Flip employees were riding high in mid-January. The TikTok challenger had just cracked the Apple App Store's top-five ranking. Downloads soared 855% month over month, Sensor Tower data showed, fueled by TikTok's imminent ban in the US.It was a dream scenario for an app that — with over $230 million in funding and a roughly $1.1 billion valuation — promised to reinvent social shopping through a mix of product reviews and entertaining videos. Raging wildfires had forced Flip's CEO, Noor Agha, to evacuate hi ...