Farza Majeed Hires Filmmakers Before Coders as Daily Demos Fuel Clicky

Farza Majeed先于程序员招聘电影制作人，以每日产品演示助推Clicky 初创公司必须将持续、未经精修的视频演示作为主要分发壁垒，因为同质化的软件极易被抄袭，而真实的受众群体则无法复制。 Farza Majeed认为，创业者应当摒弃传统的一次性发布轰炸模式，转而持续向算法信息流发布日常产品演示。结合自身扩展Buildspace以及推出Clicky的经验，他阐述了如何撰写接地气的脚本、打造能抓住眼球的首帧画面，以及为何要优先注重叙事推进而非廉价的留存套路。此外，他还剖析了各跨平台的表现指标——解释了为何YouTube和Instagram在转化率上远超Twitter——并主张尽早招聘一名内部电影制作人，从而将分发能力转化为核心竞争壁垒。 依靠Hacker News、Product Hunt单日集中轰炸和媒体独家报道的传统初创公司发布模式，已被X、Instagram、YouTube和TikTok等算法信息流上的持续发布所取代。 (1:21) 对Clicky而言，Instagram带来了约70%的注册总量，YouTube实现了约20%的下载转化率，而X（Twitter）尽管坐拥数百万次浏览，其转化率却不足1%。 (30:00) Farza Majeed主张初创公司应将内部电影制作人列为与软件工程师并列的最早招聘人选之一，以此将产品发布转化为持续且具备可持续性的记录过程。 (38:40) 在音频与视频保真度的对比中，清晰的声音表现始终比摄像机分辨率更为关键，这使得大疆（DJI）麦克风等专用外接麦克风成为比昂贵影棚相机优先级高得多的投资。 (40:00)

Farza Majeed, founder of Clicky and Buildspace, argues that high-budget, one-off launch spectacles are obsolete, replaced by a continuous practice of publishing raw, narrative-driven product demos across algorithmic feeds. In conversation with Y Combinator's Aaron Epstein, Majeed outlines how founders can turn everyday engineering updates into their primary customer acquisition engine. Replacing One-Shot Launches with Continuous Demos (1:21) Traditional tech marketing relied on coordinated blitzes across Product Hunt, Hacker News, and exclusive press features in publications like TechCrunch. Majeed contends that algorithmic feeds on X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have rendered the one-off launch model obsolete. Instead of treating launches like rare rocket releases, founders must shift to continuous shipping, treating marketing and engineering as an integrated workflow where the video hook and social caption are drafted before code is written. Rather than chasing vanity metrics, founders should focus on downstream retention. Majeed notes that Clicky's initial launch video generated nearly 3 million views, but what justified turning the project into a company was that 100 out of 7,000 downloaders continued using the desktop assistant daily for five consecutive days. Structuring 60-Second Videos around Narrative Beats (10:00) Effective short-form demos avoid hyperactive editing tricks in favor of clear story momentum. Majeed scripts every video days in advance to internalize the pacing, compressing the narrative foundation into the first 10 to 20 seconds: showing the founder's face, explaining what is being built, and demonstrating why it matters. The remaining time is reserved for live demonstration, addressing user skepticism directly, and highlighting core differentiators like screen-aware dictation. Visual framing must hook the intended audience within seconds. For a technical tool, Majeed placed the opening frame inside Apple's Xcode IDE with a rapid digital zoom to stop developers scrolling on mute. In another demo that reached 3.8 million views on X and 4.6 million on Instagram, he used zero cuts, sustaining viewer interest through real actions: commanding the AI to play AC/DC on Spotify, lowering the volume to speak, and displaying an unglamorous $140 balance on a live Stripe dashboard. Channel Dynamics and Early-Stage Video Production (30:00) Audience conversion varies substantially across distribution channels. Majeed reports that X has historically been Clicky's lowest-converting channel, yielding an installation rate below 1% despite millions of impressions. Conversely, YouTube functions as an evergreen library where a 20,000-view video converted at approximately 20%. Instagram drives 70% of Clicky's total inbound traffic, which the team captures on desktop by routing mobile viewers to a dedicated profile link that lets them email installation files directly to their computers. To execute this strategy, Majeed outlines a three-tier setup: Screen Studio ($30) for screen recordings, smartphone selfie cameras for native social posts, and a Sony FX3/FX30 rig paired with DJI wireless microphones for studio shoots. Majeed emphasizes that clear audio quality is strictly more important than camera fidelity, as viewers routinely tolerate low-resolution video but immediately abandon clips with poor sound. Overcoming Founder Perfectionism and Building Moats (40:00) Because code has become trivial to replicate, Majeed argues that authentic audience distribution is an early-stage startup's most defensible moat. At one point, Clicky employed three video creators alongside just one engineer. Majeed advocates hiring a filmmaker as one of the very first non-technical roles, freeing technical founders from media production bottlenecks while maintaining continuous public documentation. For early-stage builders who cannot hire, the primary obstacle is self-consciousness. Majeed recalls that his early 2021 videos for Zip School garnered modest traction—such as 23 likes and one comment—yet served as an indispensable training ground. He insists founders must accept making awkward, unpolished videos before they can develop an authentic public presence, and recommends drafting ideas in tools like FreeWrite before shooting. Majeed challenges founders to record a 10-minute smartphone clip explaining their daily progress and publish it to Instagram or TikTok every day for 30 consecutive days, forecasting that at least one post will exceed 1,000 views and yield usable audience feedback. While founder-led media bypasses traditional agency costs, the strategy hinges on maintaining creative endurance and a high tolerance for public experimentation before distribution channels become predictable.

Clicky创始人Farza Majeed与YC合伙人Aaron Epstein指出，依赖高成本公关和单次轰动发布的旧模式已被算法信息流取代，现代初创公司应将发布转化为日常演示与高频公开叙事。 从单次发布转向高频演示交付 (1:21) 过去初创企业通常依赖Product Hunt、Hacker News或传统媒体独家报道进行单日集中发布，试图一战成名。Farza Majeed指出，当前X、Instagram、YouTube等基于推荐算法的信息流已重构分发逻辑，创始人不再受限于单次高风险发布，而是处于持续发布的状态。相比花费数万美元由机构拍摄的企业宣传片，创始人使用手机或电脑屏幕录制的随性质朴视频，在实际互动和转化上往往表现更好。在Clicky，团队不再将发布视作罕见的发射火箭事件，而是将其降格为每周的常规功能演示（demos）。团队在定义功能特性的同时，就会提前同步构思社交媒体标题与开篇视频钩子，确保概念在进入代码编写前就具备直观的传播吸引力。 结构化脚本与前三秒视觉钩子 (10:00) 尽管Farza Majeed的视频呈现出随性的交流感，但他强调所有内容均经过严格预先写稿与心理排练。他将60秒视频比作压缩版电影：前10至20秒必须完成背景铺垫，快速交代自己是谁、正在构建什么以及其为何重要，随后顺畅过渡到产品操作。在Clicky的屏幕感知听写演示中，他先展示常规语音输入，并主动承认该功能并不特殊，随后点出自己不知如何落笔的真实痛点，从而自然引出产品根据屏幕上下文辅助表达的核心卖点，避免了夸张宣传引发的抵触。在视觉设计上，Farza Majeed主张用创始人面孔代替花哨动效，并在首帧根据目标受众精准定制视觉线索。例如早期针对开发者时，视频第一秒直接置于Xcode集成开发环境中，并在开播前三秒内通过快速数码缩放聚焦光标AI角色，即便用户处于静音浏览也能瞬间产生好奇。 留存核心价值与跨平台转化分化 (5:00) Farza Majeed警示创始人不要将曝光量这一虚荣指标视作成功标志。Clicky最初作为一个跟随光标的AI桌面伴侣，其首发视频尽管获得了近300万次播放并带来7000次下载，但真正促使他全职投入的是后续留存数据：约100名用户连续5天每天使用。在各平台分发表现上，转化效率呈现剧烈分化。X（Twitter）虽然单条视频能轻松达到300万次播放，但由于受众习惯快速滑动，下载转化率长期低于1%；YouTube受众意图更明确，一个仅有约872名订阅者的全新频道，在视频获得2万次播放时带来了约20%的下载转化率，且具备长效沉淀价值；Instagram则贡献了Clicky约70%的入站流量，团队通过在Bio设置专用链接及提供一键将下载链接发送至桌面的按钮，解决了移动端用户无法直接安装桌面软件的转化阻力。 克服尴尬心理与演示驱动开发 (15:00) 制作公开视频的主要阻碍通常是创始人的心理防线与完美主义倾向。Farza Majeed回顾自己早期的Zip School项目时指出，即使是面向几十名关注者发布的粗糙视频，或者仅收获二十几个点赞，也远好于零产出；创始人必须经历一段略带尴尬的公开试错过程，才能掌握自然流畅的表达节奏。在日常开发中，Clicky推崇“演示驱动开发”，即以向团队伙伴展示“快看这个”时的真实兴奋感作为功能完成与发布的触发点。而在内容定位上，Farza Majeed明确反对展示“YC创始人日常生活”等个人生活方式视频博客，主张将镜头作为公开的团队站会（stand-up），直接呈现10分钟内录制的真实工程进展、系统重构或缺陷修复，向早期采用者展示透明的技术决策与团队协作。 内容护城河与轻量化制作配置 (40:00) Farza Majeed提出，在AI时代编写代码与复制软件已变得极其快捷，但围绕细分受众建立稳固的叙事认知与真实社区却难以抄袭。为了让视频生产摆脱单靠创始人所造成的瓶颈，Clicky在极早期就将视频创作者设为核心岗位，曾一度形成三名视频制作人员对应一名软件工程师的配置。在硬件与工具层面，Farza Majeed认为音频质量的重要性高于视频画质，建议创始人优先配置外置无线麦克风而非升级昂贵相机。具体工具链分为三层：桌面演示采用轻量录屏软件Screen Studio；移动端直接采用iPhone前置镜头与平台原生工具；重大节点则使用Sony FX3/FX30搭配DaVinci Resolve进行精致制作。 Farza Majeed建议开发者放下对单次高成本营销的执念，通过连续30天用手机记录日常进度并公开发布，倒逼自己建立表达直觉。然而，对于极度依赖复杂销售流程的重度企业级软件，这种面向大众算法信息流的高频演示策略能否同样维持高转化，对话中并未展开深入探讨。

