Y Combinator Startup Podcast
00:33:21 · Aaron Epstein, Farza Majeed
[00:33:21] S0: And you're basically using the same content for every channel? [00:33:24] S1: Yes. I I do make videos for specific platforms. So most of our videos, we make for Instagram Uh-huh. But then we post to Twitter, whereas some videos, we make for Twitter and then post to Instagram. [00:33:34] S0: What is the difference between one that targets one versus the other? [00:33:37] S1: So simple. I mean, Twitter generally doesn't like vertical videos. Mhmm. It likes sixteen nine. Yep. So then this... For example, we have this drawing video. So we built a system that can draw directly on your screen. It can draw polygons, arrows. This is super optimized for Twitter because just look... Let's let's just watch it muted, and imagine I'm scrolling my feed. Ready? Okay. Guy in front of Blackboard, AI, draw screen. I'll watch. It's like... It's that quick. It's like AI, draw screen, blackboard. He's drawing things, see plot opus, demo, click. You know? Like, my brain thinks like that. Mhmm. What are the quick... Because nobody's reading this entire this entire damn thing. And so this is optimized for Twitter. This video is optimized for Twitter. But what was surprising is we posted the exact same thing to my Instagram, and it performed even better. And you would think that, like, this type of video wouldn't perform that good, but it has, like, millions of views. And it's a vertical video because on their phone, it looks even worse. It looks like this.
00:34:33 · Aaron Epstein, Farza Majeed
[00:34:33] S0: Well, one thing that I... Maybe a couple things that I know about you are you have a very high bar for yourself and the things that you put out there. And while at the same time, almost ironically, you're very comfortable putting a lot of things out there. Yeah. And so you... I hate to use the word taste, but, like, you've been doing this so long that you have a high bar and a good sense of of what you would be excited to watch, and you just naturally have a very, short attention span. You get bored, and you, like, want the next thing. And if you're not getting that, then you move on. And I think that serves you very well with the videos that you're creating here. [00:35:09] S1: Yeah. Either I have good taste or I just put out so much stuff and some of them just hit. [00:35:13] S0: That's how you get it, I think, is you you put it out... You put out a lot of things and you continue to improve, and that that levels up your work. [00:35:20] S1: Totally. I I think I have more of the latter where I just put out so much stuff and some of it some of works. And and, again, we're looking at the stuff that's working, but so much hasn't worked. [00:35:27] S0: Right. [00:35:27] S1: Like my old zip school videos, like, nobody cared. [00:35:29] S0: Yeah.
00:35:29 · Aaron Epstein, Farza Majeed, S4, Farza Majeed
[00:35:29] S0: Yeah. [00:35:30] S1: But this is what... This is a perfect example. This was a super simple video. Basically, just a quick story here. I found out that with GPT real time, you could generate shell commands and control your computer in real time. Mhmm. And so we can watch it real quick. Alright. Check this out. No hands. Ready? Hey, Clicky. Can you please open up Spotify and play ACDC for me? Maybe Back in Black. I love that song. [00:35:54] S4: Rock on. It's playing Back in Black now. [00:35:56] S1: Amazing. Amazing. Clicky... Hey, Clicky. It's a little bit loud. Could you turn it down in Spotify 50%? This is so loud. Got [00:36:02] S2: it. Lowering Spotify to 50% so it's less intense. [00:36:05] S1: Okay. Thank you. Hey, Clicky. Can you open up my So now I'm gonna keep going. Yeah. And this is actually a fun one. Stripe dashboard for me in my browser. Let's see if we made any money today. [00:36:16] S4: Opening your Stripe dashboard now.
00:36:16 · S4, Farza Majeed, Aaron Epstein
[00:36:16] S4: Opening your Stripe dashboard now. [00:36:19] S1: Oh, man. A $140 in a day is not... And so to me, that was just one little moment in the day where I was like, oh my god. This AI model could do this. Does anyone... I didn't check if anybody did it before. I was just like, I'm gonna make a video. Turns out I did something very novel. Mhmm. And, again, the examples I used, playing a song on Spotify lowering the and lowering the volume, that's exactly the first use case that I had as a user myself. Yep. And so, again, always building for, like, the version of myself that's kinda watching out there. Because if I think that's cool, I think someone else would too. And, hey. Look. 3,800,000 views on Twitter. Really good. But, again, then Instagram, 4,600,000. You know, people always say, like, you gotta be super... Like, your brain has to be rotten when you're scrolling Instagram, and you gotta have a lot of quick edits and blah blah blah. Like, there's not a single cut in this video. [00:37:06] S0: Yeah. There's no cuts in the video, but there are beats in the video Yeah. That you do a very good job with. You know? You... We see you first. You say, hey. No hands. So right off the bat, I'm like, oh, no hands. He's just talking to this thing Yeah. Which is the hook that I think gets people [00:37:22] S1: to watch. That's all purposeful.
00:37:22 · Farza Majeed, Aaron Epstein
[00:37:22] S1: to watch. That's all purposeful. [00:37:23] S0: Yeah. Then you play the song. Then you lower the music so that you can continue to talk over it, and it responds to that as well. Then you pull up the Stripe Stripe dashboard, somebody goes, I wonder how much money they made
00:37:33 · Farza Majeed
[00:37:33] S1: to always... There's... Yeah. I'm always just trying to keep the story moving. Yep. I'm not trying to keep your attention. That's actually the wrong way to look at it. Mhmm. I'm always trying to... I'm always like, alright. Where is this going? Come on. You know, you're like, come on. Keep going. We we hear someone talking, let's get to the end of the story. Okay? You went to the movies, and and so you just keep doing that endlessly. And so I I love that you said the word beats. Some of my videos are purposely made to just kind of, like, appeal to, like, the audience that just has no attention span. Mhmm. You know, for example, like this one. It has been nine weeks since I built and launched my idea. It's an AI that can draw directly on your screen and guide you through any... So that's one example of, like, a quick, very quick. I'll show you this example here, which is talking about the beats just for once. Two weeks ago, I was in my apartment trying to figure out a cool idea to work on. Two weeks later, I built this thing that's now being used by thousands of people every single day. And the crazy part is So, again, I literally think about it like like like this. Mhmm. Am I here? Yep. Am I still watching? I think as you make these videos again and again, it becomes a lot more obvious to you as you do it. We have this one guy at our office right now. He is 19, and he has this built into his head, the same the same beat system. And it's funny. Like, most people who work on videos a lot have this little beat system in their head.