UAE-Based HyperSpace Crafts Digital Magic For The Real World

In 2021, three New Yorkers relocated to Dubai to build HyperSpace, a company that, in their words, would “inspire awe” with elaborate parks that bring the digital world to life, effectively transporting its visitors to a real-world metaverse.

Four years later, co-founders Rama Allen (chief creative officer), Desi Gonzalez (chief operating officer), and Alexander Heller (CEO), have launched three parks across the region, with their latest debuting at The Dubai Mall in February.

But how did this all come to be, and what inspired them to get started on it in the first place? In a conversation with Inc. Arabia, the trio explains how they went from working in art and experiential marketing, to building a startup that wants to revolutionize how we experience the digital and the physical worlds.

For starters, Allen and Gonzalez built their careers, as they put it, “working at the bleeding edge of what is possible.” With a showreel that includes everything from concert visuals for pop sensation Lady Gaga to experiential marketing for tech giants like Google and Meta, they’ve been pushing the envelope for the better part of their careers. Indeed, Gonzalez says that the duo spent years employing a team of 100 people globally doing “impossible projects” for big brands. “The brief was always ‘let’s do something that hasn’t been done before,’ and we always like to talk about that, because we ended up here, and we’re truly doing something that doesn’t exist,” Gonzalez says. Allen adds, “Most of our work looks like science fiction, and that’s what we were hired for, which is to do things that have never been done before.”

Desi Gonzalez, co-founder and chief operating officer, HyperSpace. 

Gonzalez, an award-winning multimedia production executive and creative whose past work includes pioneering reality television for Comcast, augmented reality children’s stories for Meta, biometric gaming for Nike, and launching virtual pop stars into the metaverse, began working in experiential marketing in 2011 (“when nobody knew what that was,” she adds). Meanwhile, Allen, who has been working in interactive experiences, products, and films for over 20 years, has two Emmy nominations for film direction under his belt, and he has been a guest educator for futurism and design at Ivy League schools like Yale, Harvard, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), among others. The duo first met when they worked together at the Mill Experience Group, where they explored the limits of experiential marketing.

But it wasn’t until Gonzalez and Allen met Heller, who built his career at the intersection of investing and the creating economy, that the trio decided to combine forces and build a company that in many ways, epitomizes the “phygital” (physical and digital). Heller previously served as managing director of the Dubai location of the New York-based gallery Leila Heller, and he also founded the AM Fund, an investment vehicle focused on art market arbitrage opportunities. It was thus after Heller got together with Allen and Gonzalez that the trio decided that rather than exploring the limits of what is possible for large brands, they would do it for themselves. This is what led them to launch HyperSpace in 2021, and they soon went on to raise US$75 million in equity and development funding through three investment rounds led by New York-based VC Fund Galaxy Interactive.

Alexander Heller, co-founder and CEO, HyperSpace. 

According to Heller, the genesis of HyperSpace came from what the three co-founders saw as a tidal shift in the future of retail as they began to scan the landscape following the COVID-19 pandemic. “We were very much all united [in believing] that the future of the retail ecosystem post-COVID-19 would be completely different,” Heller says. “E-commerce is changing the way that retail functions, so the future of retail ecosystems in terms of shopping malls and retail development has to be more experientially driven, both from an entertainment standpoint and from just a general guest experience.” The other aspect that shaped HyperSpace was the indisputable role that social media was playing in shaping worlds and identities. “Social media is really the crux of what drives someone to consume entertainment in the physical world,” Heller explains. “So, we asked, how do you build parks that have physical social media products? Beyond that, you have larger trends like ‘the joy economy’ – people want to experience things that build on escapism, people want to experience things that take them to a different world and use technology to do that.”

HyperSpace, through its parks, invites visitors to blend their digital existence with their physical ones on a journey through multiple “zones” that feature everything from live theatrical shows and Instagrammable content creator stages, to gamified features that allow its users to gain points and treasures as they navigate. And by operating at the intersection of co-op gaming and social media, and leveraging people’s desires to have experiences in a shared space, the company is effectively cherry-picking elements from these different domains, and combining them in a way that has not been explored to create a unique product that caters to a digital-first audience. “We’re creating this magic space in between that hasn’t previously existed,” Allen declares. “And I’m excited because you can see behavior changing on the timeline, and it’s like Moore’s Law for humans.”

House of Hype Dubai. 

