The world of entertainment and gaming are evolving fast. Alexander Heller (CEO), Desi Gonzales (COO) and Rama Allen (CCO), co-founders of HyperSpace have created destination attractions like no other, with a focus on launching the biggest and best entertainment arenas anyone has seen in the sector, and from the looks of it, they have done just that.
The founding team are hand-picked heavy hitters from world leading experience design studios and brands. They speak experience design and emerging technologies natively. They’ve built an enormous amount of leading edge activations, products, and experiences for the world’s biggest brands, and now they’re doing it for themselves.
Established in January 2021, HyperSpace is on a mission to bridge the gap between the allure of AAA video games, social media, and digital entertainment, and the timeless appeal of in-person social experiences. The inaugural entertainment attraction, AYA, located at Dubai’s Wafi Mall, spans 40,000 square feet and comprises 12 immersive experience zones. In its first nine months of operation, AYA sold 480,000 tickets.
Last month HyperSpace opened its largest park, House of Hype at Riyadh Boulevard and the Co- founders are now focused on opening House of Hype in Dubai Mall early 2024. Their parks sit at the convergence of social media arena and real-world video game, engaging their audience meaningfully through an IRL physical experience and through digital engagement and gameplay.
Customers in the region (and worldwide) are demanding more memorable experiences. They would rather spend on experiences rather than products and this is where Hyperspace come in to meet that demand.
HyperSpace’s multi brand offering spans portals to digital immersive worlds to parks powered by tokens and digital assets, run on game economies that mirror AAA video games. They are purpose built for mass market entertainment seekers, content creators and gamers/Web3 audiences.
HyperSpace secured a $55m Series A financing round this year, headlined by Galaxy Interactive. This funding initiative, consisting of both equity and debt components, also includes significant contributions from Riyadh Season, SEGA Ventures, and Apis Venture Partners.
It’s been quite a journey for CEO Heller, who co-founded HyperSpace after seven years working between creative/arts arenas. He founded AM Fund in 2015, an investment vehicle focusing on art market arbitrage opportunities in the low to mid-market sector of the contemporary art and design markets.
Simultaneously, he was the managing director of Leila Heller Gallery, one of the Middle East’s largest commercial arts venues. For HyperSpace, he teamed up with industry experts Desi Gonzalez and Rama Allen, who spent 20 years building experiential content for top global 100 brands, as his co-founders – just as impressively, they and their entire core team pretty much decamped from New York to Dubai to get the business going.
They’re writers, coders, producers, directors, designers, product managers, architects, crypto nerds, who have come from New York, London, Moscow, Istanbul, and Paris to launch in Dubai and Riyadh, hopelessly obsessed with creating wonder inducing worlds for our guests.
What do you think of the current status of the entertainment industry?
Alex: “Never in the history of the world has there been so much ambition to build the future of the entertainment sector as [what] is happening in Saudi Arabia today. When we started in January 2021, there was some forward movement in opportunities here, but we were still in a post-Covid world. When we look at the sector in the region you have this underserved audience and enormous ambition. You look at Dubai and you have this extraordinary existing tourist and resident population both with spending power. A real appetite for consuming our form of location-based entertainment.”
Why did you choose to focus on the GCC region?
Desi: We saw a gap and opportunity in the location-based entertainment space in the GCC. We chose to come to the region because they are leading the way in technological ambition, and they dream as big as we do. We don’t build for the now. We build for the next and that is exactly what the region is cultivating.
In the past three years, we have been part of the change and witnessed first-hand the commitment to transform the region into a vibrant and dynamic hub for cultural and recreational activities. The regional talent is as good as it gets. Where New York fails, Dubai and Riyadh excel. It has been a privilege to educate and teach others as they join HyperSpace locally. The learnings for us all have been invaluable.
What do you think differentiates House of Hype from other offerings in the market?
Rama: HOH is purpose built for digital lifestyles. It is playable like a video game and generates premium level social media content. Many experiences post rationalize elements of the audience behavior, and only pay lip service to their desire to express themselves, or to engage in a highly interactive gamefied experience.
We used informed design from our decade long track record building experiences for big brands, and imbued our beautiful wonderland with the successful strategies we tested and proved out to create more rewarding attractions for audiences.
Why did you decide to create House of Hype with a heavy focus on digital experiences?
Alex: I’ve always been very interested in the commercial creative space and the way people consume content. Social media consumers are the largest population on earth. When I looked into this in early 2019, I understood the future of retail quite well and I saw an opportunity to bring in capital from our partners…There was never a moment when I thought this isn’t going to work, we knew the idea was just too good.
Desi: I’ve spent my entire career evangelizing new formats of technology to mass audiences for the biggest brands in the world. My specialty has been turning the impossible into reality and creating/producing things that have never been done before.
I’ve pioneered firsts in reality TV, augmented reality children’s stories, biometric gaming, beatboxing AI and virtual production. And now we get to build the company of the future! My experience in emerging technologies, innovation and content have allowed me to tell compelling stories across media platforms – from television to advertising to product innovation to experiential marketing – This includes brand side, agency side, innovation consultancy, production companies and NOW HYPERSPACE!
Can you tell us a bit more about the rewards system, and what users can exchange the HyperCoin for?
