Yes we were working with a company that was doing a great job but barely staying afloat, so I hired some of the team, and the rest had a soft landing. Then built from there. Was a conscious decision to vertically integrate this.
Yeah so the Ursa is around $5K. And just FYI the 12K Ursa dropped from about $11K to about $6K a few months after launch, so just be aware that that kind of thing happens. A new ARRI is $20 to $30K although I haven't looked lately. Also RED is very expensive. So with Ursas you get 14.5 stops of dynamic range, raw and the Resolve workflow which braw integrates into beautifully. You essentially have Hollywood quality gear for a fraction of the price, and you're using the same color grading workflow that Hollywood actually uses - since Resolve is the standard for color grading for big films. And the grade is really where you figure out how good your camera actually is - and since the folks who make the grading software make the cameras and developed the partial debayered raw format they use, the product you get is pretty damn good!
Now lenses are a different story. We standardized on Canon cine lenses which work great on the Ursas - and the cameras are adaptable to PL mount if you ever want to rent lenses.
Just a final note. I know a lot of folks reading this are budget concious. Don't make the mistake of getting a nice collection of Sony E mount lenses or another mirrorless standard with a short flange distance. You will not be able to use those lenses on many other cameras that have lens adapters because the flange distance is too small - so you simply can't adapt them. Standardize on a lens with a big flange distance that is adaptable to a lot of cameras if you move from renting to actually buying lenses. Canon Cine lenses are great - but Canon L lenses are also bloody good and excellent value for money. For example the f1.2 50mm prime is a brilliant multi use film lenses that you can use on the Ursa and get amazing results - and it's quite a bit cheaper than a cine lens and uses the same mount as the cine lenses. Because the L lenses have the same mount, you can do some pretty crazy shit like putting a f4.0 600mm prime on an Ursa and shoot film with it. Try finding a cine lens like that!