HyperSpace’s first park, AYA Universe, opened in Dubai’s Wafi City Mall in December 2022, and it features 12 fully immersive zones spread across 40,000 sq. ft. “With AYA, we chose a mall that needed an influx of energy, and since we opened, we’ve increased their unique visitation by 16 percent, which is significant,” Heller reveals. “It’s a very escapist-driven experience that makes you feel like you’re touching technology in this beautiful, futuristic sort of world. At the same time, you’re going to a beautiful place to create content, and further that kind of consumption, and that creates this beautiful virtual cycle of Hyperspace.” One year later, in December 2023, the trio launched the 100,000 sq. ft. House of Hype at Riyadh Boulevard, which features 26 immersive zones. “Riyadh is a very different market,” Heller notes. “At AYA, 78 percent of our customers are tourists, because that’s the breakdown of the city [Dubai]. House of Hype in Riyadh has a very different customer base – a consumer base that’s completely new to entertainment.”

Their latest park, House of Hype Dubai, which opened its doors to the public in February this year, has brought them back to Dubai with the biggest park they’ve built to date, spread over 100,000 sq. ft. and featuring over 100 experiences that include 18 immersive worlds, 14 over-the-top retail experiences, six F&B outlets, 50 gaming experiences, and 55 content creator stages. House of Hype Dubai combines the Riyadh park’s gaming-centered ethos with AYA Universe’s creator-driven experience to build what is set to be a prime tourist attraction located in the newest extension of The Dubai Mall, Chinatown, which has been billed as “a unique shopping and leisure experience in the world’s most visited mall.” According to Heller, this choice of location is a testament to his belief that parks like House of Hype can redefine what an “anchor tenant” can be, drawing foot traffic and consumers to locations that have yet to be fully commercialized.

For his part, Allen says that the latest park “is the penultimate combination” of the HyperSpace founding team’s experiences, and it truly demonstrates what makes them unique. Heller agrees, adding that Dubai’s tourist-driven economy and its demographics make it the ideal playground for businesses like theirs. Entertainment venues like House of Hype and AYA Universe can add value to the retail experience by driving foot traffic for a segment of consumers who want to shop and dine and play. “Dubai has an amazing audience to build a product for and with, and the story of so many great new post-COVID-19 businesses in the region may well be born in Dubai and exported to the world,” Heller says. “It’s hard to appreciate how difficult it is to get product-market fit with an audience, and in Dubai, you almost take it for granted, because you have such an extraordinary audience, you have such a wallet-share going toward entertainment – more than any other city in the entire world. And this enthusiasm to consume futuristic entertainment really aligns with the identity of the city.”

Rama Allen, co-founder and chief creative officer, HyperSpace. 

HyperSpace is thus leveraging Dubai’s forward-looking culture and its position as a tourist hub to create these futuristic spaces that bring the digital to life. “What we do is effectively a cultural product in the context of Dubai, because Dubai doesn’t have archaeological museums and things looking toward the past, everything is about looking forward,” Heller points out, giving Dubai’s Museum of the Future as an example of the high value the city places on futurism. This culture, Heller explains, allows for companies like HyperSpace to develop what Heller calls “creative consumerism,” stressing that the park is, first and foremost, a consumer product that integrates various creative, artistic, and tech aspects to offer its visitors a novel experience.

Allen credits the team’s combined creative experience and their endless curiosity, which has the trio going down endless rabbit holes to explore futurism, tech, social media, and gaming trends with the aim to equip themselves with the prescience to build a world that offers a glimpse of what the future might look like. “Because of our background, we spent so many years building our muscle and experience working to meet extremely high expectations with very specific budgets within a specific amount of time,” Allen explains. “But the goal was always to move the needle, to make something that has a certain effect, whether it’s informational or emotional, on the customer. That kind of background allows us to build these parks, and hold ourselves to an expectation that no one else does.”

According to Allen, the key to successfully designing experiences like this is ensuring that HyperSpace caters to a diverse audience while guarding against future shock. He notes that the parks are ultimately designed to cater to contemporary consumers — not to alienate them. “When I say that we’re building for tomorrow, I mean that we’re ready for a consumer with a premium level on-glasses augmented reality,” Allen says. “We’re ready for all incorporations of artificial reality into co-creation and generation of experiences, we’re ready for blockchain-enabled experiences – this will not be post-rationalized in our parks. We built the platform, and we have all the pieces, and we can simply turn them on when culture and technology at a mass consumer level are ready for it.”

And while the HyperSpace team says that they have found their target with millennials and Gen Z, the parks are built to accommodate three types of customers: the “lean-forward” customer that is on-trend and excited by the integration of technology into every aspect of the space, the “lean-backward” customer, who can enjoy the experience without interacting much, and the third who lies in between these two archetypes. “The ‘lean back’ customer that just wants to have it wash over them,” Allen explains. “They’re going to walk through, they’re not going to touch anything, but they’re going to have a spectacular time.” He goes on to explain that the second category of customer, which is “a little lean forward, a little lean back” will likely engage in the live games and challenges, will enjoy the live theatrical experience, or even go on mini treasure hunts offered as part of the experience.