Rama: HyperCoin is our in-world currency that guests earn through accomplishing missions and simply by enjoying the park. It can be earned, found, bought, and won. In our initial launch, HyperCoin is exchangeable for digital goods, such as cosmetic power ups for their avatar or to buy lootboxes full of cool rewards, or exchanged for physical goods, think t-shirts and collectibles, at any one of our numerous shopping experiences. In the future we will be rolling out brand partnership deals, giving access to discounts and exchanges with partner retail outside our four wall.
Why did you decide to call each parks with the names you’ve chosen? AYA and House of Hype?
Rama: I start concepts with a hazy shape of their personality. AYA was always going to be an elegant, feminine, powerful exploration of beauty. The name is found in many cultures, is timeless, yet born of the future, and shares many translations that have to do with wonderment, poetry, and beauty.
It was a perfect fit, and instinctually “sounded” like the experience I wanted us to create. House of Hype borrows from the naming methodology of fashion ateliers. I wanted the experience to be grounded in this legacy, and feel like a singular expression from a “label”, but also have the bravado to call itself “hype”.
You have launched 2 different brands to date, one in the UAE and another in KSA, why did you choose each market for the inaugural park for each brand?
Rama: Simple. Only Dubai and Riyadh dream as big as we do. These made the cities fertile ground to launch something groundbreaking, with their own respective flavors.
As a co-founder, what did you look for in your co-founders and where do you feel you added the most value to get the business to where it is today?
Rama: The three of us understand and embrace the value of informed opinion, the power of instinct, and the commitment of bold decision making and swift action to define what comes next, says CCO Allen who has an exceptional resume, having spent over 20 years creating digital experiences for top100 global brands.
The first thing I always look for in a collaboration is strength where I am weakest. I am lucky to have two partners that excel at exactly what I do not. HyperSpace has accomplished great things quickly because we are three pieces of a puzzle, a sum greater than its parts. We overlap in many places, but respect each other’s subject matter expertise, deferring (and sometimes prodding) assumptions and directives from each other to create a stronger direction.
Desi: I call us the dynamic trio, the Three Musketeers of the business world. We are the perfect blend of brains, mischief, and adventure. With Alexander and Rama by my side, I feel invincible, there is nothing we can’t achieve together and that’s exactly what we are doing. We are building the company of the future.
Together, we are not just business partners; we are a creative force ready to conquer the entertainment industry. There’s nothing we can’t solve as a team. It takes a thick skin, and a lot of trust, to move our rocketship at speed into unknown territories.
What does it take to be a visionary entrepreneur vs doing your job at an established organisation like the one you came from?
Rama: Our previous studios were large organizations that attempted to march into the future backwards, with too much attention paid to their past legacy. In many ways, this hobbles an organization by chaining them to where they’ve been rather than freeing themselves to where they are going.
There was considerable time spent on hand holding (and wringing) to placate the conflicting spiderweb of leadership opinions that often resulted in cautious and painfully slow increments of progress rather than the bold and swift moves required to not only survive in a fast moving future, but thrive. At HyperSpace, our product is the future, and the three of us understand and embrace the value of informed opinion, the power of instinct, and the commitment of bold decision making and swift action to define what comes next. The future demands it.”
Can you tell us more about your role as a COO?
Desi: I’m not your typical COO but more of a strategic and creative partner in crime. Being the Chief Operating Officer at Hyperspace is like being a Swiss Army Knife. I need to embody versatility and adaptability and be the ultimate multitasker – the 20 years of experience have equipped me with the right tools to tackle any challenge in front of us.
I am not just the COO; I’m the mad scientist in charge of a lab full of creative geniuses, I’m the intern, in-house cultural diplomat, and a friend. I believe people make the magic, and I have enormous appreciation for my team.
You’ve spent over 20 years building digital experiences for top 100 global brands, how does it feel to have created a permanent experience for your own brand?
Rama: There is a deep satisfaction in creating something solely because you believe people will find joy in it I’ve been extremely fortunate to have had years of experience working in a similar fashion, particularly in the unique position of being tasked by the world’s biggest brands to develop experiences “that have never been done before”. I discovered many years ago that my happy place is the blank page, but the resulting concepts are nothing without a team of talented heroes to make them better, and to make them real.
What is the future of entertainment?
Alex: This is the joy economy, large groups of people chasing more thrill, fun and adventure. Being in the entertainment business is a great sector to be in today. We really operate in this social media sphere. AYA just passed 1 billion user generated impressions on social media. We know that 65 percent of our consumers learn about the park from user generated content. Our audience is our largest marketing pool.
Rama: AI is the spark of our next industrial revolution. Jobs will be lost or changed. Mediums will be invented. Unexpected results and tangential innovations will occur.
How do you think you will impact the retail industry with House of Hype?
Alex: I think companies like Emaar are very forward-thinking, they have seen the transition in retail especially post-Covid, so this is an opportunity for us and hopefully for them as well.
What is your favourite part of House of Hype and why?
Rama: That’s like asking to pick a favorite child. For me, it is about squinting at the attraction and appreciating the sum. House of Hype was designed as a garden of variation with many pieces supporting various levels of wonder. It takes all of it to be uniquely HOH.
But it isn’t just customers lapping up the action, with investors queuing up for a slice of the cake of location-based entertainment like no other. The new round of funding will help open another venue in the US, with details to be unveiled soon. Alexander says an IPO could happen “someday in the future”, but right now the team is focused on building a business that aligns with experience economy through highly tech-enabled immersive experience parks.
HyperSpace does not stand in one place for long and innovation is at the core of their DNA. Heller and his team are shining a light on the blurred lines between digital and physical experiences.
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