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Just hit #1 on Product Hunt AMA!

Indie Hackers, after months of blood, sweat, and tears. I finally launched my video editing tool on Product Hunt.

Check it out and let me know what you think. I am getting caffeinated and ready to kick some ass.

LETS HIT #1!

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/story-creator-2

  1. 4

    Just hit #1. LETS GOOO!

    Time to lock it in and finish strong.

  2. 3

    Congratulations! What is the difference between storycreator and veed.io?

    1. 2

      They're a great product and team.

      I am focused more on motion graphics, i.e animated text, animated elements for social media like lower thirds, swipe-up motion elements, motion elements that are great for social media.

      I am inspired by traditional design tools like Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator, and some new design tools like Figma and Canva.

      So my goal is to make it easy to design video and offer full creative power while keeping the UX as easy and intuitive as possible.

      Lastly where I want to add users the most amount of value is in having a marketplace of assets and templates ready to use in one click.

      Combine incredible UX, with collaborative features, and a massive library of elements for beautiful videos, then you have a really useful product.

      Then down the line, I plan to get into some automation, think integrations with Zapier, and some API based features.

  3. 2

    Congrats, your tool looks really cool!

    One small nitpick/feedback for your landing page: there is a lot of content flashing on load. Initially the hero button says "go to dashboard" then changes into "unpload content".

    1. 1

      Yup the user data is fetched locally. It would be best to check for the user using SSR. From a UX, not the best, but sometimes it's ok when you need to move the needle forward to sacrifice some things.

      I plan to optimize that soon though. Good catch, you have a good eye -- I can appreciate that.

      1. 1

        At first I thought it was some A/B testing that changes the page to the B version.

        What you could do is change the default case, instead of starting with logged-in user UI, set the default version to the guest version, as this is the one you want to optimize for at this point (bring in new users). This means that new users won't see the flash, but existing users might see it. You could fix it even further and just store in localStorage for existing users that they are logged in, and this way you render directly the correct version on every visit for existing users too.

  4. 2

    Excellent stuff! what a milestone! @storycreator💪

    1. 1

      Whooh! Lets goooo! Thanks for the support

    1. 2

      Love it. Thanks for the support

  5. 2

    Really cool! Curious if you share how you built the technology behind editing videos in the browser? Are you using a video editing package or something you custom built. Does it render the videos in browser or do you have to do that server side?

    Also curious what kind of limitations have you run into with editing in the browser. I know video editing software can be resource heavy. Are you limited to length of video and resolution due to being a browser app?

    1. 1

      Rendering is mostly offloaded to a server. Honestly, that makes the most sense to me as it allows you to stay productive on your computer while rendering is happening.

      Not only that, it also allows you to get notified asynchronously on any device with a link to the rendered video.

      So you can press render, get in your car, and drive. Then get notified when the video is done and post on social media.

      1. 1

        That is smart. I think it would be neat to see the tech behind it if you would share.

  6. 2

    Congrats! I know you’ve been working hard at this for a while, so it’s awesome to see your success! Keep it up!

    1. 2

      Thanks Steven. Great to have your support, I think you shared some growth ideas a while back. I am learning so much and thanks to the community I have become just a little bit better. A better founder, a better product designer, a better salesperson, a better marketer, and a better person.

      Can't thank you guys enough.

      1. 1

        Of course! We're all here to help one another. Always feel free to reach out if you need feedback, help or support!

  7. 2

    Hi @storycreator I was checking the site out (interested) and saw that the lifetime deal page doesn’t render well on mobile, left and right sides are cut off and not zoom able.

    Path.. click through to the lifetime offer, secure my spot, you show the instructions in a video, secure my spot again where I’m guessing it’s account creation but locked zoom.

    Will continue checking things out!

    1. 2

      Never mind, just saw the site itself isn’t really made for mobile, I’ll check it out on my desktop later!

      1. 1

        Yeah not optimized for mobile. I have kept it in mind but it's not on the roadmap yet as the mobile browsers make it hard to manipulate video on the phone.

        The foundation is there and I am considering hacking the browser to render each frame of the video frame by frame or building a native app.

        In the meantime with limited resources, I am focused on the desktop. Thanks for checking it out. I would love to have you on board.

