dude you really out did yourself. usually i criticize people because their product homepage doesn't tell nor show anything about their product so i'm confused about what it does and how to use it.
YOU... DID.. IT... PERFECTLY
your homepage not only tells me exactly what this does, but shows me to the point where i'm excited to use it. good on you. others should learn from you.
my one thing that i noticed (and this could be a revenue generator for you) is the lack of templates currently. the more templates you have for us noob video editors, the better. not only that, but allowing the community to contribute and/or sell their template would be a HUGE win for you.
This means a lot. I have spent some time getting it down. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears haha.
I agree with the templates. I am trying to allocate my time wisely and I think expanding that will be major.
I am drawing up a way to make it even easier for people to create amazing videos.
When you click "add new video" I plan to make it interactive and guide you along every step.
Your options will be
Do you want to create a video
- from scratch
- from a template
- for your podcast
- for your product
- for your brand
Based on the selection I will walk the user through an simple experience. Have them upload their assets, select a vibe, enter some information, etc. Then generate the video data and put it on the timeline.
I am doing sales, customer support, engineering, and design. So once I can get some runway I will be able to roll it out.
To be honest I hate sales and marketing. I just want to build, and if I can get to ramen profit. Then I can pay people to do what I hate.
So it is pretty intuitive to use. But when I tried to export, it asked for sign up. So I signed up and I was taken to the dashboard where I couldn't find the story I was working on till then. :(
> I agree with the templates. I am trying to allocate my time wisely and I think expanding that will be major.
Maybe worth trying out some "Create and share templates in your free plan, earn upgrades to 3 months worth of Pro plan when 5 other users create with your templates!" kind of crowd sourcing and network effect thing?
1. Are you going to do the sales grind until you find a CEO and sales team who can do that for you?
2. Would you be comfortable in a CTO role, letting a CEO handle the non-technical but knowing they could very well be determining what you should focus on strategically?
man.. huge respect. you did an amazing job here. i have build products almost on my own and know the pain. i know exactly what you mean by blood, sweat and tears :). good luck. hope it takes off well.
Had an issue with sign up via Google, but I got past that and really quickly I was able to build a video!
It's really enjoyable to use. Well done!
...You may have also picked the absolute perfect time to put a product out like this. We're all mostly stuck at home, coming up with great ideas that we want to communicate.
Yeah, I can't think of anything i'd need a video for, but still made one just to see if it works as well as the intro makes it look. And it really does work that well!
One small issue and a small feature request, tho:
- Undo of resizing images should restore it to the size that it was before you started dragging, currently it restores it to a lot of sizes during dragging.
- It would be great if you could switch between different kinds of text effects without having to remove the entire effect and re-enter your text.
[EDIT: found some more small bugs]
- Copy & paste hex colors for text doesn't work b/c it will paste the text element instead
- One time the download link for the video didn't work, it just closed the modal and i had to render it again. Worked fine the next time
All in all very well done! Will definitely be spreading the word about this one!
Nice job! It looks like a ton of effort. What's the tech stack for something like this? All homegrown? I've wanted to mess around with screencast editing but programmatic video stuff in general seems daunting.
I think it really sucks when someone suddenly puts your product on producthunt before you're ready. You only get one chance there so please please producthunt hunters, think about reaching out to creators BEFORE you do this....
This is certainly the first time I've broadcasted it to a larger audience.
Back in April I started cold calling (IG DMs) and got a paying customer. Been working with them closely and I tend to enjoy product more than marketing.
Now I am just saying screw it let's ship and if things break oh well. It's not like I am launching a rocket into space.
I have a loving girlfriend Rachael and another dog Millie. They're extremely supportive.
I am looking to expand the team. Working on getting some angels on the team to put in some capital. So that I can hire people more talented and smarter.
But... "After Effects for dummies" is selling it short. This is a web based video editor! After seeing Figma do it's thing, I was waiting for someone to do it for videos. We're nearing the point where you can do 100% of your work in the web. Keep up the good work!
