What kind of content do YOU wish existed?
Hey IH Fam! 👋
I'm an ex-venture backed founder and I recently started a YouTube channel where I share my adventures in the startup world.
To date, my videos have mostly been about helping technical founders with one big problem they're currently facing. Typically around growth, rev ops, and business strategy.
🤑 I do this work for FREE! 🤑
I've recently been toying with the idea of expanding into other topics/video formats.
I'm coming to you all seeking your advice/input! What kind of topics in the broad world of startups would you be most interested in watching?
Ideas:
-"how I built this style videos" 👉 Ex. feature an early stage founder, tell the story of how they went from 0 - 10K MRR
-"Growth experiments gone right" 👉 Ex. tell the story of a founder and growth experiment they ran that was a big success
-"No code, no problem!" 👉 Ex. Feature a founder who's built a successful product, break down their tech stack
Here's an example of a video we just published: https://youtu.be/3s6MxZN0Gn4
Hi John,
Best,
John @ Cinematic Studio
Hey @johnt2021 I appreciate the follow up and feedback! Glad you enjoyed the format and I'm super appreciative of the sub!
I've always been an Adobe junkie - I was pretty proficient with illustrator and photoshop and already had the licensing so naturally I ended up gravitating towards Premiere Pro. I'd love to try your tool out and at a minimum provide you with some feedback!
One random point of feedback on your landing page - I would LOVE to see a video demo of all the awesome features Cinematic Studio has, considering you're in the video editing space :)
Hi @JohnatProxii,
Awesome, thanks! Agreed about the tutorial - here's a 3 minute one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOMVbpN4bMI
I'd love to hear your thoughts about my app!
About the landing page: agreed, I think I will have to redo it at some point.
About Adobe: I've always found it waaaay too complicated for my taste 😁
About demo videos: that's one of my weak points, and by that I mean I've had quite some bad luck with hiring people to do videos for me. The one I'm currently working with had some personal issues and now his wife is about to give birth, so he's unavailable until mid next month -- hopefully, it will be smooth sailing afterwards.
Long story short, I've been working 14 hour days for close to 3 years to get the app in this shape. I have 3 more main features to add, after that I'm gonna start doing marketing as much as possible. And I'll start doing videos myself, because it seems waiting for others to do videos for me is too nerve wrecking (already in process of buying all the gear 😁).
Can't wait to hear your thoughts: the good, the bad and the ugly, hit me! 😎
Thoughts on the app from the YT video (comparing it to the only thing I know which is premiere) lol:
-I like the addition of default text effects and preset music (I have to pay for envato elements to get these) so that's a bit of a cost saver for me.
-I like the look and feel, it does look and feel somewhat like adobe which is nice. As an adobe user I wouldn't necessarily want something that's TOO drastically different but I'm not sure I'm your target customer 👇
-In your marketing/positioning, you'll want to narrow in on if your main target customers are me (adobe / iMovie users) OR if it's a customer who has NEVER used editing software before. My gut tells me that guys like me who are already so used to using adobe or another piece of software, it'd be tough to make the switch to a "simpler product".
-Narrowing in that focus of who your target customer is will help you with features, landing page copy, and content marketing strategy
My advice for you and videos, just get started making them 😊 - as you can tell from viewing some of ours, you get better and more comfortable with being in front of the camera or doing voice overs with each video you push out. My first video (lighting, comfort level in front of the camera, editing, quality were all bad haha) You're an indie hacker, don't be afraid to show your face - I actually think it's part of your competitive advantage i.e. support ME John T, a real person NOT big bad Adobe or iMovie
Thoughts on marketing/launching v. feature creation:
-Don't think about your launch/marketing as a single event in time, ALB (Always be launching)
-It's easy to get trapped in the mindset of "just one more feature and THEN I will push on marketing"
-Since you've created video editing software, I would go and do some SEO searches and find forums where people are just getting started with video editing and create content (preferably videos) for them of "how to do X" e.g. "How to do a J-cut" and then explain what a J cut is and show how easy it is to do on your platform.
Feel free to continue the convo! You can always DM me on twitter at @askproxii - I'm typically quick to respond and love helping on all things growth, marketing/positioning, and business strat!
Hi @JohnatProxii,
Thanks!
default text effects/preset music -- more stuff to come -- I'll have text presets for common usages (like, a button-like text, or small text, or fade-in/fade out text -- in any direction, etc)
Look and feel : thanks!
Marketing: I guess you're right - it would be people that are beginners/intermediate, or haven't used video editing tools at all. Right now, I'm thinking targeting busy entrepreneurs / people that want to create product videos/ videos for social media (I have a lot of new presets in the works that will target this)
Narrowing in... : you're right. I am kinda' sad that a lot of people seem to mistake the fact that my app is insanely simple with the fact that it was easy to build (in fact, the opposite is true), and thus I need to target a different audience.
Making videos: agreed! I have postponed this quite a bit, I need to get in front of the camera 😁 I do have an insane problem with wanting everything scripted ahead of time, I need to let go of that. Another reason I've kept postponing is that if doing a video, I'd always feel guilty for not coding, since there was soo much to do. I'd get really nervous / stressed, and end up doing nothing😁 I've had to force myself to calm down lately, and I'm starting to get better, because I am pretty close to "finished product" (I mean, something I'm really really happy with)
Always be launching: interesting idea, have to let this sink in!
7a. "just one more feature..." Well, I sort of know what you mean, and I've been trapped on this for quite a while 😁However, I know myself, and I won't be able to do anything until I have the piece of mind that the product is finished. The idea is this: for instance, I've wanted to add keyframes + shapes + masks for an INSANE AMOUNT OF TIME. But in order to have them, I had to reimplement a lot of my application, and it took me close to a year (after another 1.5 years in the making) to get the app in order for me to add keyframes / shapes / masks. You have no idea how I've felt for so long, knowing how this should be, but not being able to actually see it😁
7b. So remaining are features are contours and visualizers (and there's a few minor other stuff that I need to refactor). Both of these are epic:
SEO Searches - that's the plan! Initially, I wanted this to be done by the one I hired, but seems that's not working out😒So yeah, I'll have to do everything myself.
Twitter: Thanks, I've just added you!
If you could actually try the app, it would mean the world to me! (if you're on Windows, that is)
Many thanks again!
Making a note to respond to all of the above in your twitter DMs :) Will be in touch shortly!
Awesome, looking forward to it 😎