        1. 1

          It's really quite nice. There's only two missing features that I can tell:

          1. Ability to change the layer of a video
          2. Ability to put a shape behind a video, or to make the background of a shape transparent (ie to add a frame to a video).

          This is phenomenal work. Lifetime account snagged :)

        2. 1

          Dude, no worries at all. It was a false alert, I was checking things out on mobile is all. Quite happy to look on my desktop, I don't edit on my phone ;)

  8. 2

    Good work on getting it out, stoked for you to reach that moment of realisation. Onwards and upwards

    1. 1

      To infinity and beyond. Thanks for the kind words Mike -- great name BTW haha.

  9. 2

    Just upvoted. Storycreator looks amazing. Congrats, Michael! What has been the most enjoyable part of the process so far?

    1. 1

      Good question.

      I would say it's uncomfortable all the time and because of it, I think that has expanded my perspective on life. So the life lessons you get are incredibly rewarding.

      Being able to contribute and build technology for humans and not a boss has also been incredibly rewarding. It's a narrative much more aligned with my heart and the only way to have it aligned to the heart is by following the former.

      1. 1

        I can imagine Story Creator pushed you outside your comfort zone. You chose an ambitious project!

        I agree, working on your own tech business is very satisfying. Being in control over your day-to-day is the best.

        Good luck with everything. I know that building a SaaS is tough and it takes a lot of thought. If you ever need a sounding board, don't hesitate to reach out.

  10. 2

    Congrats! Great product!

    1. 1

      Thanks for the kind words :)

  11. 2

    Congratulations on the launch! Huge accomplishment.

    1. 1

      Whew, thanks. Just getting started!

  12. 2

    Awesome stuff Michael - we've used your product before and will definitely use it again. Upvoted - congrats!

    1. 1

      Nice, that's awesome to hear. Thanks for the support :)

  13. 2

    Wooohoooo!!! Way to go, ma dude!!! How do you feel?

    1. 2

      I feel amazing. I went to bed feeling good -- a bit nervous about the server crashing and losing the momentum. However, waking up to all the love truly warms my heart. I couldn't have done this without the support of you guys. Absolutely the best community on the internet.

  14. 2

    Congratulations Michael! That's gotta be super exhilariting to see your product at #1. Upvoted, commented & shared with my social media manager friends :)

    Would you mind sharing a little bit of your pre-PH strategy? Did you send out an email? Recruit friends & family? Blow up twitter?

    I'm hoping to launch in about 4 weeks and would love to learn from your experience!

    Congrats again!

    1. 2

      Congrats Michael! Your UI is beautiful and your product seams to flow and be seamless!!

      I'd like to follow this thread, as I'm launching soon as well :)

      1. 2

        hey guys! My email is [email protected]. Make sure to notify me whenever you launch. I will upvote!

        Leave me your email and I will ask back for the fav :)

        1. 1

          Thank you Gonzalo! I will! I was curious, so I had a look at ABtesting.ai, I've bookmarked it and I'll try it as well in month to a/b test some of the copy of my landing. I'm super curious about the AI generated variations!

          1. 1

            That's great! You can just throw a landing page in the demo and you will get some variants in seconds. Most time they work as inspiration to write new copy.

      2. 1

        Awesome words, that means a lot. Let me know if you have any questions about Product Hunt. I am happy to help.

        1. 2

          Thanks Michel! I can start with a really easy one, would you recommend Ship Pro (for the Product Hunt upcoming page)?
          https://www.producthunt.com/ship

          1. 1

            No

            Sure you can create a page -- that's fine. Just my 2 cents, I could be wrong but here is my take.

            When building your personal brand amongst communities it's a give and take. Your ask ratio should be lower than your give ratio. The more social capital you take the less you will have when it matters.

            I think if you spend effort asking folks to do an action for Ship, then you have to reask them in the future to get them to take the action that matters the most. That is two asks and not even needed.

            Spend your time giving value in cool high-value communities. Give more than you ask. Share your product journey, then on launch day get folks pumped up and include them in on the journey. Make it collective and fun as hell.

            1. 1

              Make total sens! Thank you Michel, those are valuable insight!!!

    2. 1

      Good question.

      Build a small community as early as possible. Support the hell out of your community -- within reason, you're busy, but do show up.

      Doing cool things and having a cool story really helps. You will be in darkness acquiring new skills and things don't happen overnight.