This is insane. The home page is super clear and the product itself is very slick to use. Good job on defining the right vision on the product and prioritizing the exact set of features to launch with to solve the specific niche problem space (podcast/video promotors on instagram). You seem to have a good handle on feature creep.
tbf, I don't think it's possible to make a 'simple' but valuable video editing app, especially with one person. But I think you made the simplest video editing app that does provide value to a specific market of people. (entrepeneurs and podcasters, who, I might add, are willing to open their wallets easier than the average consumer.) I know this because at first I couldn't find a way to add new layers. But then I realised that for these people, you don't really need multiple video layers. They just want to slap on a progress bar, add a title, and export. To me that showed restraint in the right areas and a good understanding of your customer.
You seem to have an exceptional talent on UI/UX design, development, and marketing. As someone who is trying to do everything himself, and basically do what you just did, I've bookmarked this as inspiration.
I completely agree. I'd love to pay for this on a per-seat basis. $50-100/mo/seat seems about right here.
I also don't know if including storage in the pricing is helpful. It might make more sense to represent that in time. If this is being sold to users too inexperienced to use AE, then the idea of bitrates and pixel resolutions probably will be foreign to them. But time is something everyone knows and can easily reason about.
You might also experiment with completely removing that restriction. Storage is cheap and hosting video isn't really a huge value add. The features and functionality are the real selling point, so price on those things and the real value you offer to users.
First you are right, pricing will go up. As I add more assets (animated text 100+, templates 100+, progress bars and other elements 100+) I will raise the price. Early adopters will be grandfathered in for life.
I think adjusting the pricing based on your feed is very appropriate, makes a lot of sense and its giving me a lot of ideas.
Or let people bring their own s3 and pay for the storage and bandwidth themselves. With video bandwidth and storage can kill your cost structure really fast.
This product will most likely also sell with a higher price, but for an initial launch I would recommend keeping prices low.
What you want is to learn if your product is something people are willing to pay for. Once that is established, you can tune the pricing to increase the revenue.
I was excited to see at least some AE features in the browser or more-than-beginner type editing -- but it's more akin to iMovie or a basic templated editor? Impressive nevertheless for one person to bootstrap, congrats.
I came to say the same thing. If you're going to compare yourself to AE, then you better bring some heavy hitting features. The iMovie comparison is exactly what I was thinking. It's a FisherPrice "baby's first NLE". That sounds a lot harsher than I mean for it to be, but it is apropos.
People that have never used an editor and wants to get into it, then this very well may be an amazing option for them. For $32/mo though, that's a big ask. For $50/mo you can have access to the full Adobe suite, and this is but a fraction of that.
I wish you well, and it definitely looks like you've spent a lot of hard work on this. Just don't try to compare yourself to something you're clearly not trying to be.
PS: that's the royal you, not directing at the parent
You can't just compare it by saying "$50/mo gets you the full Adobe Suite" -- there's a hidden cost there. Yes, you get access to the full Adobe Suite of software, but there's a huge learning curve that comes with that and dozens (hundreds?) of hours of learning required to get good.
This tool seems pretty much effortless to learn and use. There's intrinsic value in that.
I needed to get an MVP out and start figuring out ways to make money before I completely go into debt.
My goals for the future are to give more customization to the motion graphics and to feature some of the core elements a professional in hurry will need. Nothing too complex but just right.
You can also think of it being a mix with other types of video editing tools. I do plan to roll out keyframe animations when I get some cashflow. I am excited for that.
I would consider pinging a yc partner with this page—you’ve definitely got the chops and have a great product on your hands. Think a lot of folks would be up to take a chance on you.
Makes sense if vc is not up your alley, but IMO its all win at least until seed
You are probably familiar with crello and canva. Alot of companies use these tools.
If your tool would have keyframes and a bezier editor (like cubic-bezier.com) I would instantly migrate to your tool.
I guess for some customers stock footage is also important - but there you could just partner up with istock etc.
Other things I would hope to see in such a SaaS for marketing motion graphics is:
- Motion Blur
- gradient with multiple points
- basic css styles (dropshadow etc)
In the pricing section I see there's a limit on videos. Is this a monthly limit or total limit. For example, free tier says 5 videos, is that 5 per month?
I am still experimenting with the pricing and do have paying customers.