## Background 本期内容由 Y Combinator 于 2026 年 10 月 23 日在其官方播客及网络平台发布。节目由 YC 合伙人 Aaron Epstein 对话 HeyClicky 创始人、前 Buildspace 创办者 Farza Majeed，探讨创始人如何摒弃耗资昂贵且华而不实的大片级宣传片，将发布（Launch）转变为日常构建中高频、真实的 Demo 展示。 ## TL;DR Farza Majeed 结合自身十余年的视频制作与创业经验，指出在算法主导的时代，创始人应将“发布”降维为日常高频的 Demo 演示，并以真实、不伪饰的过程吸引核心留存用户。他详细拆解了一条爆款发布视频的核心脚本公式与前十秒吸睛机制，并深入对比了 Twitter、Instagram 与 YouTube 之间悬殊的转化率断层。最后，他分享了初创团队中影视制作人与工程师的协作模式及低成本工具链，号召创业者克服心理上的“尴尬期”，通过连续 30 天的自拍式真实记录建立起难以被抄袭的社区护城河。 ## Atmosphere & style 整场对话洋溢着硅谷极客之间坦诚、松弛且务实的交流氛围，完全打破了传统商业访谈的正襟危坐。Farza 的语言极具感染力与自嘲精神，他毫无保留地展示自己早期笨拙青涩的失败片段，将“害怕尴尬”与“自我怀疑”的心理防线一一击碎。Aaron 的提问则精准直击创业者的痛点，双方在层层剖析爆款机制与转化数据的过程中，传递出一种纯粹而兴奋的创造热忱，让听众在卸下宣发包袱的同时获得强烈且切实的行动冲动。 ## Bulletin - `00:00` 产品发布范式已从耗资数万美元的一次性公关豪赌，转向在 X、Instagram、YouTube 等算法平台上的日常高频 Demo 展示。 - `05:00` 虚荣播放量并不等于产品留存，HeyClicky 的 300 万次首发播放最终沉淀为 7,000 次下载与约 100 位连续使用 5 天的核心用户，这才是驱动产品立项的关键。 - `30:00` 跨平台转化率存在断层，虽然 X (Twitter) 播放量容易冲高但实际转化率极低（不足 1%），而仅有 2 万播放的 YouTube 视频下载转化率却高达约 20%。 - `38:40` 在软件克隆成本趋近于零的时代，围绕产品建立的忠实受众社群是真正的护城河，Farza 将影视制作人列为团队第一号全职员工并与工程师并列。 ## Key takeaways - `00:00` 算法分发时代应去神秘化“发布（Launch）”，将其重构为日常产品开发中的高频“Demo”，每周持续推新。 - `05:00` 发布的真正目标是获取持续留存的用户，而非博取网络虚荣声量（Clout）。 - `05:00` 利用“推文诗意（Tweet Poetry）”与信息流拦截自测法，在首帧和前三秒通过动态视觉与精准缩放抓住目标极客的注意力。 - `10:00` 看似随性的短视频需要严密脚本支撑，前 10 至 20 秒必须极速交代正在做什么以及为什么重要，为演示建立心理锚点。 - `12:35` 首帧要大胆露出真实的创作者面孔，拒绝冰冷包装，带着“世界上至少还有一个人会产生共鸣”的信念面对镜头。 - `14:40` 演示叙事可采用先抑后扬的反转结构，先坦陈市面竞品已有功能，再以痛点切入自身差异化卖点。 - `14:40` 创始人往往是自身作品最严苛、最不客观的批评家，必须克服“觉得尴尬”的心理内耗，将判断权交给市场观众。 - `15:00` 团队内部在研发中自发产生的“快看这个”兴奋感，是倒推产品 Demo 并对外发布的最佳天然信号。 - `16:35` 发布需建立“零预期心态”，发完即走以摆脱数据焦虑，短视频制作遵循“投篮练习法则”，必须先积累海量试错样本。 - `22:00` 受众渴望听微型故事，可以将生活化的高悬念叙事框架提炼平移到软件产品研发历程中。 - `24:54` 摒弃虚假的“YC 创始人的一天”精致 VLOG，公开真实且简朴的研发站会往往能获得极高的受众认同与参与感。 - `30:00` B2B 决策者和垂直机构同样沉浸在主流社媒中，哪怕是小播放量的 TikTok 垂直喊话也能精准收获销售线索。 - `32:32` YouTube 具备长尾资产属性，转化率远超快节奏无意识刷屏的 X (Twitter)；针对移动端向桌面端的转化应建立专属归因链路（如 /ig 链接）。 - `34:44` 好视频不依赖密集剪辑，即使是一镜到底的长镜头，只要节奏紧凑、叙事拍子（Beats）连续推进也能牢牢吸引观众。 - `40:00` 在日常视频制作工具链中，音频质量的重要性远超画质本身，清晰的收音是留住用户的底线。 - `45:00` 发起“30 天日常视频挑战”：零门槛拿出手机自拍 30 秒展示手头工作，以高频实战克服镜头恐惧并持续复盘迭代。 ## Detailed walkthrough ### `00:00` 从高昂大片到算法平台上的高频 Demo：产品发布的范式转移 许多创业者在准备发布（Launch）时，总陷入一个昂贵且耗时的误区：花费数万美元、耗费大量时间去制作一部精雕细琢的高规格宣传片，孤注一掷地祈祷它能一炮而红。然而，HeyClicky 创始人 Farza Majeed 却采取了完全相反的策略。作为 2020 年与 YC 合伙人 Aaron Epstein 结识的连续创业者，Farza 早在 13 岁便通过在 eBay 倒卖商品开启创业生涯；后来他创立了著名的在线创新学校 Buildspace，如今则全力打造全新的 AI 原生交互界面 HeyClicky。十余年来，Farza 始终将视频作为触达用户的核心抓手，其发布的视频如今经常斩获数以百万计的播放量。 ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Launch Meta Transition accDescr: 比较过去一次性高成本的发布范式与现在基于算法平台的高频Demo发布范式 subgraph OLD["过去的发布范式（2020及更早）"] A1["高成本/高规格制作 (花费数万美元)"] --> A2["一次性高风险豪赌 (TechCrunch / 媒体报道)"] A2 --> A3["固定渠道 (Hacker News / Product Hunt / Reddit)"] end subgraph NEW["现代发布范式（算法时代）"] B1["低成本真实记录 (一部手机 + 一台笔记本)"] --> B2["高频 Demo 发布 ('这周我们要 Launch 什么？')"] B2 --> B3["算法信息流分发 (X / Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram)"] end ``` 谈及发布玩法的十年演变，Farza 直言时代已经彻底改变。2020 年在 YC 时，创业者的标准动作是在特定的一天集中轰炸 Hacker News、Product Hunt，或是找到对口的 Reddit 子版块，配合传统的公关稿（如 TechCrunch 或《纽约时报》的报道）来完成一场“大决战”。但如今，旧媒体的影响力日薄西山，目标用户广泛分布在由算法驱动的平台中（如 X、LinkedIn、YouTube、Instagram 等）。在这样的环境下，创始人不再只是“发一条帖子”，而是需要持续不断地发布。与其去拍摄一部花费两万美元的精美企业大片，不如拿起手机对着电脑随性地打个招呼、聊聊自己做的产品，后者的真实感不仅成本极低，在互动率和真实转化流量上也往往能轻松碾压前者。 面对创始人将发布视作“发射火箭”般的沉重心理负担，Farza 主张彻底去神秘化。他更愿意将“Launch”称作“Demo”——发布不是阶段性的句号，而是产品构建过程中的日常节拍。在 HeyClicky 内部，团队从不讨论几个月后搞一次多大的动静，而是每周都在问同一个问题：“我们这周要发布什么 Demo？”沟通方式从产品设计之初就已深度介入：每当团队构思一个新功能，Farza 在探讨交互手感的同时，就会立刻追问：“我们在 Instagram 上的文案该怎么写？如果为此拍一条视频，前三秒的吸睛钩子（Hook）是什么？”在开发前就想清楚如何在纸面上打动人，确保产品在面世前就自带传播基因。 - “The biggest change is... you're not really making posts anymore. You're actually just constantly launching all the time on these algorithmic platforms.” —— Farza Majeed 说明算法分发时代创始人必须转向高频发布模式。 - “I rather call these demos instead of launches. And I just love shipping just demos constantly.” —— Farza Majeed 解释为何应当把“发布”降维成持续展示产品原型的“Demo”。 ### `05:00` Clicky 的诞生：从 5 分钟随手录制到近 300 万播放的真实转化机制 许多人以为 Farza 的视频之所以能够疯传，全凭镜头前那种信手拈来的松弛感与运气，但事实远非如此。谈到实操哲学，Farza 指出，大众看腻了西装革履的创始人站在高端办公室里、用顶级单反相机配上花哨剪辑去宣布“融了多少钱、做出了什么划时代产品”；相反，观众真正渴望看到的是“探索与制作的过程（Process）”，而非冰冷的“最终成果（Ending）”。发布的核心诉求从来不是在互联网上赚取虚荣的声量（Clout）或证明自己有多聪明，而是为了获得真实的留存用户。如果不能沉淀出一个可以反复获取用户的渠道，单次的刷屏毫无意义。 Farza 以 HeyClicky 最初的发布视频为例拆解了这一过程。Clicky 是一个常驻在用户电脑屏幕上、跟随光标移动的蓝色小人，充当能够教授任何知识的 AI 老师。最初这只是 Farza 的一个业余项目，在 YC Office Hours 展示给 Aaron 时，Farza 自己甚至觉得这个 Demo 拿不出手、不够完美。某天晚饭前仅剩五分钟，他坐在工位上随手录了一段极其随性短小的视频发布到 X 上，随后便去吃晚饭；等吃完饭回来，视频数据已经彻底爆发，播放量最终逼近 300 万次，直接促使他将这个开源副业正式转变为全职创业公司。 ```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: Clicky Launch Conversion Funnel accDescr: Clicky首发视频从曝光到核心留存用户的转化漏斗 V["~3,000,000 浏览量<br/>(虚荣指标)"] --> D["7,000 次下载<br/>(真实转化)"] D --> R["~100 位核心用户<br/>(连续 5 天每日活跃使用)"] R --> F["深度访谈与商业立项<br/>(启发创始人坚定全力投入)"] ``` 然而，Farza 强调自己对“近 300 万播放”这种浮夸的表面数据毫无波澜，真正支撑他坚定创业的是漏斗下层的实际数据：该视频带来了 7,000 次真实下载；而在四天之后，有大约 100 个人连续五天每天都在高频使用它。正是这 100 位用出各种意想不到场景的真实留存用户，让他逐一打电话深度访谈，并最终确信这是一款值得做下去的真实产品。 在这条看似漫不经心的推文背后，其实隐藏着严密的潜意识推敲与视觉设计技巧： - **推文文案的极简节奏感**：文案极其口语化且短促（“我做了这个东西”、“它是一个 AI 老师”、“它能做什么、为什么重要”）。Farza 称之为“推文诗意（Tweet Poetry）”，其语言节奏如同一对一给朋友写信，这一风格在他早年撰写 Buildspace 的营销邮件时便已形成。 - **信息流拦截自测法**：在发布前，Farza 会随意打开推特信息流中别人的一条推文，审查元素将文本替换为自己的拟定文案，然后滚动页面模拟路人视角，直观测试：“我自己的视线会不会停下来？我会不会读完第一句话？”如果连自己都无法被第一句吸引，文案就必须重写。 - **首帧与视觉焦点的工程化设计**：视频的第一帧被刻意定格在 Xcode 界面上。因为作为初生原型，能被吸引的第一波极客必然是好奇的开发者，而非普通剪辑师；前三秒说出“Hey everyone, so this is...”的同时，画面立刻大幅度推镜头缩放（Zoom-in）至光标旁那个极小的三角形助手，并通过晃动鼠标让动态视觉在静止的信息流中瞬间抓住滑动屏幕的眼球。 - **千锤百炼的肌肉记忆**：这种对前三秒抓手与细节的把控，并不是靠玄学理论，而是 Farza 在过去十年中发布了成百上千条毫无水花、无人问津的“扑街视频”后沉淀出的肌肉记忆。 - “We're not launching to like get a bunch of clout on the internet and make people think that we're smart. We're trying to actually get people to use our thing.” —— Farza Majeed 强调发布的根本目的是为了获取真实产品用户，而非博取网络关注。 - “If you ask me why I'm working on the product today, it's not because it went viral. It's because 7,000 people downloaded it. And about 100 people of the 7,000 kept on using it every day for five days straight.” —— Farza Majeed 阐明决定创业方向的核心驱动力是留存数据而非病毒式曝光。 ### `10:00` 为看似随性的视频撰写脚本：如何用前十秒抓住注意力 很多看过 Farza Majeed 视频的人都会以为他的表达纯属临场发挥、随性而至，但出人意料的是，他几乎会为每一支视频写出完整的脚本。Aaron Epstein 指出，这种既经过极其严密准备、又丝毫不显死板僵硬（stuffy）且不像在死读书的状态非常罕见。对于如何掌握并传授这种能力，Farza 给出了一套极简的自检标准：如果文本本身读起来就很舒服，大声说出来往往也不会差。他展示了一份前一天刚录完视频的草稿，内容简明扼要，就像是发给朋友的一条普通短信——“如果有人把这段话发给我，我自己会不会想读完它？” 在衡量文案质量时，Farza 的核心参照系就是他自己，他把自己当成唯一的观众去检验脚本是否引人入胜。尽管他坦言手头这份脚本其实写得并不完美，但他依然坚持把它录了出来，因为“创业者必须不断发布（you got to be launching）”。关于短视频的节奏，他将其比作浓缩版的大片：一部两小时的电影通常用前二十分钟来铺垫世界观与背景，而对于一分钟左右的短视频而言，开篇的铺垫最多只能占十到二十秒。在这黄金十秒内，创作者必须极速交待清楚两件事：你在做什么，以及这件事为什么重要。迅速切入产品演示（Demo）能为创作者提供强大的心理锚点，Farza 解释道：“最糟糕的时刻莫过于站在镜头前却突然卡壳：‘天啊，我到底要说什么？’你必须给自己一个立足的支点。” ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: 一分钟短视频节奏与结构 accDescr: 展示从前10-20秒的核心抓手到核心痛点演示的节奏结构 subgraph Hook["前 10-20 秒：建立锚点"] A["露脸亮相，亮明身份"] --> B["极速交待：在做什么 & 为什么重要"] end subgraph Demo["中间 30-40 秒：演示与反转"] B --> C["展示基础功能与痛点共鸣"] C --> D["引出独特功能（如屏幕感知听写）"] end subgraph CTA["结尾 10 秒：收尾与号召"] D --> E["真实呈现自我，顺其自然收尾"] end ``` ### `12:35` 镜头前的“真实自我”法则：如何打通全网播放与高转化 在探讨滑屏浏览时代什么样的首帧镜头（First Shot）最有效时，Aaron Epstein 与 Farza 讨论了视频的视觉切入点。Farza 强调，第一眼最关键的是展现产品背后真实的人：不要隐藏在冰冷的软件界面后面，而是大大方方地把自己的脸清晰展示在镜头前，亮出自己的性格，为自己所做的事情感到骄傲。他在 YouTube 上建立了一个全新的频道，注册仅三天后发布了第一条视频，播放量虽然只有区区 1.9 万次，但转化率却极为惊人；而同一支视频分发到 Twitter 后斩获了超过 300 万次观看，在 Instagram 上同样引起轰动。 对于开场白，Farza 崇尚极度直白的风格：“嗨，这是我正在做的东西。”他从来不试图取悦所有人，而是抱有一种质朴的信念：只要自己打心底里觉得这个功能很酷，世界上就一定至少还有另一个人会产生共鸣，而整个视频就是在隔空与那“一个人”对话。在视频演示中，他展示了一个极为丝滑的操作流程：按住 Control 键直接开始讲话，语音便会以流式文本的形式直接注入到光标所在的任何输入框中（例如在 Apple Notes 里随手记录用户反馈的 Bug）。这一段开场没有任何虚头巴脑的商业包装，只有真实的创作者、真实的使用场景以及毫无保留的热情。 - 跨平台分发策略：完全相同的单支视频直接发布至 YouTube、Twitter、Instagram，各平台表现差异巨大但彼此互补（Twitter 播放破 300 万，YouTube 播放仅 1.9 万但转化率极高）。 - 创作者受众心理：不针对抽象的“大众”录视频，而是把视角缩小到“世界上另一个和我有相同痛点的人”。 - 关于面对镜头的自信，Farza 总结道：“自信地对着镜头讲出你正在做什么，因为只要你觉得它很酷，我想你总会找到——至少我的想法是——世界上至少还有一个人也会觉得这很酷。” ### `14:40` 先抑后扬的演示反转与“创始人自我怀疑”的心理战 随后的产品演示展示了 Farza 精心设计的叙事策略：他没有一上来就盲目吹嘘，反而先泼了一盆冷水。他坦白承认：“这听起来很酷，但坦白说，市面上很多现成产品早就实现了完全一模一样的事情，根本没什么特别的。”紧接着，他抛出了一个极为个人化的真实痛点：“但问题在于，每当我坐下来准备写作时，我常常根本不知道自己到底想表达什么。”由此，他顺理成章地引出了 Clicky 的差异化功能——“具备屏幕感知能力的听写（Screen-aware dictation）”。这种以解决自身痛点为由切入的演示方式，让用户感受不到生硬的推销感，而是强烈的真实与诚恳。 然而，视频里看似行云流水、自然松弛的松弛感，背后是高密度的刻意练习。面对 Aaron 关于“这是否毫不费力”的疑问，Farza 坚决否认：“完全不是，整支视频的每一句话，都是我三天前就逐字写好的。”他在洗澡时、在去上班的路上，一遍又一遍地在脑海里演练台词，录制前在脑中已经预演过不下十遍。更有趣的是创作者常见的心理内耗——录制结束后，Farza 感觉糟透了，他当场对视频制作搭档 Vikranth 抱怨道：“这是我们拍过最烂的视频，根本不值得剪辑。”但搭档 Vikranth 态度坚决地制止了他并强制上线发布：“闭嘴兄弟，我要把它剪出来，然后直接发出去。” 最终这条被创始人自己判定为“尴尬到令人脚趾抠地（cringe）”的视频在 Twitter 彻底爆火，赢得了 300 万次播放和极高的用户讨论。这让 Farza 深刻意识到，创始人往往是自己作品最严厉、也是最不客观的批评家，经常会因为觉得“太差”、“太尴尬”而陷入不敢发布的停滞状态。关于克服这种心理障碍，Farza 强调了团队制衡与市场检验的重要性： > “我们做出来了，就要把它发出去；不管我们自己觉得它有多尴尬，这都不重要，我们应该把决定权留给观众。” ### `15:00` Demo驱动开发与“你看这个”时刻 Farza Majeed 坦言，即使做了这么多年视频，点击发布按钮对他来说依然不是一件自然而然的事，他必须不断强迫自己把内容发出去。有时某条内容非常受欢迎，反倒让他大吃一惊，因为在他自己看来那不过是一个非常不起眼的小功能。Aaron Epstein 由此引申出一个概念——“Demo 驱动开发”（demo-driven development），即在做任何功能时，几乎都是从最终希望展示的 Demo 倒推，用 Demo 来检验功能是否准备就绪，一旦做完就顺理成章地把它发到网上。 Farza Majeed 极为认同这种感觉，并指出这贯穿在他创办的每一家公司中。他强调，最关键的信号往往来自团队内部：“The most important thing in my company that I try to always, and every company I've ever run, is you know that feeling when you're working with someone, often on a team or a co-founder? And you're like, yo, check this out. That, you have to be so aware of that, because that is the thing that you could probably talk about online.” 那种原始、兴奋的“你看这个”的状态，恰恰是创业者在互联网上面对公众时最应该展现的姿态。虽然他偶尔也会在季度末搞一次高规格、制作精良的发布，但绝大多数时候，日常发布就像一个人坐在 YC 办公室里录一段简单的视频，几乎每天都在推新 Demo。 ```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: Demo-Driven Launch Loop accDescr: 团队内部研发激发的兴奋感转化为日常发布并持续迭代的流程闭环。 subgraph Dev ["研发阶段"] A["倒推规划 Demo 效果"] --> B["与团队产生 '快看这个' 兴奋瞬间"] end subgraph Launch ["发布与复盘"] B --> C["录制简单真实视频发布"] C --> D["几乎每天推出日常 Demo"] D -->|季度大版本| E["高规格精良发布"] end ``` ### `16:35` 摆脱数据焦虑：点击发布后直接走开 针对如今人人都能每天发布视频的现状，Aaron Epstein 提出疑问：许多公司砸重金做大片级别的视频，试图以此脱颖而出并显得自己比实际规模更大，既然环境如此拥挤，Farza Majeed 是如何脱颖而出的？对此，Farza Majeed 直言自己压根不这样思考竞争。他发内容的唯一出发点就是自己觉得有趣，且相信世界上一定还有另一个人也会觉得有趣。 在谈到心态管理时，Farza Majeed 表达了一种极其坚决的态度：“And when I click post, in my brain, I'm always like, if this gets zero attention, zero views, I'm still happy I posted it.” 大多数人在发布后都会忍不住疯狂刷新页面，看谁点了赞、数据涨了没有，而 Farza Majeed 则是“发完就走”，甚至直到一周后才去瞄一眼数据。这种心态来自于大量的脱敏训练——他往互联网上发过太多自己觉得一般的内容，深知公众的注意力转瞬即逝，无论发了什么，第二天大家都会忘得一干二净。 - 面对信息过载，不要试图通过“比别人更卷制作”来突围，只要自己觉得有趣就值得发。 - 树立零预期心态：就算零播放、零关注，只要把东西推到了世界上，这次发布就是成功的。 - 互联网的遗忘速度极快，哪怕搞砸了，第二天也没有人会记得。 ### `18:25` 什么是真正的发布：从 Zip School 到早期着陆页 Farza Majeed 现场展示了自己在 2021 年（刚从 Y Combinator 毕业一年后）为独创项目 Zip School（面向儿童的在线小学）录制的一段早期发布视频。视频中他以极度平淡的声音介绍新增的“毅力号火星车着陆”课程（Mars Perseverance Rover Landing，面向 7 至 12 岁儿童）。回看这段视频，连他自己都忍不住吐槽“光看开头我就已经走神了”。但当 Aaron Epstein 询问他犯了哪些错误、如今会如何改进时，Farza Majeed 却坚称具体犯了什么错根本不重要。 Farza Majeed 认为核心在于行动本身：“This to me is a launch. And I know that sounds dumb to maybe some, but to me, this is exactly what launching means. We did something new at the company. We talk about it.” 哪怕那条推文最终只收获了 23 个点赞、1 条评论和 1 个书签，它依然远远好于零，这就是一次不折不扣的发布。Zip School 几乎每天都有新课程上线，他也几乎每天都发视频介绍。虽然这些视频从未像他幻想的那样突然爆火，但日复一日的练习让他逐渐摸索出如何介绍产品而不显得像在搞推销或自命不凡。随后他又展示了 2020 年 12 月 1 日公司第一天运营时的推特——当时他只用 Canva 做了一个简陋的奇怪视频，推文里连文案都没写，仅仅贴了一个着陆页链接，账号只有大约 80 个粉丝，没有任何人关注，但他依然毫不犹豫地把那一刻定义为一次真正的“产品发布”。 ### `20:00` 投篮练习法则与一条带来 2100 万播放量的爆款脚本公式 制作视频的过程与练习打篮球一模一样，必须经历大量的基础重复训练。Farza Majeed 强调，人类本身具有自我学习和进化的智慧，多拍多练自然就会变得越来越好，但“如果你连 1000 次投篮都没投过，你就不可能投进第 5000 次”。YC 的 Aaron Epstein 总结指出，对于创始人而言，核心建议就是不要过多顾虑，直接把东西发出来去积累练习量（get the reps）。Farza 随后展示了自己的一条爆款视频，并特别澄清：虽然他现在的视频看起来制作精良（produced），但那是因为他已经沉淀多年，精剪一条视频对他来说只需 1 小时，对新手可能要更久；初学者完全不必追求高制作水准，哪怕只是一段粗糙的 iPhone 自拍视频，也能取得极佳的效果。 展示的这条爆款视频在 Instagram 上斩获了超过 2100 万次播放，并且至今仍在为 Clicky 持续带来海量自然流量，Farza 还将其直接转化为了 Facebook 投放广告。他在写下视频脚本的瞬间就知道它一定会火，因为它的开头钩子（hook）和故事叙述极其精准。 ```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: 爆款启动视频脚本公式 accDescr: 展示 Farza 总结的四步短视频脚本结构，从引起好奇的钩子到产品实操演示。 subgraph SCRIPT["视频脚本结构"] A["钩子 Hook<br/>上周做了个自认糟糕的项目却爆火"] --> B["身份与背景<br/>这周我居然进了 YC"] B --> C["引出项目<br/>正在做的产品是 Clicky"] C --> D["场景化演示<br/>DaVinci Resolve 免看教程实时指引"] end ``` Farza 总结了自己屡试不爽的视频结构公式：“我是谁、发生了什么、我在做什么、让我展示给你看”。在这条视频中，他用轻微自嘲且引人好奇的钩子开场：“上周我做了一个自己都觉得挺烂的想法，结果超级大爆；这周我居然进了……Y Combinator。”随后他顺势切入：“来看看我正在做的东西吧，它叫 Clicky，是一个停留在你电脑光标旁边的小 AI 伙伴，可以免费实时教你做任何事。”例如当需要学习在 DaVinci Resolve 中调色时，用户无需去翻看冗长的 YouTube 教程，只需开口提问，Clicky 就会给出指引并在屏幕上精准标注指向。尽管这条高完成度的成片花费了团队 4 到 6 个小时制作，但哪怕创始人只是用手机简单对着脸说一句“嗨，这是我正在做的东西”，然后直接把镜头翻转对准电脑屏幕，只要坚持做上 10 条，就能迅速掌握叙述的要领。 - “如果你连 1000 次投篮都没投过，你就不可能投进第 5000 次，你知道吗？”（“But if you don't take 1,000 shots, you're not going to make the 5,000th shot, you know?” —— Farza Majeed） - 爆款视频数据：Instagram 单条视频播放量突破 2100 万次，至今仍是产品获客主力，并被直接复用为付费广告素材。 - 视频时长与制作成本：团队熟练状态下制作精剪成片耗时约 4 至 6 小时，但初学者完全可以用 30 秒 iPhone 原生拍摄起步。 --- ### `22:00` 像做田野调查一样刷短视频：拆解钩子与人设 Farza 透露自己日常刷 Instagram Reels 绝非为了娱乐，而是纯粹的“内容研究”。他在刷短视频时会时刻保持元认知，不断问自己：“我准备划走吗？我会在哪一秒划走？”当他随手刷到一个“拉黑异地恋女友并记录减脂历程”的素人视频时，他敏锐地捕捉到了其视听机制：背景昏暗、面部有光源聚焦、底部配上一句“两个月前……”开头的字幕。这种半遮半掩的叙述立即制造了悬念，让人忍不住想知道“两个月前究竟怎么了”。他会立刻把这种模式记在脑子里作为素材模板：在展示软件时也可以套用“两个月前我在做一个自己都搞不清楚是什么的东西，后来……”。 他又展示了另一类年轻创始人制作的热门视频，开头是：“欢迎回到‘我们 6 个月前就该发布但现在才退回重发的功能’”。Aaron Epstein 指出，现在的短视频受众极度渴望“故事”，而这种略带自嘲（self-deprecating）的风格非常吸睛，无论是承认自己做过烂想法、推迟了发布，还是坦白情感变故，都是将枯燥的产品演示（Demo）变成微型故事的极佳抓手。Aaron 进一步引申，视频里的主讲人其实不必拘泥于完全真实的自我，而更像是扮演一个能够让观众产生共鸣、并在心理上默默为其加油打气的“角色”（character）。Farza 对此高度赞同，坦言面对镜头时自己在用户眼中就是一个数字世界里的具体角色。 - “每个人都想要一个故事。那么，演示该如何成为一个微型故事，或者你说的话如何成为一个微型故事呢？”（“Everyone wants a story. And so how can a demo just be a mini story or what you're saying be a mini story?” —— Aaron Epstein） - 脚本灵感提取技巧：将日常爆款的生活化叙事框架（如减脂、分手等高悬念开场）提炼出来，平移复用到软件研发历程的叙述中。 --- ### `24:54` 告别伪精致：展现真实研发过程的“双周站会视频” 为了证明视频根本不需要复杂的脚本与噱头，Farza 展示了 Clicky 团队近期制作的另一种极简内容格式——“本周我们构建的一切”（Everything we built this week）。画面没有任何精心设计的钩子、叙事曲折或剧情悬念，只是研发团队的几位成员依次出镜，极其自然直白地向镜头汇报：“Clicky 之前在 Agent 注册集成上遇到了点问题，现在换了新大脑，生成、控制和暂停 Agent 会顺滑得多；还有很多人抱怨 Clicky 总是跟着光标乱跑，我刚刚修复了这个 Bug。”令人意想不到的是，这种完全没有传统营销包装的站会视频，在 Instagram 上同样获得了近 100 万次播放。 ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: 团队双周站会视频逻辑 accDescr: 解释创始人应当放弃伪精致日常，转而向公众开放真实开发流程。 subgraph WRONG["创始人常见误区"] W1["打造'YC 创始人的一天'精致 VLOG"] W2["高大上舞台演讲与单向公关宣发"] end subgraph RIGHT["极简高转化做法"] R1["每两周一次全员真实站会公开"] R2["10 分钟快速录制：说说今天解决了什么"] R3["展示真实的研发纠错与产品演进"] end ``` 针对这种现象，Farza 深刻剖析了初创公司做内容的本质。他极为反感甚至公开抵制那种网上一抓一大把的“YC 创始人的一天”伪精致 VLOG：“你永远不可能抓到我拍这种东西，我根本不想向你展示我的个人生活”。他指出，普通大众对科技公司日常运作的认知，与实际情况相去甚远；大公司如苹果、Meta 往往只让扎克伯格站在舞台上公布成品，但早期受众和种子用户极其渴望看到幕后真相——他们想知道究竟是哪三四个真实的年轻人聚在一起，如何一行行代码把这个 AI 产品搭出来的。Clicky 团队每两周录一次这种视频，全过程仅耗时 10 分钟，最初仅仅是为了在全世界面前开站会以保持自我督促（accountability），却意外收获了巨大的社区认同。 - “你在网上永远不可能抓到我拍那些关于‘我作为 YC 创始人的一天’的视频。绝对不可能。”（“You will never catch me making those videos about this is my day as a YC founder. Never.” —— Farza Majeed） - 研发公开化的吸引力：向大众展示真实的构建过程，让早期核心受众产生极强的参与感和陪伴感。 --- ### `27:00` 克服尴尬期：用 iPhone 自拍 30 秒重新定义“每日发布” Aaron Epstein 观察到，Clicky 的视频之所以富有感染力，不仅在于交代了什么进展，更在于团队散发出的纯粹快乐与正向氛围——欢快的背景音乐、团队成员讲完后彼此真实的鼓掌与喝彩。当被问及如何捕捉这种感染力时，Farza 坦言这要求创始人必须彻底做自己。他曾无数次给其他创始人提出最简单的实操建议：掏出 iPhone，打开前置摄像头自拍模式，对着镜头讲 30 秒你今天在做的事情，然后发布到 Instagram、TikTok、Reddit 或 YouTube 上。但现实中，真正愿意照做的人大概只有 1% 到 2%。 Aaron 坦言，大多数人面对镜头时内心会充满恐惧：“我该说什么？我上镜好看吗？别人觉得很蠢怎么办？高中同学还在关注我，他们根本不在乎我的项目”。Farza 尖锐地指出，要想学会不尴尬，就必须先经历一段“尴尬期”（cringe）。许多人发完第一条觉得糟糕透顶就放弃了，但关键在于持续把动作做下去。创始人每天对着笔记本电脑工作 8 个小时，屏幕上总会出现让人会心一笑、感到新奇或兴奋的代码和功能。每天只需抽出 10 分钟抽离出来，问自己一句：“今天有什么事情让我笑了，或者让我觉得很酷、很新奇？”对着镜头讲出来，展示一下屏幕，点击发布，然后关掉手机继续回去写代码。Farza 强调，这就是“发布”（launching）在当下的全新定义：发布不再是隔几年登上一次 TechCrunch 或《纽约时报》的宏大公关战役，而是每天向全世界展示你的工作成果。面对许多创始人认为“B2B 软件或非面向 Gen Z 的产品不需要做 TikTok/Instagram”的偏见，Farza 反驳称，全球数十亿真实人类都在使用这些平台，企业客户同样是每天刷手机的普通人，例如 Clicky 早期自然获取的 3 家核心设计机构客户，正是通过这些社交平台自主找上门的。 - “实际上你必须经历一段尴尬期，才能学会如何不尴尬。”（“You got to be cringe for a little while, actually, to learn how to not be cringe.” —— Farza Majeed） - “这就是我认为在当下进行‘发布’的真正含义：单纯地展示你的工作。因为这就是发布的本质，对吧？当你在 TechCrunch 或《纽约时报》上发布时，你是在展示你的工作；但在当下，你可以每天都在展示你的工作。”（“That's all you have to do. That's what it means to be launching, I think, in 2026, just to show your work. Because that is what launching is, right? When you launch on TechCrunch or New York Times, like you're showing your work. But in 2026, you can show your work every day.” —— Farza Majeed） - 获客认知纠偏：主流社交媒体不仅属于年轻娱乐群体，各行各业的从业者和决策者都在其中，哪怕是垂直的 B2B 设计机构也能通过常规社媒视频实现精准触达与转化。 ### `30:00` 用 TikTok 精准获客与多平台转化率断层 在讨论如何寻找早期用户时，Aaron Epstein 指出，许多创始人的默认做法往往是打开 LinkedIn 搜索在设计机构工作的人，或是去垂直社区发帖。Farza Majeed 认同这些传统渠道确实有效，但他提出了一个反常识的问题：设计机构的创始人难道不上 TikTok、Instagram 或 YouTube 吗？答案显然是肯定的。基于这一判断，团队开始专门针对设计机构制作 TikTok 视频。在视频开头，Farza 会直截了当地喊话：“嘿，你是设计机构吗？或者你是设计机构的创始人吗？停下来，让我给你看个很酷的东西。”这些视频并没有走红，平均每条只有约 4000 次播放，但全都是极其精准的垂直曝光，最终仅仅通过 TikTok 就成功获取了大约 50 个高意向的设计机构销售线索（leads）。Farza 强调，自己的目标从来不是盲目追求病毒式传播，而是向真正感兴趣的受众传达产品价值。 谈及不同渠道的受众心理与商业回报时，各平台展现出了悬殊的转化差异。Farza 透露，自己在 X（原 Twitter）上创作了近十年，但这里的转化表现却是历史上最差的：“Twitter is our worst, in the history, I've been making stuff on Twitter for like 10 years, the worst conversion of any channel.” 例如 Clicky 最初的宣传视频在 X 上获得了 300 万次观看，却只带来了 7000 次下载，转化率远低于 1%；另一条展示“屏幕感知听写”（screen aware dictation）的视频斩获了 290 万次播放，但实际注册账号的用户比例低得可怕。相比之下，YouTube 却展现出惊人的转化深度。一条仅有 2 万次播放的 YouTube 视频，其下载转化率竟高达约 20%：“This YouTube video, has 20,000 views. But do you know what the conversion rate on this video is? It's like 20% to them actually downloading the app.” Farza 分析道，X 的用户行为主要是漫无目的地快速刷屏（doom scrolling），而 YouTube 对绝大多数公司而言则是转化率最高的资产，因为它是一个“可以沉淀数十年的资料库”，能持续不断地产生新注册，反观 X 上的热度往往转瞬即逝。 - **TikTok 定向获客**：不追求爆发式流量，通过精准开头单条斩获 4000 播放，为团队沉淀了约 50 个设计机构客户线索。 - **X (Twitter) 数据反差**：300 万次与 290 万次播放的爆款视频，实际下载与注册转化率低至零头。 - **YouTube 长尾效应**：频道仅有 872 名订阅者、单视频 2 万次播放，却达成了约 20% 的极高下载转化率。 ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: 核心社媒渠道特性与转化对比 accDescr: 展示 Twitter、YouTube 和 Instagram 在受众行为与转化表现上的区别 subgraph Channels["各平台渠道特性与表现"] direction TB TW["Twitter (X)<br/>3M 播放量"] -->|"无意识刷屏 / 单次脉冲"| TW_RES["极低转化率 (&lt;1%)<br/>仅 7,000 下载"] YT["YouTube<br/>20K 播放量"] -->|"深度观看 / 长期内容库"| YT_RES["极高转化率 (~20%)<br/>持续长尾下载"] IG["Instagram<br/>核心流量来源"] -->|"专属链接追踪 (/ig)"| IG_RES["贡献总流量的 70%<br/>全流程转化归因"] end ``` ### `32:32` Instagram 的流量霸权与跨平台内容复用 Clicky 目前约 70% 的流量都来自 Instagram。为了精准监测这一渠道的转化链路，团队在个人主页简介（link in bio）中设置了专用路径 `/ig`。通过这种区分，Farza 能够精确追踪从 Instagram 落地页面下载应用的用户转化率；考虑到许多用户是用手机浏览桌面端产品，页面上还特意设置了“通过邮件发送给自己”的按钮，方便用户回到电脑端安装，团队据此严密监控每一步的跳出与转化。Farza 建议创始人制作完前几条视频后，就应该立刻着手建立这种细粒度的归因机制，从而认清哪个渠道能真正带来目标客群。 在内容制作上，团队基本是将同一份素材分发到各个平台，但有时会针对平台特征做针对性优化。例如，X 用户偏好 16:9 横屏视频，极度缺乏耐心；而 Instagram 则是 9:16 竖屏的天下。为了验证横屏逻辑，Farza 制作了一段展示“AI 直接在屏幕上绘制多边形和箭头”的演示视频。视频开头直接呈现黑板前的真人配合屏幕画线，利用 Claude Opus 的实操演示在几秒内抓人眼球，整条视频专为 X 的快节奏量身定制。然而令人意外的是，将完全相同的 16:9 横屏内容直接搬运到 Instagram 后，即便在手机屏幕上上下留黑、排版受限，播放量依然轻松突破了数百万，其表现甚至大幅超过了 X 本身。 - **归因链路优化**：使用定制链接（如 `/ig`）追踪移动端到桌面端的转化，并提供“发送邮件给自己”的跨端辅助机制。 - **平台分发反差**：专为 X 适配的 16:9 演示视频，在竖屏主导的 Instagram 上反而获得了更加爆发性的播放增长与用户互动。 ### `34:44` 叙事节奏（Beats）与“无剪辑”演示的力量 Aaron 指出，Farza 身上存在一个奇妙的平衡点：一方面对作品有着极高的审美门槛，另一方面又极其高产，能够毫无心理包袱地大量发布内容。Farza 坦言自己的好品味很大程度上源于海量输出：“Either I have good taste or I just put out so much stuff and some of them just hit.” 大众看到的都是爆款，但他过往很多尝试（例如早期 Zip School 的项目视频）同样根本无人问津。 随后 Farza 展示了一条在 X 上获得 380 万次播放、在 Instagram 上获得 460 万次播放的代表性视频。当时他发现 GPT 实时音频模型（GPT real time）可以直接生成 shell 命令来实时控制电脑，于是顺手拍了一条没有任何后期剪辑的长镜头视频。视频开头他两手一摊说：“全免提，准备好了吗？”（No hands. Ready?），紧接着指挥 AI：“Hey Clicky，能帮我打开 Spotify 播放 AC/DC 的《Back in Black》吗？”音乐响起后，他立刻跟进：“有点太吵了，能在 Spotify 里把音量降低 50% 吗？”随后他又让 AI 打开浏览器里的 Stripe 仪表盘查看当天的收入情况，屏幕跳出 140 美元的数字。这些操作全都是 Farza 自己作为用户最真实的日常需求，没有任何造假。 许多人认为在 Instagram 这样的平台上必须依靠密集的快速剪辑来迎合受众，但这条视频整段没有一个剪切点（cut）。Aaron 指出，虽然没有物理剪辑，但视频内部充满了极为紧凑的“叙事拍子”（beats）： 1. **钩子拍**：双手离开键盘说“No hands”，瞬间立住完全由语音接管电脑的悬念； 2. **交互拍**：音乐响起后要求调低音量，证明系统具备上下文理解与实时环境调控能力； 3. **收益拍**：调出 Stripe 后台露出当天的实时收入，天然满足了观众对创业者真实财务状况的好奇心。 Farza 强调，创作者不能单纯为了抓眼球而抓眼球，核心在于推动故事前行：“I'm always just trying to keep the story moving. I'm not trying to keep your attention. That's actually the wrong way to look at it.” 就像日常讲故事一样，要让观众心里不断产生“快说，后来呢？”的期待感。他提到自己办公室有一位 19 岁的内容创作者，脑海里同样天然内嵌了这套叙事拍子系统。 ### `38:40` 早期团队搭建：为什么第一号员工必须是影视制作者 在团队组建方面，Farza 采取了非常反传统的策略。在他创立 Clicky 之前，他就已经确定了团队最初两名核心员工的画像：一个必须是影视制作人（filmmaker），另一个则是软件工程师：“My first two hires were, I knew from the beginning, even before I started my company, it's going to be number one, a filmmaker, and number two, an engineer. And it's number one is filmmaker for me.” 之所以将招募影视制作人排在如此高的优先级，是因为 Farza 深刻认识到创始人精力的局限性。虽然在公司起步阶段，创始人必须硬着头皮自己天天录视频、发动态，但长期来看，任何一个 YC 创始人都不可能、也不愿意把全部时间都消耗在日常拍摄与剪辑上。因此，必须尽早引入专业人才，将其全职工作定义为：在内部深度观察团队的开发日常，协助推进产品发布，并在每一次面向公众 Launch 时，用极具质感的方式让产品和团队以最佳形象呈现。Farza 透露，在他上一家创立的公司里，团队总共只有大约 7 个人，但其中专门负责影视内容制作的就有 2 人。对于一家以传播和产品为主导的初创公司而言，将叙事与视觉表达提升至核心工程研发同等乃至更高的地位，是他一路走来验证过的制胜法宝。 ### `40:00` 社区护城河与日常视频制作工具链 Farza Majeed 指出，在当前时代写代码和交付软件变得极其容易，然而当着大众的面清晰、有条理地讲清楚自己在做什么，却比以往任何时候都难。如今任何人都可以在两分钟内抄袭克隆一个产品，但对手绝对无法抄袭的是围绕产品建立起来的忠实受众、社群以及那种独特的能量场。如果一家公司拥有 10 万名对自己所做之事（无论是企业级 AI 还是摄影垂直领域）极度狂热的受众，发布一个新功能视频就能瞬间引来数千名用户涌入应用。 针对日常视频制作的装备与工具链，Farza 详细拆解了他不同层级的配置方案： ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: 视频制作技术栈层级图 accDescr: 展示从简单屏幕录制、原生手机自拍到影院级团队拍摄的三个视频制作层级及工具。 