Xavatar founder and CEO Jason P. Rothberg gets animated about his amazing journey from L.A. to the wilds of Kerry, and how the pandemic saw him create a tech start up with 'multiversal' potential...
I arrived in Ireland on a dark, rainy-day in Feb 2018… Los Angeles had become a hostile and at times scary place to be. Unlike the LA I was born in, the division between hate and love was deep and continuing to divide. With the bulk of my background entrenched in human rights and environmental work, I couldn't stomach seeing the homeless problem, and poverty levels hitting an all-time high… then when Trump was elected, it just seemed to be too much.
So, my wife and I packed up and moved "home" - well at least for her folks, Donovan and Linda Leitch. Yes, until recently my wife was Astrella, daughter of legendary singer/songwriter and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Donovan. Mr. Mellow Yellow, the Sunshine Superman himself. Astrella has worked with her father since she was 7 years old, singing and performing alongside him, now she is very active with his archive, focusing on remakes of his songs for film and TV placement. Making the move to Ireland that much easier…
As I mentioned, it was a dark and rainy day that greeted us at Dublin International and I knew the second I got off the plane that this was home. Living in a desert all my life, the rain was an instant healing welcome, washing away the negative energy absorbed from my big city life.
The first three months living in Ireland were interesting, staying with my in-laws, who so graciously welcomed us into the family home, an old rectory in Co Cork on a nice size plot of land with a church and graveyard. Just right for Donovan and Linda, who still live that 60s lifestyle, actively speaking out for environmental health, vegetarians, mediators, yoga masters, and most of all, creatives.
Three months under the same roof was a blessing and motivator - mostly motivating me to find work in Ireland and get our own place.
By month four, we had found heaven in a town named Kenmare and work came easy, as the level of musical talent on this island was and still is mind-blowing. I started working with artists, booking shows for some locals, starting with Astrella's nephew Joolz Jones, but mostly trying to set up tours for my friends from America and the UK: Andy Summers from The Police, Milfredo Seven from EMF, Neville Staple from The Specials... Which lead me to my now good friend and Dublin-based talent booker, Mark Downing at AMA Music. Mark reps some great Irish acts including Paddy Casey, Blindboy, and many others. I am proud to say during this time I also had the pleasure to work with the likes of Sir Bob Geldof, Aslan, DJ John Gibbons, Paddy Casey, and Stephanie Rainey.
Just as things seemed to be taking off for my now new management and promotion company, an old friend named Paul Eyers from LA contacted me about a film he was producing, an Irish-based production called Fairytale. He needed my help to build its soundtrack, leading to my first connection with film star Colin O'Donoghue, who played the lead in this film.
By this point, I had truly fallen in love with the Irish, the culture, the locations, the music, food and wildlife… but most of all how kind and caring the Irish are. Colin brings a whole new level to this - truly talented as an actor and musician, who has hit the highest of highs in his field yet is unaffected by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Something I’ve rarely seen in my 30 years in the business.
Everything was flying by the time we finished Fairytale and then the pandemic hit… crushing the music and film industry. By the end of the first year, I was bouncing off the walls wishing my phone would ring with work, with only the local deer to spend time with…
Then Fairytale producer Paul Eyers reached out again, this time asking if I had ever been on Clubhouse. I had not heard of the app and was reluctant to join as I'm not much on public speaking, but boredom got the best of me, and I accepted his invitation.
At first, I was impressed with the concept of all these rooms hosting so many diverse topics, led by "experts". By the second week of hanging out and listening to some of these conversations I went from curious to frustrated, directly to angry. I was witnessing the worst of the industry, the dream stealers, coming to feed on the most venerable of us.
Rooms where the host would say "pay me 100k and I’ll raise you 5mil for your film and get you a Netflix-approved director" or in the music rooms, people who have never been music supervisors or film producers offering to help unknown songwriters secure syncs - all for a fee, of course.
Being the Leo Dog that I am, I couldn’t just walk away… so I started my room. A room where I would unite my friends and contacts to share experience in film and music production while spotlighting indie filmmakers looking for music for their current productions. Allowing our audience to submit their music for these sync ops at no cost to them.
Meanwhile, during the pandemic, the world had shifted to Zoom and video conferencing. I was being invited to be part of industry webinars and panels, but I would notoriously turn these offers down until I received an offer to take part in one for the Cannes Film Festival… for a plethora of reasons, I really don’t like video calls. Mostly I just don’t like staring at myself and well, I deal with some mental health issues left over from an abusive childhood that still play a factor in my life.
But there was no way I was going to miss out on Cannes.
Thankfully, I had been developing an animated film with my now two partners and co-founders of Xavatar, Kevin Sharpley and Gianfranco Bianchi. Kev is an award-winning filmmaker based in Miami, who is also a true visionary who brought a vital concept to the avatar creation, metaverse (but that’s for another story). G is one of the great visual artists of his generation with a keen knowledge of AR, AV, animations, and tech.
So, I reach out to G and tell him my dilemma: that I need his help to create a real-time reactionary avatar for Zoom calls. In less than four weeks G had a working prototype and my zoom at Cannes was a massive success; the reaction from the filmmakers and the audience was mind-blowing, and immediately I knew we had a business. That’s when I called in Kev to join the team.
Together we would form Xavatar, me as CEO, Kev as COO, and G as CCO.
About this time we turn the show into a podcast, which seemed like fun - that was before I knew how much work was involved! We created a real format for our show, bringing in industry luminaries for an interview, followed by the sync sessions - our team had that morning radio banter thing, which is so much fun and a lot of laughs.
This is about the time I invite Rose Ganguzza (the Godmother of indie film) to our show as a featured guest - her story is epic, and the interview was amazing. In fact, after she contacted me right after saying she loved what we were doing and wanted to be a part of it. I immediately asked her to join me as a host, and within weeks she had an offer from an aggregator for Apple TV, wanting to turn our new podcast into a TV series. Due to my anxiety about being on camera, I went into a spiral, knowing this could be great for the brand, but also knowing I couldn't deliver…
Then the lightbulb moment happened - the Xavatar avatars could also do real-time animation. They would be the stars of our series. The show becomes our proof of concept.
The team led by G and Kev are masters in animation, so the bridge was easy to cross and soon the show and Xavatar were connected. Knowing we would need support and funding, and as both were created and are now rooted in Ireland, I started to reach out to local government agencies to gain knowledge and create relationships.
Quickly we were being offered introductions to accelerators and grants. We were accepted into one at Trinity College Dublin, Hubstart, and New Frontiers. Giving us access to some amazing mentors and academics, building relationships with the likes of Breandan Gross (Tangent at Trinity), Alan Costello (New Frontiers mentor), John O Dea (Tech Ireland), and Dr. Colin Keogh Ph.D. who have helped us to understand business development here in Ireland.
With all the heat behind us, I knew we needed a "star" to join Rose and me as host - that’s when I reached out to Colin O’Donoghue, who (as I said) is a brilliant actor and musician. Plus, he is Irish. The perfect host for our would-be show. Colin got it immediately and joined the team as Executive Producer and lead host.
Now a little over a year in development, Ireland has truly become home. Giving us the love and nourishment, we needed to build our runway. In the coming weeks we will be announcing our US TV network partners, with plans to launch the series in Fall 2023.
We launched our first NFTs at Trinity College as part of BlockChain Ireland and settled into our offices at the RDI Hub in Killorglin as well as in London, with plans to open offices in the States and Switzerland in the coming months.
The future is bright and without moving to Ireland on that dark rainy day, none of these would be happening.
Find out more about Xavatar here.
