Mycroft Liu is no stranger to the gaming community. In fact, he is currently ranked as one of the top 500 Counter-Strike players in North America. As such, he knows the needs of the players beyond entertainment. For many, online gaming is not only a way to relax, it is a way to socialize and have self-expression through in-game items. And in many cases, the items can be traded.
That’s where Vivatlantis, LLC comes in.
The young tech startup in downtown Rapid City created the mobile app, Klipt, to assist gamers in trading items. “Virtual in-game item trading is a huge market, but neglected by people most of the time,” Mycroft explained. “Gamers want a C2C marketplace with low transaction fees, and that’s why we started this business.”
But the co-founders knew there was a need for more than a marketplace when they created Klipt. They wanted to prioritize the social aspect of gaming culture as well. Matthew Quinn serves as the COO of Vivatlantis. “I worked in several property management companies before, and I understand the importance of communication,” he said. “Surprisingly, there is no such dedicated community that only focuses on online gaming. A well-built gaming community together with the low market transaction fee helps us to gain new users rapidly. Our unique features in the community section increase user engagement and coherence with our application. We are trying to form a feedback loop from playing the game, talking about the game, and trading the items among gamers. All of these are done within one application.”
Mycroft and Matthew started the idea of Klipt in early 2023. By April, they signed a contract with Rapid City-based SaaS incubator, WildFire Labs. “Before I came here, I had never been to South Dakota, and I had never heard of Rapid City. I only know Matthew is from somewhere around here,” Mycroft said. “WildFireLabs supported our business idea and brought us here. They had meetings with us every week, followed our developing situation and gave valuable advice, helped us finish our go-to-market experiment, and connected us to local capital groups.”
Under the support and guidance of WildFire Labs, Klipt was listed on the AppStore after only 10 months of programming. With an official launch in January 2024, they generated their first revenue by March. With additional support through Elevate Rapid City, the company was also able to apply for and receive a $25,000 grant from the SD Governor’s Office of Economic Development. They’ve been able to raise an additional $55,000 in seed money and have begun pitching to capital groups to find angel investment.
“I grew up in Hill City. The Black Hills is always my home, and I am proud that I can start my business here,” Matthew said. “This state is famous for its low tax, which is important for young startups like us. WildFire Labs is letting more companies know about the great entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Black Hills and bringing them here.”
Wildfire Labs is a software accelerator in Rapid City that helps founders turn an idea into a business with revenue in 6 months. Wildfire includes a founder-focused app that provides a detailed roadmap to guide entrepreneurs through the build and launch process. During the program experienced Wildfire Partners who are entrepreneurs themselves provide 1:1 mentoring. Mentoring is complimented by Wildfire University sessions from industry experts to help them learn key CEO skills. They are also able to tap into the services and support of Elevate Rapid City. Wildfire provides an experienced development team to select startups to get apps built rapidly. Startups that graduate from Wildfire have beta customers onboarded and are ready to scale up and raise capital.