subgraph Level1["层级一：屏幕演示 Demo"] A["Screen Studio<br>(~30美元，录屏/美化光标)"] end subgraph Level2["层级二：原生感自拍视频"] B["iPhone 前置自拍镜头"] --> C["手机端剪辑<br>(Instagram 内置 Edits 工具)"] end subgraph Level3["层级三：电影感高质感视频"] D["Sony FX3 / FX30 相机"] --> F["DaVinci Resolve 电脑剪辑"] E["DJI 无线麦克风<br>(重中之重：音频质量)"] --> F end ``` 在所有硬件中，Farza 特别强调音频质量是绝对的核心，甚至超越画质。他直言：观众可以忍受 720p 分辨率、甚至是一个人在地下室录制的粗糙画面，只要声音干净清晰、内容言之有物，大家就会看下去；但如果收音很烂，观众会立刻划走。“The most important thing in any video you make — doesn't matter if it's a shitty Loom or a shitty like little video or your iPhone — is audio quality. If your audio is bad, I'm bouncing.” 他强烈建议每位创始人去买一个便宜的二手 DJI 麦克风或任何独立麦克风来改善音质。 ### `42:15` 创始人与专业创作者的协作分工及克服尴尬心理 在 Hey Clicky，团队一度由三名视频制作人员和一名工程师组成。Farza 坦言，除了早期在 Zip School 那些粗糙低质的视频是自己独立完成的，后来几乎所有惊艳的 Hey Clicky 视频背后都离不开核心伙伴 Vikrant 的功劳。他认为在当下，创始人身边有一位精通电影制作、叙事和编剧的人才是最强大的加分项。两人的日常协作模式非常直接：当团队做出了一个新功能，他们会一起头脑风暴探讨拍摄创意和展示方式。 - **分工明确**：Vikrant 主导镜头构图、开篇 Hook（吸睛点）、片场布景、后期剪辑及动态图形包装；Farza 则负责脚本撰写、音乐挑选以及把控视频的整体氛围（Vibe）。 - **让创始人回归核心**：通过这种协作，Farza 无需将全部时间耗费在制作视频上，能够抽身专注于公司增长、招聘和产品构建。 - **初创阶段亲力亲为**：对于无力招聘全职创作者的早期单打独斗型创始人，Farza 强调唯一的出路就是像自己当年做 Zip School 一样直接动手，不要有心理包袱。“The early days as a founder... you're doing taxes, you're doing design, you're doing filmmaking. You've got to do everything. You can't be a little baby about it. You've got to take out your camera and start posting some cringe stuff because in order to not be cringe, you must first be cringe.” ### `45:00` 写作打磨与 30 天日常视频挑战 视频制作流程中极其关键却容易被忽视的一环是前期写作。Farza 习惯使用自己构建的免费开源软件 FreeWrite（freewrite.io）来写脚本。他建议那些已经拍过 15 到 30 条视频的进阶创作者，在正式面对镜头之前，至少花 10 分钟将内容写下来并理清逻辑；前期想得越透彻，成片质量就越高，同时还能提前毙掉糟糕的构想。 针对所有从未在线上公开展示过自己工作的工程师和创造者，Farza 发起了一项“30 天日常视频挑战”： - **极低门槛**：每天仅需抽出 10 分钟，拿出 iPhone 或 Android 手机，对着前置摄像头讲讲自己当天在捣鼓或构建什么。 - **放下顾虑**：直接发布到 Instagram 或 TikTok 等平台上；如果害怕熟人目光，完全可以注册一个全新、无人知晓的社交账号去发。 - **持续积累与复盘**：连续坚持 30 天，只要每天发一条，其中必定会有一条视频播放量突破 1,000 次。届时就可以回头分析这条视频为何有效，并依此迭代下一期内容。Farza 甚至承诺，只要有人参与该挑战并将视频发给他，他一定会亲自去点赞支持。对谈在 Aaron Epstein 和 Farza 的相互致谢中圆满结束。 ## Notable quotes > `00:00` The biggest change is... you're not really making posts anymore. You're actually just constantly launching all the time on these algorithmic platforms. — Farza Majeed > `05:00` We're not launching to like get a bunch of clout on the internet and make people think that we're smart. We're trying to actually get people to use our thing. — Farza Majeed > `20:00` 如果你连 1000 次投篮都没投过，你就不可能投进第 5000 次，你知道吗？ — Farza Majeed > `27:00` 实际上你必须经历一段尴尬期，才能学会如何不尴尬。 — Farza Majeed > `27:00` 这就是我认为在当下进行‘发布’的真正含义：单纯地展示你的工作。因为这就是发布的本质，对吧？当你在 TechCrunch 或《纽约时报》上发布时，你是在展示你的工作；但在当下，你可以每天都在展示你的工作。 — Farza Majeed > `40:00` The most important thing in any video you make — doesn't matter if it's a shitty Loom or a shitty like little video or your iPhone — is audio quality. If your audio is bad, I'm bouncing. — Farza Majeed > `05:00` If you ask me why I'm working on the product today, it's not because it went viral. It's because 7,000 people downloaded it. And about 100 people of the 7,000 kept on using it every day for five days straight. — Farza Majeed > `34:44` I'm always just trying to keep the story moving. I'm not trying to keep your attention. That's actually the wrong way to look at it. — Farza Majeed ## Mentioned Farza Majeed, Aaron Epstein, Y Combinator, HeyClicky, Buildspace, Zip School, Vikranth, X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Product Hunt, Hacker News, Reddit, TechCrunch, The New York Times, Canva, Screen Studio, DaVinci Resolve, FreeWrite, Stripe, Spotify, Apple Notes, Xcode, Sony FX3, Sony FX30, DJI ## Video description <p>There’s a misconception that a successful launch video needs to cost tens of thousands of dollars and feel like a high-production commercial. But Farza Majeed has a different approach.</p><p><br></p><p>Farza is the founder of Clicky and previously built Buildspace, one of the largest online schools for people working on their own ideas. He’s been making videos for over a decade, and today his posts regularly get millions of views. Rather than treating launches as rare, high-stakes moments, he’s made them part of the everyday process of building a company.</p><p><br></p><p>Farza sat down with YC’s Aaron Epstein to share his playbook for turning demos into stories people actually want to watch. He breaks down how he scripts videos that still feel off the cuff, why founders should launch constantly, and how to figure out which channels actually convert.</p> [Source](https://anchor.fm/s/8c1524bc/podcast/play/127965614/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-9-23%2F434835258-44100-2-faab6a32fc456.mp3)

[0:00] Farza Majeed: The biggest change is... you're not really making posts anymore. You're actually just constantly launching all the time on these algorithmic platforms. [5:00] Farza Majeed: We're not launching to like get a bunch of clout on the internet and make people think that we're smart. We're trying to actually get people to use our thing. [20:00] Farza Majeed: 如果你连 1000 次投篮都没投过，你就不可能投进第 5000 次，你知道吗？ [27:00] Farza Majeed: 实际上你必须经历一段尴尬期，才能学会如何不尴尬。 [27:00] Farza Majeed: 这就是我认为在当下进行‘发布’的真正含义：单纯地展示你的工作。因为这就是发布的本质，对吧？当你在 TechCrunch 或《纽约时报》上发布时，你是在展示你的工作；但在当下，你可以每天都在展示你的工作。 [40:00] Farza Majeed: The most important thing in any video you make — doesn't matter if it's a shitty Loom or a shitty like little video or your iPhone — is audio quality. If your audio is bad, I'm bouncing. [5:00] Farza Majeed: If you ask me why I'm working on the product today, it's not because it went viral. It's because 7,000 people downloaded it. And about 100 people of the 7,000 kept on using it every day for five days straight. [34:44] Farza Majeed: I'm always just trying to keep the story moving. I'm not trying to keep your attention. That's actually the wrong way to look at it.

[40:00] Farza Majeed: It’s so easy to pump out more code and more software, but it’s harder than ever to actually talk about what you are doing in a coherent way in front of an audience. [26:40] Farza Majeed: You got to be cringe for a little while, actually, to learn how to not be cringe. [35:15] Farza Majeed: I'm always just trying to keep the story moving. I'm not trying to keep your attention. That's actually the wrong way to look at it. [30:00] Farza Majeed: YouTube is a library that will last for decades. Twitter, you got your moment once and you're gone. [40:00] Farza Majeed: If your audio is bad, I’m bouncing.

