For Jonathan and Marcos Meson, creativity – and entrepreneurship – runs in the family.
It was apparent decades ago, when the brothers would record their own self-made shows on an old camcorder before the existence of a camera phone. Marcos, the eldest brother, would use PowerPoint to animate the openings of the makeshift programs and Jonathan would use Legos to make stop-motion animation segments. They were inspired in part by their father, a performer who added novel visual and audio effects to puppet shows back in the 1980s.
Years later, memories of those endeavors would spark the idea for FlipaClip.
"When I was a kid, feeling like I had the tools to make something was amazing," said Jonathan Meson, co-founder of Visual Blasters, the Miami company behind FlipaClip. "That's the inspiration."
The app makes it possible for amateurs to draw and animate flipbook-style cartoons and then share them online. With nearly 6 million monthly active users, it's among the most-downloaded animation apps in the Apple App Store.
The brothers co-founded Visual Blasters in 2010 after the launch of XiiaLive, an internet radio streaming app created by Marcos Meson. Their youngest brother, Tim, joined the team two years later to co-create FlipaClip.
Jonathan Meson said he had sketched out the idea for FlipaClip in 2008, but didn't actually bring it to life until 2012. He was motivated to get the concept off the ground to enter a Samsung competition for drawing apps that required a stylus. But he only had a month to actually create a working product.
"There was $100,000 on the line," he said. "That's when I got our younger brother Tim involved and we started coding it."
FlipaClip didn't win, but after the competition, it at least existed. Jonathan continued to work on the app on his own for another six years before downloads began to tick up.
Then, downloads spiked during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, causing FlipaClip's gross revenue to grow by more than 100%. Everyone from animation enthusiasts to educators seeking novel ways to interact students became FlipaClip users, with many posting their creations on social media.
It's a particular hit with Gen Z: About 70% of its users are under the age of 18, according to the Mesons. Those users often share their work online, helping the app reach new audiences and building name recognition for the brand.
"Seeing people with anything from 10 to millions of followers use the app to share their creativity was more than we could have asked for," said Marcos Meson.
The brand received another boost this year when it was one the apps featured in the commercial for Apple's new iPad Air.
Visual Blasters now has 16 employees, with five located in Florida. To build on FlipaClip's success, the Meson's are focused on making the app as accessible as possible so it can become the go-to product for people who want to learn to animate.
"Think of the way Duolingo walks users through every step they need to learn a new language," Marcos Meson said. "That's what we're looking at moving forward."
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