I built a tool that generates a creator's Media Kit in 60 seconds — here's why it took me months to realize thumbnails weren't the point
I started building what I thought was a thumbnail generator for YouTubers.
Six months and dozens of iterations later, I realized I had built the wrong product — or at least, I was solving the wrong problem first.
Here's what actually happened.
The original idea: AI thumbnails
Every YouTube creator complains about thumbnails. They're hard to make, they take too long, and good design skills feel out of reach for most people. So I built an AI thumbnail tool. It worked. Creators liked it.
But the retention was terrible. People would generate a thumbnail, think "cool," and never come back.
I kept asking myself: why?
The real problem nobody talks about
After talking to creators, I found the actual pain point. It wasn't thumbnails.
It was brand deals.
Mid-tier creators — people with 10k, 50k, even 150k subscribers — were losing sponsorships not because brands didn't want them, but because they looked unprofessional in the outreach process:
No media kit (or a terrible PDF made in Canva 3 months ago with wrong stats)
No idea what to charge
Tracking deals in a WhatsApp thread or a messy spreadsheet
No way for brands to "discover" them and reach out directly
One creator told me: "A brand emailed me, I took 4 days to respond because I was scrambling to put together something to send them. They went with someone else."
That hit hard.
What I rebuilt
I pivoted the entire product around one idea:
A creator connects their YouTube channel. In under 60 seconds, their professional Media Kit is ready — with real channel data, audience stats, pricing, and a public link to send to any brand.
No forms to fill. No templates to customize. No design skills needed.
The system pulls data from YouTube's API, processes the analytics, and generates a shareable Pitch Pack automatically. Brands can view it and even submit proposals directly through the link.
I called it Creator OS — because the thumbnail tool became just one module of a bigger system: video pipeline, brand deal CRM, analytics, and the Media Kit all in one place.
Where it stands today
Platforms: YouTube and Instagram (with Twitch support)
Pricing: Starts at $4.90/month
Live at: usecreator.app
The onboarding flow is the thing I'm most proud of. New user signs up → connects YouTube → sees their Media Kit link in under 90 seconds. No tutorial needed.
The lesson that cost me months
I spent way too long optimizing the feature I built first (thumbnails) instead of talking to users about what was actually blocking them from making money.
The thumbnail generator is still there and works great. But it's not why people stay.
They stay because they landed a brand deal they almost lost — and Creator OS helped them look professional enough to close it.
One thing I'm still figuring out
Distribution. I'm a solo builder. The product works, the tech is solid, but I'm just now starting to think seriously about growth.
If you've built a tool for creators or in the influencer marketing space — I'd genuinely love to hear what worked for you.
And if you're a YouTuber or content creator reading this: your Media Kit is one click away. No Canva required.
Mi è stato molto utile, avevo in mente di creare una roba del genere
This was a great read — especially the part about realizing the thumbnail tool wasn’t the real problem. I’ve had similar moments as a solo builder where the feature I thought mattered ended up being secondary to the actual pain users were feeling. Your insight about creators losing brand deals because they didn’t have a proper media kit really stood out. It’s one of those problems that seems small from the outside but has huge consequences for the people living it.
I also relate to the idea of spending months optimizing the first feature instead of validating the real need. AI helped me build my own SaaS much faster than I expected, but it didn’t replace the hard part: talking to users and understanding what actually moves the needle for them.
Curious how you approached the conversations with creators that led you to the pivot. Were they structured interviews, or more casual chats that revealed patterns over time? And now that Creator OS is live, what’s been your most effective distribution channel so far — or at least the one that feels the least like guessing?
Solid pivot. The "lost the deal because my media kit wasn't ready" story is painful and real. Curious — do creators on your platform ever ask for custom visuals inside their kit? Building svgverseai and wondering if there's overlap between what you're solving and what we generate.
This is a great example of how easy it is to optimize for what users say they want instead of what actually moves the needle for them. Thumbnails feel like the problem, but brand deals are the outcome they really care about. The pivot makes a lot of sense — you didn’t just improve the product, you moved closer to the moment where money is made or lost.
Curious — did anything change in retention immediately after the pivot, or did it take time for users to “get it”?
This is spot on — I’ve seen the same thing, features feel cool but don’t fix the real bottleneck. Turning it into something that helps creators actually close deals is the real win.
Keep up the good work. You got this!! :)
The pivot from a “cool creator tool” to something tied to revenue is real. Once you help people look professional enough to win brand deals, the product becomes more than a utility.
I liked what you said about how retention exposed the real problem, that's a sharp reminder to optimize what makes people stay, not what gets attention.
Hey, I saw your product Multify — really cool idea. I'm building a tool to help indie developers collect testimonials automatically. I'm not selling anything yet, just trying to understand if this is actually a problem people face. Would you mind if I asked you 3 quick questions?
its good
that's so interesting
Well... the user is always in control, not what we think they need and want. Until we die, we are always learning, and mistakes are our greatest teacher. Congratulations...
Exactly! Thank you for your support!
This is a very cool project
Yes! If you want to adopt your routine, I'll give you a discount! 😉
This is a great example of how retention usually points to the real problem faster than feedback does.
The thumbnail tool solved a visible pain, but the media kit solved an economic bottleneck — getting paid. Once revenue is involved, the product moves from “nice tool” to “workflow infrastructure.”
I’ve noticed something similar when building AI automations: users often ask for improvements to the first feature they see, but the real friction sits one layer deeper in the outcome they’re trying to achieve.
Curious — did the pivot come mainly from user interviews, or did you notice behavioral signals first (like usage patterns or drop-off moments) that made you rethink the product direction?
Hello! Thank you for your support!
The changes came about based on interviews with users! We have 230 subscribers, and those who pay can give incredible feedback; honesty is one of the pillars I look for in my users!