I find the average user needs anywhere between 5 videos a month to 10. These are serious users who are consistent with their posting and are making a return.
Those who are learning and new to the content game can get a few videos rendered per month to see if it's for them.
Agencies are a different persona though and they would most likely need more than 10.
Yeah. I think this is a known bug. Most likely if you dont move the trimmer or try and trim the whole clip messes up the FFMPEG command.
Hasnt effected paying users yet, so it's lower priority, but will be addressed soon.
I am thinking about improving that UX. Instead of immediately prompting the user to trim. This will be in the toolbar as a "tool". So if you want to trim a podcast episode you can, that is the main use case, so it might make the most sense this way.
I slapped this in quickly because I was targeted podcasters for the first few customers and this was a critical tool to have.
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dude you really out did yourself. usually i criticize people because their product homepage doesn't tell nor show anything about their product so i'm confused about what it does and how to use it.
YOU... DID.. IT... PERFECTLY
your homepage not only tells me exactly what this does, but shows me to the point where i'm excited to use it. good on you. others should learn from you.
my one thing that i noticed (and this could be a revenue generator for you) is the lack of templates currently. the more templates you have for us noob video editors, the better. not only that, but allowing the community to contribute and/or sell their template would be a HUGE win for you.
I agree with the templates. I am trying to allocate my time wisely and I think expanding that will be major.
I am drawing up a way to make it even easier for people to create amazing videos.
When you click "add new video" I plan to make it interactive and guide you along every step.
Your options will be
Do you want to create a video
- from scratch - from a template - for your podcast - for your product - for your brand
Based on the selection I will walk the user through an simple experience. Have them upload their assets, select a vibe, enter some information, etc. Then generate the video data and put it on the timeline.
I am doing sales, customer support, engineering, and design. So once I can get some runway I will be able to roll it out.
To be honest I hate sales and marketing. I just want to build, and if I can get to ramen profit. Then I can pay people to do what I hate.
Maybe worth trying out some "Create and share templates in your free plan, earn upgrades to 3 months worth of Pro plan when 5 other users create with your templates!" kind of crowd sourcing and network effect thing?
1. Are you going to do the sales grind until you find a CEO and sales team who can do that for you?
2. Would you be comfortable in a CTO role, letting a CEO handle the non-technical but knowing they could very well be determining what you should focus on strategically?
Had an issue with sign up via Google, but I got past that and really quickly I was able to build a video!
It's really enjoyable to use. Well done!
...You may have also picked the absolute perfect time to put a product out like this. We're all mostly stuck at home, coming up with great ideas that we want to communicate.
I hope it takes off.
Watch this space!
Sometimes that Google button can be a weirdo. What was the issue? Was it disabled for a moment?
There is something happening internally within the button component. I think it's looking for something inside the cookies. Not entirely sure.
Glad it worked out though.
One small issue and a small feature request, tho:
- Undo of resizing images should restore it to the size that it was before you started dragging, currently it restores it to a lot of sizes during dragging.
- It would be great if you could switch between different kinds of text effects without having to remove the entire effect and re-enter your text.
[EDIT: found some more small bugs]
- Copy & paste hex colors for text doesn't work b/c it will paste the text element instead
- One time the download link for the video didn't work, it just closed the modal and i had to render it again. Worked fine the next time
All in all very well done! Will definitely be spreading the word about this one!
Hoping my efforts pay off.
Hit up Courtland at Indie Hackers. He has a podcast and your story would be a perfect fit.
Should help drive some traffic your way as well
I wonder how many guests get featured on there from cold outreach. It would be worth a shot. I enjoy being a guest on podcasts.
I am using React.js to build the UI and manage state.
Using FFMPEG and a combination of other rendering techniques on the backend.
Shout outs to
Vercel AWS React team
Dropped it on producthunt, hope you get some boost there!
Can I buy you a coffee or lunch? Hit me up on Twitter @michaelaubry that is very thoughtful of you :)
(Is this the first release)
Back in April I started cold calling (IG DMs) and got a paying customer. Been working with them closely and I tend to enjoy product more than marketing.
Now I am just saying screw it let's ship and if things break oh well. It's not like I am launching a rocket into space.
