, Groves works with over 70 artists and athletes, helping to guide their investment strategies. PLUS advises their talent roster to combine their financial capital with their social capital and focus on five investment areas: the future of work, future of education, health and wellness, the conscious consumer and sustainability.
“The idea is if we can leverage these people who have incredible audiences—and influence over that audience—in the world of venture capital, you'd be able to help make those businesses move forward faster,” Groves said.
PLUS works to create celebrity partnerships by identifying each client’s passions and finding companies that align with them, Groves said. From there, the venture firm can reach out to prospective partners from its many contacts and can help evaluate businesses that approach its clients. Recently, PLUS paired actress Nina Dobrev with the candy company SmartSweets after she had told them about her love for its snacks.
Celebrity entrepreneurship has shifted quite a bit in recent years, Groves said. While celebrities are paid for endorsements, Groves said investing allows them to gain equity from the growth of companies that benefit from their work.
“Like in movies, for example, where they're earning a residual along the way, they thought, ‘You know, if we're going to partner with these brands and create a tremendous amount of enterprise value, we should be able to capture some of the upside that we're generating, too’,” she said.
Partnering in this way also allows her clients to work with a wider range of brands, including small brands that often can’t afford to spend millions on endorsements. Investing allows high-profile individuals to represent brands they care about, Groves said.
“The last piece of the puzzle was a drive towards authenticity,” Groves said. “A lot of these high-profile artists and athletes are not interested, once they've achieved some sort of level of success, in partnering with brands that they don't personally align with.”
Hear the full episode by clicking on the playhead above, and listen to LA Venture on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
dot.LA Editorial Intern Kristin Snyder contributed to this post.