[0:00] These days, too many founders think launching is all about spending a ton of time and money to produce a slick video and hoping it hits. But my guest today, Farza Majeed, has a totally different approach to launching and going viral. He's the founder of Hey Clicky, where his posts regularly get millions of views. My formula is always the same. This is who I am. This is what's How can a demo just be a mini story? And today, he's going to share his playbook for how to create videos that actually convert. Barza, thanks for being here. No problem. Before we jump into some of your advice, why don't you tell us a little bit about your background, how you got to this point? Yeah, I started my first company when I was 13, selling stuff on eBay. for in 2020 with you. That turned into a company called Buildspace, which became one of the largest schools for people who wanted to work on their own ideas and now working on HeyClicky, a new interface for AI. Doing videos has always been kind of a core strategy for you for how to reach out to people and especially with Buildspace and now with HeyClicky, it's how you've gotten a lot of attention for your products and your businesses. How have you thought about that and talk about your progression from when you got started with video up until now? Yeah, I mean, to this day, making online videos for people. These days, I'm working on my own company. And so the story that's in front of me is actually my company story. And so it's been really fun to just tell that online. And it just so happens that making videos in 2026 is really good for business too. So yeah. Yeah. Tell us about that. So you've been making videos for over a decade, publishing them online. Talk about what's changed. Like what is different now in making launch videos and getting attention for your product in 2026 that's different from how it was over the last decade? me and you were in YC together in 2020, you know, you, you as my partner, I mean, yeah, back then, you know, you were doing, we had to do stuff like post a hacker news, post a product hunt, go to Reddit, like find the right subreddit, you know, like that, those types of launches. And, um. Things have changed so much now. There are so many new channels now where our users are living across all products. It doesn't matter what you're working on. It could be drones or AI or like whatever, a dating app. Your users are on many new platforms, mostly algorithmic platforms like X, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube. The biggest change is... you're not really making posts anymore. You're actually just constantly launching all the time on these algorithmic platforms. Yeah, we see that a lot with founders in the YC batch where they think a lot about, they have to put in all this time and energy and money to make some big fancy launch video and coordinate this big coordinated launch in the hopes that that's going to be their big moment and everything's going to take off. But you don't think about it like that. I think your perspective is very interesting. Yeah, there was a time where that was the meta. You know, like you got to do like a fancy thing and make it a big deal because you got one shot. You get that TechCrunch article or you get like that the press in the New York Times or something like that. You needed something kind of nice to go with it. But now all the old media is kind of just gone. And so now what's working is like a video where I put I say hi and I talk about my product is probably going to perform way better than like a twenty thousand dollar produced video by the New York that I post with the New York Times in terms of actual engagement and traffic and like other things. and if you have a phone and a laptop, you're so much more powerful. And so yeah, the I think that now we keep calling these launches. And I think that that is what these are. These are mini launches all the time. But in my mind, I never consider it. I do consider it a launch, but not in the sense of like, this is a big launch. It's a big thing. It's not we're launching a rocket, you know? It's funny. I rather call these demos instead of launches. And I just love shipping just demos constantly. And the more demos we can put as a company, the better. At my company, I'm always like, well, what are we launching this week? That's more the question. So for example, I'll give you a small example. If we have a feature we're working on. Well, we talk about, sure, we talk about the feature, how it feels, etc. But then I ask, well, what's the copy on the Instagram caption? What's the first, what's the hook? If we make this a video about this. And not that it needs to go viral, but we should talk about it. Because how we communicate to other people is just as important as what we're building. And so it's at every part of the process. It's not like we make it, and then magically I make a hit video or something. That's never how it works. It's always like, we kind of know it's a hit before we even start working on it, because it just sounds good on paper. And so I can show some examples of that. I think a lot of people see videos that you publish that go viral and get a ton of attention, and they almost think that it happens by accident, because you just seem So comfortable and natural and off the cuff, but that's not how you do it at all because you're trying to figure out the hook before you even do the video. So maybe it'd be interesting if you could pull up a video, walk us through it, and then maybe walk us through the process of how you created that video. What goes into it before? [5:00] Or you've even actually started shooting anything. Totally, totally. My philosophy on a lot of the launch stuff now is just... How can we just show... like almost like the process of what I'm doing versus show the ending of what I'm doing. I think there's a lot of value to being like, hey, I'm this founder person and I just got this much money and this is my product and this is my fancy DSLR and these are my wonderfully edited video with me in front of a nice office. But I'm sure we've all seen those. You see those every day. I saw like five today. For sure. And those have a purpose. But to me, that becoming like the kind of like thing that people are reaching towards is really annoying. And so I try to always do the opposite and just do what I think is right. Because, again, that's a one time thing. You want a channel? Because why are we even launching, Aaron? Why are we launching? What's the reason? We're launching to get users. Exactly. We're not launching to like get a bunch of clout on the internet and make people think that we're smart. We're trying to actually get people to use our thing. And that means having a channel that we can keep on repeating and find users from. And so... um yeah i'll show you one example here this one's a perfect example this is like the launch of clicky of a clicky so this is clicky clicky is this little blue guy that follows your cursor on his user computer and it's basically an ai teacher that can teach you anything honestly i thought the demo was not that good i remember i showed it to you in office hours and you're like oh you should post this like it's actually kind of cool and um i think one day you asked me again about it even for me I've been doing this for years like 10 plus years and even I sometimes I'm like oh I don't want to post it it's not good enough but it was so wrong. That's so wrong of me for you to even think that. And so I record this video in the office five minutes before dinner and I post it. And after dinner, it's just doing numbers. And now this is my company. Isn't that, it's a crazy thing. Yeah. It was just a random side project that I then even just open source. Cause I thought no one would even care about