We were lucky to catch up with Shawn Janik recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shawn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Absolutely, thanks for having me, I would love to share my story with your readers!

I started off very young as a web developer, and later became a well-rounded CG artist in the film and game industry making it to my dream studios, such as Pixar, Disney & Activision. At Flustr’s core, gaming and film are the two things that are bound together.

For context, think of Flustr as if your favorite video platform was developed by gaming artists & engineers. Imagine you could take your TikTok or Instagram videos and instantly convert them to something you’d see only inside a video game, Pixar Animation or 2d work of art – all in one expressive and safe platform. Our tools, safety features and tech will continue to evolve but the heart of Flustr lies in its interactivity – and that comes from a strange little one-off story unrelated to gaming & computer graphics.

The true spark for Flustr came oddly enough from my love for political discussions and debates. So instead of being a youthful gamified take on social video, it could have easily been a more mature debate platform, or a video version of Twitter/Reddit full of screaming matches.

In 2012, I was watching the Barack Obama and Mitt Romney presidential debate on CNN. CNN gave the in-person crowd an interactive dial to evaluate the responses of both Barack and Mitt. It went like this… if you felt positively for what one was saying, you’d turn the dial clockwise, if negative, counter-clockwise. And below, you’d see the collective “Crowd Sentiment” represented on-screen, like a stock market chart. I was intrigued by this, I felt validated when it looked like the crowd was in agreement with my feelings and infuriated yet incredibly engaged when they weren’t! That’s when it “clicked.” These insights and interactivity provided a look at what others were feeling that I never would have seen otherwise and more importantly – way more engaging for me as a viewer. The idea of activating the crowd, converting them from the mere passive viewer to an active participant is the central idea behind Flustr.

Fast forward to 2020 – Myself and my CTO (then engineer of at the game studio we were at), along with a couple crack developers/friends who are still with us today, created a quick browser based proof of concept for a live-stream platform where two users could “Battle” with one another. We held a 40 person live-stream event during off-hours with the engineers and artists at the studio where they could watch, chat and interact. Interactivity being the key. People loved it. While it wasn’t a political debate, quite the opposite (a dance battle between two friends, one a semi-serious dancer the other a loveable goofball dressed as Macho Man Randy Savage galavanting in a ridiculous cape) – it was obvious, people loved to watch and engage with the event and fun was clearly the direction we needed to take. Our chat was blowing up, votes were coming in – rematches were requested and new topics suggested for the next.

This is when I decided to leave the studio and when we decided to start building Flustr. But we weren’t going to just build something traditional, we thought differently – let’s build it but gamify every interaction and corner of this video platform. This is what we do at our day job after all. So with our love for DDR, Guitar Hero, Just Dance, Overwatch, Hearthstone, StreetFighter, short-form video, AI/AR, motion capture, and video editing tools – that is what we did and Flustr was born!

Awesome – so for folks who may not have read about you before, can you please tell our readers about you and your team, product and what problems you solve for your clients?

Myself and my team are inspired by the video creators of today! Just the same way we are impressed by the creativity found in gaming and film. It’s an enormous economy that thrives with over 50 million content creators. They unite digital communities with their imagination and storytelling, while cutting-edge tech like generative AI, AR and other digital tools are just now arriving at a compelling place. Shattering creative limits, making the impossible possible and supercharging their fans’ engagement.

However, right now, we see a problem. Currently, Interactivity, CGI & AI / AR video generation is inaccessible for non-tech users, often requiring costly gear, years of skill, post-production time and third-party help. Creators seek an all-in-one, user friendly platform focused on creativity, and innovative design.

We foresee a transformative revolution and paradigm shift in social video & consumer tech with Interactivity, Gaming and generative AI / AR tools clearing the way for this next generation of creators. These creators are inspired now more than ever, tech shouldn’t be a road block but rather an amazing assistant!

We’re passionate game and film studio leads, artists, directors and engineers that have built a gamified short-form video platform that leverages music, interactivity and easy-to-use AI & AR tools to help today’s creators and brands find new ways to express themselves, earn and interact more directly with their audience.

Our mission and purpose: Gamify the connection between creators, fans & brands.

If you like making TikTok videos, watching talent shows, love 2d and CG art and gaming concepts, you might like what we’re doing!

If you’re a parent reading this, we’re also providing an alternative to Instagram, TikTok and SnapChat with a fresh new safe place for young creators to get their start.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I like to connect directly with our users, creators or potential creators and just listen. Whether as just a fan geeking out and DM’ing them on other social, attending in-person events, engaging with their Flustr content or even go live with them (I’m not afraid to look like silly, dance, skate, rap, or just talk)! That’s the benefit of having a social media company, I can actually socialize with them.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My CTO and myself, spent over 6 years working together at Activision Blizzard developing CG tools for our respective departments before founding Flustr. Him as a top engineer developing the tech, and myself as a top artist directing the tech and facilitating the needs of the artists, specifically the needs from the animation and rigging departments.

Next, my COO is an incredible CGI talent, former computer engineer and motion capture technology lead & lead animator from some of the top studios, BlueSky, EA, Sony, and Activision to name a few. She comes all the way from Venezuela, graduating from the top university in her country and we both connected during a work party at Rhythm & Hues (VFX studio) talking about the very same topics that brought Flustr to light – gaming, and our strong points of view on world politics.

Our team is incredibly diverse, hailing from over 6 countries, incredibly different backgrounds but all unified by two common factors, our love for short-films/stories and gaming.

We’re so proud that we can share our passion and knowledge with others. So content creators can now have easy-to-use tools to make videos just like we do in our industry to make their content stand out! We want others to come together, just like how our team came together.

Through the bond of art & tech. This is what we see leading the next generation of creators.

Thank you for sharing our story with your readers.

Come be an early creator within our growing Flustr community and come tell us what you want us to build next!

Available on Google Play and App Store. Or visit, www.flustr.com or email us, [email protected].

Contact Info:

• Website: www.flustr.com
• Other: Download the Flustr App on Google Play and App Store.