Y Combinator Startup Podcast
00:09:06 · Aaron Epstein, Farza Majeed
[00:09:06] S0: Mhmm. [00:09:06] S1: Am I even gonna read the first sentence? Because if I don't read the first sentence, there's no way I'm I'm going into this. Also, like, look at the first frame of the video. It's very purposely Xcode. Why? Because I know that initially, curious developers are probably gonna be interested by this, not like actual video editors. Right? So it's purposely Xcode. I purposely zoom in right here to this part to show... Because the part is so small. The part is like this little triangle Yeah. That kinda helps you out. Most people, when they're scrolling, see the first three seconds. Hey, everyone. So this is Clicky. Clicky. And I go, what is that? You know, at least at least while you're while you're scrolling. [00:09:40] S0: Yep. And you're moving it around so people can see that there's something moving there. [00:09:43] S1: I think that you can go into details all day, but the reason I got this... I know this stuff now is because there's hundreds and thousands of videos I've made that nobody has cared about. Yeah. I think that's the biggest thing. Like, yeah, I I don't want people to watch this video and think, oh, I gotta make this hook and do this and this.
00:09:43 · Farza Majeed, Aaron Epstein
[00:09:43] S1: I think that you can go into details all day, but the reason I got this... I know this stuff now is because there's hundreds and thousands of videos I've made that nobody has cared about. Yeah. I think that's the biggest thing. Like, yeah, I I don't want people to watch this video and think, oh, I gotta make this hook and do this and this. [00:09:58] S0: And so this was this first one off the cuff. This was almost entirely unplanned. Yeah. And so a lot of this was just you and instinct and how you put this together based on things you've learned. Walk us through another video that that maybe you planned out a little bit more in advance. Because one thing that's surprising to me, you actually write a script for all of your videos. And I think anybody that's seen one of your videos would be surprised by that because you seem like you're just talking off the cuff. How do you do that? Like, you... You're very prepared, but it doesn't seem formal and stuffy and like you're reading. [00:10:28] S1: Totally. [00:10:28] S0: How can you teach somebody else to do that? [00:10:30] S1: If I like reading it, then that means it'll probably sound good if I'd say it out loud as well. Mhmm. Not always, but sometimes. And so this is one example of a script I wrote for a video that I did yesterday. And, again, it's just super simple. Like, do I enjoy reading this? Like, would I read this if I just... Someone texted this to me?
00:10:30 · Farza Majeed, Aaron Epstein
[00:10:30] S1: If I like reading it, then that means it'll probably sound good if I'd say it out loud as well. Mhmm. Not always, but sometimes. And so this is one example of a script I wrote for a video that I did yesterday. And, again, it's just super simple. Like, do I enjoy reading this? Like, would I read this if I just... Someone texted this to me? [00:10:47] S0: Yeah. What's going through your head? Are you imagining the audience listening to this, or how do you evaluate if something is actually good and interesting?
00:10:47 · Aaron Epstein, Farza Majeed
[00:10:47] S0: Yeah. What's going through your head? Are you imagining the audience listening to this, or how do you evaluate if something is actually good and interesting? [00:10:54] S1: For me, it's always I'm the audience. Like, would I be interested in what what the script is saying? So, And honestly, this script is actually not that strong, but I still recorded the video because you gotta you gotta be launching. In the first kind of little bit, am I getting across what I'm doing? Why is it important? Like, you can get across so much in just ten seconds. What you're doing, why it's important, let's get into it. Know, that's what the first ten seconds of any kind of video should be about. Because most of these videos are one minute long. Right? It's kinda like a movie. You know, a movie is an hour and a half, two hours, and the first twenty minutes is just a setup. Mhmm. That's a two hour thing. So And for a video that's one minute long, you need a setup. But it should only be like 10, 20%. So I write this down. And so in this case, I said, hi. I wanna share a new demo of our new... A demo of our new agent interface when talking to our users, blah blah blah, and then getting into the demo. And so for me, this is kind of this is kind of how I think through it, you know, before I get in front of the camera. The worst part is when you're in front of the camera, and you're like, oh, what am I saying? You know? Like, you have you have nothing to ground yourself. Yeah. It's good to ground yourself. Yeah.
00:10:54 · Farza Majeed, Aaron Epstein
[00:10:54] S1: For me, it's always I'm the audience. Like, would I be interested in what what the script is saying? So, And honestly, this script is actually not that strong, but I still recorded the video because you gotta you gotta be launching. In the first kind of little bit, am I getting across what I'm doing? Why is it important? Like, you can get across so much in just ten seconds. What you're doing, why it's important, let's get into it. Know, that's what the first ten seconds of any kind of video should be about. Because most of these videos are one minute long. Right? It's kinda like a movie. You know, a movie is an hour and a half, two hours, and the first twenty minutes is just a setup. Mhmm. That's a two hour thing. So And for a video that's one minute long, you need a setup. But it should only be like 10, 20%. So I write this down. And so in this case, I said, hi. I wanna share a new demo of our new... A demo of our new agent interface when talking to our users, blah blah blah, and then getting into the demo. And so for me, this is kind of this is kind of how I think through it, you know, before I get in front of the camera. The worst part is when you're in front of the camera, and you're like, oh, what am I saying? You know? Like, you have you have nothing to ground yourself. Yeah. It's good to ground yourself. Yeah. [00:11:56] S0: You start with the script, and then you move on to some of the visuals. How do you think about what that first shot should be? It's so important. Right? It's the first thing people see when they're scrolling.
00:12:04 · Farza Majeed
[00:12:04] S1: I'll show you a quick example of one of our videos. So this video actually is really good on YouTube. This is like a brand new fresh YouTube channel. Like, we literally made it and then posted this video three days later. Yep. And this is one of our highest converting videos despite being 19,000 views. Yeah. This video, I think it did, like, 3,000,000 views on Twitter Mhmm. 20,000 on YouTube, and, like, some crazy amount on Instagram as well. The same video. So it kind of did... We post it just everywhere, you know, just to see what happens. But, yeah, I mean, the way I like to do my videos is who is the person making this thing? You know? Like, just show yourself. Show your face very clearly. This is you. This is your personality. Just be proud of who you are, and confidently tell the camera what you're working on. Because if you think it's cool, then I think you'll find at least... My thought is always at least one other person will think this is cool. Mhmm. And that's who I'm talking to. I'm talking to that, like, one other person in that world that may think this is cool. And so, yeah, I always start with a very clear, hi. This is what I'm working on. All you gotta do is press and hold This how it works. Plus control, start talking, and whatever you're saying will stream in as text into whatever text box your cursor is on. For example, if I'm on Apple Notes, I can just say... Great. That's how it works. Can you give me an example? Hey. Today, I have to ship three things. First, skills. Second, memory. And third, this bug that this one user gave about dictation. Okay. That's pretty cool. But this is like every other product I've ever seen. There's nothing special about this. So that's pretty cool. And honestly, many products already do this exact thing today. But here's the thing. When I'm writing, I often don't really know what I even wanna say. So check this out. We're shipping... So then, like, I bring the problem for myself. Mhmm. I'm not saying everyone has this problem where they don't know what to write. Like, I'm not involving everybody. I'm only talking about myself Mhmm. And because these are my problems because I'm always putting stuff for myself. Queen aware dictation. It's pretty cool. I've never seen anything like it before, and I wanna show you. Let's say I wanna write...