As for the “lean-forward’” customers, Allen tells us that these are the millennials and Gen Z, for which the park is essentially a magnet. “These are the people who spend hours every day scrolling TikTok, actively produce content, and love playing games,” Allen explains. “That activated guest, which is probably the most valuable demographic in the world — this is their paradise, where they get to become a creator, where they get to become a star. This is where they get to live in the world that they expect and demand, so it responds to them like social media does and like video games do.”

A House of Hype experience. 

Allen adds that for such customers, the park unlocks new experiences and possibilities. “There’s a layer to the park that works like a large multiplayer video game,” he reveals. “It’s a very light layer, and it’s not mandatory to the experience, but it’s built for the behavior set of the lean-forward customer, which you’re going to find in gamer culture. So, there’s an opportunity to experience the park by badging in, playing things, engaging in missions/milestones, finding these interesting hidden scavenger hunts, and everything is linked to an application that runs on your phone. The whole thing runs on a game economy like Grand Theft Auto or World of Warcraft, and as you engage in these experiences, we reward you, because we reward engagement. And that engagement can manifest as a loot box or a treasure chest, and inside that treasure chest, you get a virtual currency that you can use to buy food and beverage, you can buy retail, you get little digital collectibles that are nice social media assets.” Another experience, Echo Park, Allen shares, gives visitors the opportunity to make TikTok dance music videos “with about a million dollars-worth of technology.” “What we’re doing is elevating the customer’s experience so they feel like a star, they create better content on social media, we look good, and they’re rewarded,” Allen says. And that feedback loop is real, with Heller telling us that 57 percent of their parks’ customers are acquired through someone else’s user-generated content.

As for the road ahead, the trio believe that HyperSpace’s parks capture the future of physical space, which Allen believes will become increasingly more algorithmically attuned to people, responding to their needs, and “pivoting” in a way that provides the same level of satisfaction as social media provides today. “I think we’re really set up for right now, but we’re not trying to build for now, we’re trying to build for tomorrow, so everything we build is in anticipation of where we see people going.” Allen says. “And that’s a very difficult thing for a lot of legacy organizations or entertainment products that are marching into the future backward. They’re looking back at what they’ve done and saying this worked well in the ‘90s, how do we post-rationalize this experience to feel more relevant to the kids today. Never gonna work, because it’s not purpose-built.”

Left to right: Rama Allen, Alexander Heller, and Desi Gonzalez, co-founders, HyperSpace. 

In fact, Heller compares HyperSpace’s work to “sticking your big toe into the world of the future.” “We’re delivering digital sneakers, digital fashion, you’re competing for an in-world currency, it plays like an in-world video game,” he says. “These are all intentions that touch on the future of physical smart space and touch on the future of loyalty, and the future of gaming assets coming to a physical space.” Gonzalez adds that, because the space is consumer-friendly, it’s really easy to turn on, because its future has already been planned. “So, it’s like we’re like already in the future, but the guests will see the present, and they’ll feel comfortable with what we have now, because it’s mass consumption,” she explains.

And while virtual reality may be celebrated as the future of digital-physical intersection, Allen is of the firm belief that augmented reality will become more integral to our daily lives in the future. For him, entertainment should – and must – relate to the human experience, and augmented reality can serve that in a way that virtual reality cannot. “I think that augmented reality is an inevitable way of spatial computing taking over our experiences,” he says. “It’s a manufactured hallucination in a way that allows me to add additional entertainment and content and experience contextually to anything I’m engaging with. And that part, at the very end, is a sea change.”

So, what’s next for HyperSpace? Heller tells us that, after the launch of House of Hype at Dubai Mall, he and his team intend to pursue two different business strategies. First, they are looking to bring their GCC-born brands to international markets that share Dubai’s future outlook as well as its tourism and consumer numbers. As for the second, Heller tells us that the team is “looking to the city that’s been so great to us, and the region that’s been so great to us, and continuing to build new categories or entertainment here, because we’re quite good at it.” He adds that, in spite of the plethora of products and entertainment spaces in both the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the entertainment ecosystem in the region is “still very ripe for opportunity.”

“Innovation in entertainment has never been at the focal point of the Dubai conversation, but it really should be, because Dubai is an entertainment hub in so many categories, and Dubai is a tourist hub through and through,” Heller says. “Now coupled with Saudi Arabia, where a massive emphasis is being put on entertainment as a pillar of the Saudi vision of what the country should look like, it makes a lot of sense that we are here innovating on what the future of entertainment should look like.” 

Pictured in image from left to right: HyperSpace co-founders Alexander Heller, Rama Allen, and Desi Gonzalez. All photos courtesy of HyperSpace.

This article first appeared in the January/February issue of Inc. Arabia magazine. To read the full issue online, click here.