The best thing we’ve ever built at Flip isn’t a feature or a launch – it’s the team. Flipfest 2026 was a chance to slow down just enough to see that clearly, and to create something with it.
As Flip continues to grow, bringing the team together in person wasn’t about stepping away from the work. It was about creating the space to do the work differently – collaboratively and with intention. The company-wide became a moment to align, to build, and to let culture show up as something operational.
What stood out most was more than just the congenial energy – it was what people brought with them. Real ideas. Real product questions. Real work.
Over the course of the week, the Flip team collaborated across a company-wide hackathon, translating shared momentum into thoughtful, hands-on technical work.
Detecting Emotion & Tone
One of the clearest examples was the Emotion & Tone Detection project led by Rich Dale, Brandon Incremona, and Pablo Oliver. Team members walked through early demos exploring how Voice AI could become more emotionally intelligent – not just responding to the words spoken, but the way the words are spoken. The work highlighted a real limitation in traditional voice systems: when emotional context is ignored, interactions risk misunderstanding the caller, often leading to frustration instead of resolution.
The demo showed how Flip could detect emotions like frustration or calm in real time, adjusting tone, pacing, and responses as a conversation unfolds. It also explored how memory could carry emotional context across calls, moving beyond scripted apologies toward interactions that feel genuinely adaptive.
Brandon explained that, “Voice is the richest channel for sentiment. Capturing emotion live during calls allows for tailored handling instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all solution.”
The power of the moment started with technology, but expanded to watching the team own the work end to end – seeing the gap clearly and building toward what comes next.
Interactive Impact Calculator
That same mindset carried through the rest of the work that emerged during the week. Tools like the Flip Cost Calculator, built by Emma Sossamon and Will Van Der Linde, are a reflection of how teams at Flip think about impact: make it tangible, make it clear, and make it useful.
The calculator wasn’t built to impress – it was built to help teams and customers quickly understand the reality of Voice AI. It’s a simple artifact, but it carries a larger signal: people at Flip are trusted to build things that ship.
Emma explained that, “Flip does so much more than automate calls, we disrupt the way our customers understand their cost to support customers on the phone. I wanted to create a tool that highlights the real Flip impact and cost savings in a way that resonates with the value we bring today, in an interactive way that puts the discovery back in our customers’ hands.”
Centralized Knowledge Base
The week also included focused work by Andrea Ramirez and Sophia Velo on integrating Super and Slite into Flip’s tech stacks – strengthening how information is shared, retrieved, and acted on across teams. The goal wasn’t just efficiency, but helping teams move faster without losing clarity.
“Super allows us to reach beyond our peers to quickly access the information needed to maintain our fast-paced momentum,” Sophia noted.
Beyond everyday operations, the integration reflected a broader shift toward more intentional knowledge management. With Slite serving as a centralized knowledge base and Super connecting insights across conversations, Flip can easily support onboarding, collaboration, and continuity as the organization grows.
Operation Amplify
Flipfest projects also reinforced how a people-first philosophy extends beyond Flip’s walls.
Operation Amplify and the Flippin’ Legends program came up as a natural extension of the same values, built by Kristina Keene. At Flip, a Flippin’ Legend isn’t just a customer; it’s a partner. They’re someone who builds alongside us, uses the product deeply, shares the story publicly, and grows with us over time.
What’s notable isn’t just the recognition itself, but how intentional it is. Partnership is defined clearly. Celebration is systematized. From custom starter packs to speaking opportunities to public recognition, the goal is to make people feel seen in ways that match the effort they’ve put in. Thoughtful recognition creates pride, and pride creates ownership.
“We’re building this together, and we’re growing together – that’s something to celebrate,” Kristina shared. “And in natural Flip style, we want to celebrate our champions in a way that makes them feel heard and amplifies the incredible work that they’re doing.”
The Purpose Beneath The Product
By the end of the 2026 Hackathon, the consensus was clear. Culture at Flip isn’t accidental. It’s built through the same mechanisms as the product itself: collaboration, trust, and execution.
The company-wide didn’t introduce something new. It made clear what already exists when people are given the space to build together.
The technology will keep evolving… but how a team works, builds, and recognizes one another is what ultimately determines how far it goes.
This is what it looks like to grow while staying unmistakably yourself.
-Catch you on the Flip side!
