Raised $600k and rebranded to Motionbox
So while I've built an awesome technology I was running out of money and managed to raise some capital.
I am still technically an indiehacker, I did hire 3 people to be a part of the Motionbox team -- formerly Story Creator.
We've pivoted to truly become the Figma for video. Currently, in the tool https://motionbox.io you can collaborate with friends and teammates.
I haven't been active on here lately and wanted to drop in with some updates. Happy to answer any questions around raising money and to talk about growth for Motionbox.
Also looking for some volunteers to do a 10-minute beta test, I would love to walk you through the new rollout and talk about it.
Cheers
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Looks cool! My question is how do you compare against veed.io? Isn't it scary to have a large competitor in your space?
They've been kicking my ass for some time. A major channel for them is SEO and I haven't cracked the SEO code quite yet. Also, another benefit to repositioning as a tool for teams is that we are going down a different path, we offer animated text plus templates -- which is something they don't offer.
I've been beating them technically, I had a timeline before them, I've cracked the code for full control rendering control -- which means I will be adding keyframes soon, essentially our goal is to be an easier to use After Effects with collaborative features.
I wouldn't say scary but they are tough we gotta be tougher and smarter.
This is so refreshing to hear, believe it or not.
99% of indie hackers "building in public" are pretty much just "bragging in public" most of the time.
Congrats on the raise! Hope it gives you enough runway to get to profitability for you and your team. Good luck and I'm rooting for you!
Thanks Steven... Keep kicking ass over there, I've been seeing you on Twitter a lot crushing it.
Looks great @motionbox! Would love to know more about how you raised the $600k? Have you raised previously?
First time rasing. I was with another entrepreneur friend who was raising and I truly believe it was from being around him. Also having leverage helps tremendously. Lastly, you have to put yourself out there and make it possible for investors to get introduced to you -- Twitter makes this easier
This looks great! what are you using for the frontend?
Next.js
Congrats, Michael! That's crazy and awesome!
Thanks Andrew... We need to catch up soon
Happy for you Michael!
Happy for you. Congrats on selling your company, I hope you have some freedom now :)
Congrats on the raise. Would be happy to beta test.
That's amazing, I am thinking about creating a beta tester list or something. Best thing I can think of is you should join our Slack community https://join.slack.com/t/motionboxio/shared_invite/zt-oq7wr003-el2G4jZ0XKPU~~kis3JYVw
I'll create a beta-testers channel and we can all coordinate that way. How does that sound?
Congrats on the raise! Happy to help out with beta testing if you message me at https://twitter.com/huttiepant or [email protected]
Amazing, your Twitter DMs are closed BTW... My idea is to invite anyone interested in the Slack group https://join.slack.com/t/motionboxio/shared_invite/zt-oq7wr003-el2G4jZ0XKPU~~kis3JYVw
We can coordinate there... thoughts?
Sorry for the delay @motionbox, been away. And whoops to Twitter DMs, that's fixed.
Just joined your Slack so let me know how I can help!
Congrats! I am up for beta testing as well :-) Feel free to ping me on twitter.com/jimzarkadas or [email protected]
Congrats Michael - awesome name! Im a huge fan of what you built and it works super effortlessly! Really hoping you win in the space, definitely one of my favourite products out there.
May I ask a slightly indelicate question - how do you think about building in a space where companies like Veed are also doing the same?
Im just asking cause Im also going into a space with loads of competition and would love to hear from you how you think about and deal with this.
Also, more than happy to help out with the beta-test and offer my time for some user research.
Good question and well-phrased...
First, I've had the vision and passion before I even knew who they were. So while they're tough I believe in my vision and ability.
Their presence is felt and they've captured a certain audience, the competition has forced me to think differently, and to be innovative. This is why capitalism can be great, the pressure forces companies to develop really great products.
Lastly, while I am aware of them, I do have my own vision for how things should be and am focused on my own lane and doing my thing. That doesn't mean I am not aware of them, and the market. I have learned a lot from them and the market. However, I am focused on delivering the product I had envisioned a while back with minor pivots here and there.
I am more entranced with the joy and passion I get from building a cool tool like this, and too busy minding my business to worry about them.
So my advice is to only build a product if you're extremely passionate about it and have a unique vision of how it should be. Study the current products and learn, the idea doesn't need to be extremely unique, but your why behind it should be strong.
100% competition can be good as builds confidence that there's a real market there.
Not just for investors... Customers too. When you solve their problem in a way that resonates with them, they'll choose you.
Thanks so much for the transparency and the advice, Michael! Definitely agree.
Also been developing this belied that it's the relationship with one's customers that truly makes a different and gets a business to success, rather than trying to be the alternatives and competition with more features, etc. But really appreciate the words of support!
Congrats again and onwards!
OH FK YEAH! IM SO HAPPY.
Very keen to see you win man!
Thanks brother, this warms my heart
looks awesome and I love the name!
Thanks, Yongfook... I was driving to big bear last month trying to think of names and as I passed all the signs on the way there I kept thinking of names with bear in them and it made me think of you.
Congratulations! Super clean and I really like the tool. I can see you're using next for your frontend (at least on the marketing website).
I'm starting to get quite interested in online photo/video manipulation for Adflow. Would you mind sharing more about the technology that powers motionbox? 😃
Videos are a series of images... The idea is to extract pixels and pass them to an encoder as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Hey @motionbox, Congratulations! Glad to hear you are getting success with your product! Love to be a part of the beta program. LOL, I still remember your Reddit post about the story creator!
LOL, it's been a minute... We have a Slack group https://join.slack.com/t/motionboxio/shared_invite/zt-oq7wr003-el2G4jZ0XKPU~~kis3JYVw I plan to add a beta-testers channel where we can coordinate and share feedback.
Yeah!! I actually just popped the link tonight into the Rally Discord as an example of a tool for content creators. Still one of my favorite video tools ever :)
Woah this touches me, thanks Davey... You should join our group https://join.slack.com/t/motionboxio/shared_invite/zt-oq7wr003-el2G4jZ0XKPU~~kis3JYVw I want to learn more about you... "Favorite tools ever" really sounds good to me, this keeps me motivated to keep building. I want to build the best thing I possibly can and share it with the world :)
Congrats on the raise! The site is super clean and I can definitely see myself using MotionBox when we get back to producing video.
Until then, glad to be a beta tester. Feel free to connect with me at [email protected].
Awesome, will do... As you can see in the other posts above we have a Slack group where we can all coordinate.. I am trying to get some life in there and share what we are up to..
Ill also send a follow up email... cheers
Big fan of video editing here. Also an indie hacker with a SaaS product. Would be happy to do a beta test, email is in my profile :)
How you do secure your app for example program run on browser and your all main job on browser so how you secure your app codes all your code in browser js or do you have server working job for main core concepts ?
The rendering engine and the UI are two separate code bases. You can see the UI code but it's minified and uglified. It would be very hard to copy, if you dig enough you will learn by studying the DOM structure... This is how I learned how Canva works.
Checkout Invideo.io
Ps: I work at Invideo
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