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Cristian Villamarin

Co-founder, Flipd

Digital wellness

Cristian Villamarin co-founded Flipd, the Toronto app that locks users out of distracting apps so they can focus. The Globe and Mail reported in 2018 that Flipd launched in 2015 after he gave his teenage younger brother a first smartphone. BrainStation identified him as Flipd's CEO in 2017, when angel investors backed the company.

Cristian hasn’t spoken on a TechTO, TechVancouver or TechWaterloo stage. This profile is here because Cristian co-founded Flipd, which appears in 1 talk in the archive.

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Quick answers

What company did Cristian Villamarin co-found?

Flipd, a Toronto digital wellness app. The Globe and Mail (2018-06-17) called him Flipd's co-founder, and a case study from financing provider Braavo (2020-04-22) names Alanna Harvey and Cristian Villamarin as Flipd's co-founders.

Why did he start Flipd?

BetaKit reported on 2015-05-06, shortly after the app launched in late February 2015, that the idea came when Villamarin, then Flipd's creative director, gave his younger brother an iPod touch after middle school and watched him stop going outside to play. The Globe and Mail (2018-06-17) reported that the first beta was an Android parental-control app, and that the co-founders refocused on students after noticing students were using it to limit their own phone use.

How was Flipd funded?

BrainStation reported on 2017-08-23 that Flipd, with Villamarin as CEO, raised angel funding from the founders of Figure 1 and Candice Faktor of Faktory Ventures, and that he said revenue had more than doubled over the previous year. Braavo's case study (2020-04-22) says Flipd later used Braavo's revenue-based financing and reached profitability within a few months; Braavo is the lender, so those figures are vendor-reported.

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Maintained by TechTO · facts sourced and dated · last reviewed Sep 19, 2026