it. And, uh, here I am working on it six months later as a real company, right? Yeah, and so this is nearly 3 million views. How important was this video in actually even giving you the confidence that you should keep working on this? I do not care about the traffic at all. The views looks really wonderful and people will say congratulations, but what are the actual numbers? And so I actually don't care about this number at all. I was like, how many people downloaded it? And so after this video, I think 7,000 people downloaded it. And then I looked at who's retained four days later. And if you ask me why I'm working on the product today, it's not because it went viral. It's because 7,000 people downloaded it. And about 100 people of the 7000 kept on using it every day for five days straight. That got me so inspired. I reached out to those 100 people. I talked to each of them and I was like, oh, my God, people are using this for things I would have never imagined. And the users are what inspired me to keep going forward. Of course, there's so many little things I could talk about, things I'm doing just subconsciously at this point. Maybe you could help me think through it. But. Even just the headline. Just like... It's just casual. I built this thing. Yeah. It's an AI teacher. What does it do? Why is it important? It's like that's how my brain thinks I've been writing for like a decade plus. And so to me, it sounds dumb to call it tweet poetry, but like I care about how long things are. I care about the difference, the different parts of the story that I'm telling here. And I remember this even back to your Buildspace days when you would send your regular marketing emails to the community. I would get those. And that's how you wrote, too. Yeah. It didn't feel like the typical marketing email that somebody would expect to get. It felt like Farza was writing to me, even when, you know, it wasn't like you directly sitting down and doing the thing. It felt like that. Totally. One thing I do a lot is it depends on the platform. This is Twitter. I'll just kind of go. I don't know if some random persons tweet here. Maybe like this one. And I'll literally change this text to my tweets text. And I'll just do this. I'll be like, did my eye stop? I'll just ask myself, did I myself stop on what this is saying? And if I stop, that's like step one for me. I'm testing if I myself would kind of check this out. And so that's kind of my number one rule, regardless of Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, anything. Am I... going to stop on this? Am I even going to read the first sentence? Because if I don't read the first sentence, there's no way I'm going into this. Also, look at the first frame of the video. It's very purposely Xcode. Why? Because I know that initially, curious developers are probably going to 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 park is so small. The park is like this little triangle that kind of helps you out. Most people, when they're scrolling, see the first three seconds. Hey, everyone. So this is... Zoom. And now you're like, oh, what is that? You know, at least while you're scrolling. And you're moving it around so people can see that there's something moving there. 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 don't want people to watch this video and think I got to make this hook and do this and this. And so this was this first one. [10:00] 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 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're very prepared, but it doesn't seem formal and stuffy and like you're reading. Totally. How can you teach somebody else to do that? If I like reading it? then that means it'll probably sound good if I say it out loud as well. Not always, but sometimes. And so this is one example of a script I wrote, um, 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? 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? For me, it's always I'm the audience. Like, would I be interested in what the script is saying? And so honestly, this script is actually not that strong. But I still recorded the video because you got to be launching. In the first kind of... little bit am i getting across what i'm doing um why is it important like you can get across so much in just 10 seconds what you're doing why it's important let's get into it you know that's what the first 10 seconds of any kind of video should be about because both these videos are one minute long right it's kind of like a movie you know a movie is an hour and a half two hours and the first 20 minutes is just a setup it's a two-hour thing and so for a video that's one minute long you need to set up but it should only be like 10 20 so i write this down and so this demo of our new age 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. You know, it's good to ground yourself. Yeah. 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. I'll show you a quick example of one of our videos. So this video actually did 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. And this is one of our highest converting videos, despite being 19,000 views. Yeah, this video, I think it did like 3 million views on Twitter, 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 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, um, 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 would think this is cool. 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 got to do is press and hold + 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?" and third, this bug that this one user gave about dictation. Okay, that's pretty cool, but this is like every other part 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 want to say. So check this out, we're shipping. So then like, I bring the problem for myself. I'm not saying everyone has this problem where they don't know because these are my problems because I'm always putting stuff for myself. Screen aware dictation. It's pretty cool. I've never seen anything like it before. And I want to show you. Let's say I want to write again. That's just me being myself, which is like, hey, I want to show you. You come across very natural here. Was that easy for you to do? No, no. First of all, this whole video scripted every every line that I'm saying, I wrote like three days before and I said it and I will say it in my head like over and over and over again in the shower, going to work. And I'm always camera i've already visualized it like 10 times it's so funny after this video we were finished it i told vikranth uh the person uh who i make videos with and i'm like this is the worst video we've ever done It's not even worth editing it. And he's like, no, bro, be quiet. Shut up. I'm going to make it and then we're going to post it. And so, again, it's good to have the team also be really like, Hey, we made this like we're gonna put it out. It doesn't matter how cringe we think it is like we'll let the audience decide this video did 3 million views on Twitter and