      However, there are moments where it's time to share. Share your learnings to your small audience, keep progressing, then big wins will accelerate within your community, and expand your reach.

      Keep hitting small milestones weekly. Hit minor milestones monthly. Keep your community in the loop, offer support back.

      Then on launch day make sure your product is as good as possible. Then reach out to the world by telling your story and involving everyone in on the journey.

      Stay engaged and create a flywheel as early as possible. I still have 8 hours to go, so nothing is locked in yet.

      I am going to keep the flywheel going and going to optimize for conversions.

      Cheers

      1. 1

        So helpful, thanks for taking time to share with us. Community is key 💙

  15. 2

    Congrats man..
    Today i have also launched, but at #20.

    Any suggestion, how to bring people or just say about yours, if you want to.

    1. 1

      Be more annoying haha -- only half-joking.

      Focus on telling a good genuine story to everyone you know on Twitter, on Facebook, in Email, in real life.

      First, hook them in with something interesting, tell a compelling story, then give them an action to take. Invite them on your journey to take part.

      Rinse and repeat until the flywheel kicks in. Then keep the momentum up.

      Nailing this at 12:00 am is important.

  16. 2

    Congrats, look great! How much time did you invest to your PH launch?

    1. 1

      Good question.

      I've been nervous about it for a while, to be honest. I wanted things to be "right". I am glad I waited until the product was in good condition. However, I still didn't "feel" ready this week.

      I just made sure all the features I recently pushed were in production and were well tested. Once I had confidence there I decided it was time to do it.

      You won't ever feel ready. Do make sure your product is good and is stable, but once you have that confidence don't allow yourself to talk yourself out of it -- just do it.

      Once I was in this mindset I spent most of the day yesterday testing for bugs. Then I shot a quick video an optimized for lifetime deal conversions.

      Later in the evening, I made the GIF. Then about 1-2 hours out I made the images/video for Product Hunt. Then I created my statement 10 min before the launch.

  17. 2

    Upvoted! The product looks amazing. One question: what software did you use to create the video on the homepage ?
    Thanks

    1. 1

      https://storycreatorapp.com haha

      Well, some of the videos are using it. The demo I just used CloudApp, they have a screen recording tool where you can outline what you want to record.

      I used FFMPEG to compress it and create a .webm version.

  18. 2

    Well done, congrats! Looks like an amazing product!

  19. 1

    I come after the battle, but still upvoted story creator 👌 Keep up the good work Michael!
    And if you want to subscribe to tabby.us 's ship list, be our guest ;) - it's an AI-based plugin that removes your inactive tabs automatically and silently to boost your focus online.
    Happy friday!

  20. 0

    Nice Michael and congrats! Plausible Analytics launched on there today as well!

    https://www.producthunt.com/posts/plausible-analytics

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  22. 2

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 2

      That was certainly tough and it will always be tough.

      Generally, I would have an idea for a type of video I wanted to create or a user wanted to create.

      I would break down the video and figure out what features/techniques were needed to achieve that video type. Then I would think of features needed to achieve that while also being able to achieve other things as well.

      I would get inspiration from other products and traditional video editors make it obvious what features are needed, but sometimes they can be unintuitive. I wanted to take the essential features that help users get to the goal with a familiar experience.

      Then I wanted to make things more friendly, fun, and less intimidating.

      Each day I would just try to chip away at a basic outcome that I thought would be cool.

      • I wake up each day between 9:00 am-10:00 am
      • Take a cold shower
      • Brew coffee
      • Write down three most important tasks that will move the needle forward
      • Use the Pomodoro technique and work in a flow state for 1-2 hours at a time
      • Don't go to sleep until the tasks are done

      I've certainly made mistakes along the way, building things that weren't really needed. Not talking to users more often.

      One thing I don't regret is following my intuition and just going for it. Not every day is perfect. You just gotta keep moving forward and chipping away.

      Also, become a user of your own product, it helps you prioritize. Then at a certain point, you need to talk to users and figure out which tasks are going to help you get some cash in the door and exposure.

      Combine your vision, customer pain, getting cash. Then you will have a fairly solid map.

      Cheers

      1. 2

        This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

        1. 1

          Basically it enforces working in blocks, then you get a quick break, then you go back to the blocked time.

          1. 1

            This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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