Blood, time, sweat, and a lot of tears. Your words mean a lot to me, just to hear this after 10 months of grind is a happy feeling.
I am ready to get back to work though. The grind don't stop, just getting started.
I have a loving girlfriend Rachael and another dog Millie. They're extremely supportive.
I am looking to expand the team. Working on getting some angels on the team to put in some capital. So that I can hire people more talented and smarter.
Deleted Comment
But... "After Effects for dummies" is selling it short. This is a web based video editor! After seeing Figma do it's thing, I was waiting for someone to do it for videos. We're nearing the point where you can do 100% of your work in the web. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for for the support :)
If I didn't have great people in my life then I would be stuck on a never ending feature rabbit hole.
When I start my next company I plan to have more balance between MVP, user interviews, pre sales, business metrics, market research, etc.
This venture was purely intuition and a major desire to build this :)
The great thing is I love building this product.
You seem to have an exceptional talent on UI/UX design, development, and marketing. As someone who is trying to do everything himself, and basically do what you just did, I've bookmarked this as inspiration.
I also don't know if including storage in the pricing is helpful. It might make more sense to represent that in time. If this is being sold to users too inexperienced to use AE, then the idea of bitrates and pixel resolutions probably will be foreign to them. But time is something everyone knows and can easily reason about.
You might also experiment with completely removing that restriction. Storage is cheap and hosting video isn't really a huge value add. The features and functionality are the real selling point, so price on those things and the real value you offer to users.
First you are right, pricing will go up. As I add more assets (animated text 100+, templates 100+, progress bars and other elements 100+) I will raise the price. Early adopters will be grandfathered in for life.
I think adjusting the pricing based on your feed is very appropriate, makes a lot of sense and its giving me a lot of ideas.
I know you want to encourage, but After Effects is "only" $20/mth.
What you want is to learn if your product is something people are willing to pay for. Once that is established, you can tune the pricing to increase the revenue.
People that have never used an editor and wants to get into it, then this very well may be an amazing option for them. For $32/mo though, that's a big ask. For $50/mo you can have access to the full Adobe suite, and this is but a fraction of that.
I wish you well, and it definitely looks like you've spent a lot of hard work on this. Just don't try to compare yourself to something you're clearly not trying to be.
PS: that's the royal you, not directing at the parent
This tool seems pretty much effortless to learn and use. There's intrinsic value in that.
I needed to get an MVP out and start figuring out ways to make money before I completely go into debt.
My goals for the future are to give more customization to the motion graphics and to feature some of the core elements a professional in hurry will need. Nothing too complex but just right.
You can also think of it being a mix with other types of video editing tools. I do plan to roll out keyframe animations when I get some cashflow. I am excited for that.
Makes sense if vc is not up your alley, but IMO its all win at least until seed
If your tool would have keyframes and a bezier editor (like cubic-bezier.com) I would instantly migrate to your tool.
I guess for some customers stock footage is also important - but there you could just partner up with istock etc.
Other things I would hope to see in such a SaaS for marketing motion graphics is: - Motion Blur - gradient with multiple points - basic css styles (dropshadow etc)
I am still experimenting with the pricing and do have paying customers.
I find the average user needs anywhere between 5 videos a month to 10. These are serious users who are consistent with their posting and are making a return.
Those who are learning and new to the content game can get a few videos rendered per month to see if it's for them.
Agencies are a different persona though and they would most likely need more than 10.
Minor nit: hitting backspace to delete a clip (pretty common in editing apps) forces the browser to go back.
You might also want to catch other types 'leave page' events and ask for confirmation so that the user doesn't lose their work accidentally.
I promised myself and my startup friends I wouldn't touch code until I handled doing marketing and sales.
It's on the backlog now, thanks for letting me know. This feedback goes along way :)
Hasnt effected paying users yet, so it's lower priority, but will be addressed soon.
I am thinking about improving that UX. Instead of immediately prompting the user to trim. This will be in the toolbar as a "tool". So if you want to trim a podcast episode you can, that is the main use case, so it might make the most sense this way.
I slapped this in quickly because I was targeted podcasters for the first few customers and this was a critical tool to have.