Before I launch VibeCutter: is auto-cutting OBS Shorts on emotion a real problem?
Hey IH 👋
I'm building VibeCutter — a macOS app for people who stream through OBS and later waste time turning their best reactions into Shorts.
How it works (simple version):
You stream as usual. VibeCutter watches your camera, detects triggers (smile, surprise, mic peak, or manual button), waits your timing, grabs OBS replay buffer, and exports a 9:16 MP4 cropped to your face on the OBS scene — not the middle of the full screen capture.
Everything runs locally on Mac (Apple Silicon). No cloud. No upload.
Site: https://vibecutter-mac.netlify.app/
I'm not here to sell yet. I want to validate the idea before launch.
3 honest questions:
- Is this a real pain? Do you actually struggle to turn stream moments into TikTok / YouTube Shorts / Reels after going live?
- Who is this for — and who is it NOT for? I think: OBS streamers, face cam, replay buffer on, Mac M-series. Am I wrong?
- What's missing? What would stop you from using it?
- Emotion triggers feel gimmicky?
- Need Windows?
- Price (~€50 lifetime)?
- Want direct upload to platforms?
- Prefer CapCut / DaVinci workflow?
Brutal feedback welcome. I'd rather fix the product now than launch to silence.
Thanks 🙏
— Alexander
Trending on Indie Hackers
This is a good pre-launch question, but I’d be careful with how you validate it.
The risk is not whether clipping streams is painful. It clearly can be. The risk is asking too broad a streamer audience and getting answers from people who were never going to use this workflow anyway.
For VibeCutter, the first validation decision matters more than the feature list: who feels the pain sharply enough, at the right moment, to pay for removing it.
I wouldn’t solve that loosely in the thread because the buyer, trigger, and test need to line up.
If you’re open to it, share your email and I’ll put the tighter validation path together properly.
Really appreciate this — you're right that "streamers" is too broad and a yes in a poll isn't the same as someone who'd actually pay.
What I'm hearing so far (early, n=small): the people who feel pain aren't necessarily struggling with cropping anymore — many have CapCut templates or Resolve presets. The gap is more about catching moments they miss (forgot replay hotkey, or AI clip tools skipping reactions) while keeping OBS scenes untouched.
I'd love to tighten validation around that narrower slice instead of generic OBS users.
Happy to connect — you can reach me at [email protected]. Or DM me here if that's easier.
Thanks again for calling this out before launch.
Sent you a note by email. Main thing is validating the specific missed-moment pain before treating VibeCutter as a broad streamer tool.