Despite layoffs at big tech companies amid an economic slowdown, plenty of hope remains for West Coast tech talent. Dual headquartered in London and LA, Flawless is in the midst of a hiring push and looking to capitalize on the abundance of tech talent that’s becoming available.
Flawless builds AI video effects tools for the film industry. Its tech offers solutions for dubbing and digitally reshooting movies, enabling films to reach broader audiences. Because of its unique solution, the company has been able to maintain a steady growth strategy over the past year, according to Nick Lynes, Flawless’ co-founder and co-CEO. During this time, many other tech companies took a more aggressive approach to building their teams, leaving them unable to sustain them amid today’s slowed funding.
“A lot of other tech companies … went out and started paying daft sums of money for people [because] the market was really tight this time last year,” Lynes told Built In. “We probably hired 20 to 30 percent less people than we had planned to do in 2021. We stuck true to what we believed to be right, and that has basically paid its dividends. … [We’re] in a position now that as we continue, we’re able to plan our growth outside of the same influences that other people are experiencing [during a] global economic change in circumstances.”
As it takes its growth to the next stage, Flawless hopes to hire 100 people over the next 12 to 18 months. The company is recruiting across all departments, searching for talent across DevOps, engineering and product. It’s also searching for AI scientists and post-production talent in LA. About 60 to 70 percent of Flawless’ new roles will be based out of its Los Angeles headquarters, Lynes said.
This opportunity comes as the company advances its tech solution. Flawless’ Vubbing product can re-render an actor’s face in the film using AI and alter their facial movement to appear as if the actor were speaking the dubbed audio. For instance, for a film initially released in English that was dubbed over in German, the original English-speaking actor can appear to be speaking and expressing the words recorded in a German voiceover.
In addition to making films more accessible to global audiences, Flawless’ tech can also help films reach younger audiences. Its solution was used to change an R-rated movie to a PG rating without the production company needing to reshoot parts of the film. Instead, the original actors recorded milder alternatives to their profane lines in the film, and the company used Flawless’ tech to make the actors’ mouths match the altered lines.
“[Shooting a movie is] an iterative process. The reality is, you get something in the end … and you realize that you’ve got to make some additional footage,” Lynes said. “Reshoots exist for that reason, but one of the things that we can do with our system is essentially change the dialogue while still retaining the original performance style. … We can also change dialogue lines to slightly recraft the story [which is] basically what would be done in a reshoot.”
Flawless has been building this technology for four years. Founded in 2018, the company emerged from stealth in May of 2021. Since then, the company has garnered billions of global impressions on its work, according to Lynes. Flawless has grown quickly thanks to talent like Christian Theobalt of the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and researcher Pablo Garrido, formerly of Epic Games. Flawless currently has a team of 60 people and boasts a $150 million market valuation.