people went crazy over it. And it's so funny. I thought it was horrible. I just felt like this is so bad. So this is one of the situations where I was wrong. And I think founders, I mean, me especially, think something we made is bad or I made is bad. And then I don't want to put it out because it's going to make, I don't like how it's going to be. [15:00] It sounds or feels. I'm constantly forcing myself to put it out. It's not natural for me to click post. Um... But sometimes it is. Sometimes it's not. And so this is one example where I was like, so surprised. that people even cared to begin with. Because I thought it was just a pretty simple thing. It's interesting. I've heard you talk about this almost like demo-driven development, where everything that you're working on, you're almost working backwards from a demo that you want at the end of it. And that's kind of the proof that the thing is ready to go. It lets you test it out. And then you get to the end of it and you're like, let's just publish the demo. The most important thing in my company that I try to always, and every company I've ever run, is you know that feeling when you're working with someone, often on a team or a co-founder? And you're like, yo, check this out. That, you have to be so aware of that, because that is the thing that you could probably talk about online. That check this out is exactly like that raw check this out is exactly how you should be kind of presenting yourself on the internet. In this case, you know, sometimes I go a little bit more fancy if I want to, but sometimes... I'm also just a guy in a simple video in the YC office. And then sometimes maybe once a quarter, we'll do a polished launch where it's like, this is like something I'm really proud of. I want to make sure it's talked about properly. But generally we're launching like demos every single day almost. It's interesting now that everybody can put out videos and do launches every single day. How do you stand out in that world? It seems like people that are spending lots of money and trying to do fancy produced videos, that's an effort to try to get more attention and stand out and seem, you know, polished and further along than you are. But you take the opposite approach. And so in a world where there's just so much content and so many videos how you try to stand out and how others can too. I never think about it like that. I always just think about like, I want to talk about something. I think it's interesting. And there's got to be one of the person out there that thinks it's interesting. And when I click post, in my brain, I'm always like, if this gets zero attention, zero views, I'm still happy I posted it. You know, because I'm glad I got something out there. I think that should be the mentality everybody has working on their company. launching in 2026, like you can't be thinking about it. By the time I hit post, I've already forgotten it. Um, I'm looking at it maybe a week later to see how I did. How do you do that? I feel like most people, when they post something, they're, you know, incessantly just refreshing and trying to see other people liking it, who liked it. Um, but you launch and you walk away. Yeah. How did you get to that point? I mean, you just put so much garbage out there. I put so much garbage out in the world at this point, not like bad stuff, but just like stuff that I wasn't like this. I didn't think that I didn't think was good. Yeah. And. People forget the next day. I can make something right now and post it and people are going to forget the next day. That's just how... attention in 2026 kind of works you know and so this is like a perfect example this is 2021 it's a year after yc yeah i'm like i'm a solo founder i've been a solo founder at zip school and a solo founder build space solo founder now it's not like i'm that yes i know how to put a camera in front of me and edit it but i'm not a fantastic editor and so this is back when i was working on zip school which is an online elementary school and i wanted to show off the new classes that we were launching for our users and this is the launch video hey there's zip schoolers farz from zip that we just added yesterday to Zip School that we are very excited about. The first one is called Mars Preseverance Rover Landing, aimed at kids ages 7 to 12. And this class covers the Mars landing that actually... Honestly, I'm already checked out watching this video. What would you do differently? What are the mistakes that you're making in this video? I think that's the important part. It's not about that. It's about the fact that I posted it, And then it got 23 likes, which by the way is more than zero. Yeah. It got more than zero views. It got more than zero comments. It got one comment from a guy. You got a bookmark. I got a bookmark. So like. I launched. This to me is a launch. And I know that sounds dumb to maybe some, but to me, this is exactly what launching means. We did something new at the company. We talk about it. into the world. And it doesn't matter if we got 23 views. If there's a chance that we get more than one view, we should talk about it. And so this is a super small thing. This is like an everyday thing in my company because we had new classes dropping every day almost. And so I'd be like, yeah, let's talk about it. Maybe one day... I'll talk about it and one of the classes will be really interesting and get picked up and go super viral, which never happened. But the fact is, I made the videos. And over time, I got so much better at just knowing, like, how should I talk about products? Because think about it. I'm good at making videos in general and writing stories. But talking about products is hard. How do you come off without sounding shilly? How do you come off without sounding fool of yourself? And it's hard. This is funny. This is a launch. This was the first day I worked in my company, December 1st, 2020. And I shipped a landing page. Aaron, there is no copy. There's just a link. And there is some weird video I made in Canva. And I posted it. And that's a launch. to me I lost the landing page Right? In my eyes. And by the way, in this sense, I had maybe 80 followers or something. So no one was watching what I was doing. And this just continues. What is this? [20:00] I'm pretty excited for the next four years. or The USA? For zip school, for the world. It's going to be great. you And so, again, I've just been posting these for just years. And so over time, you build up. You know, it's like basketball. You just keep on going. Oh, man, this was getting closer. And you internally are a human being. You're smart. And you'll slowly get better. But if you don't take 1,000 shots, you're not going to make the 5,000th shot, you know? Clearly, your advice is just put it out there. Don't worry about it. Just put it out there. You need to get the reps. What are the things that you've learned in the five years since then? So much the tips that you could give people now in order to improve their videos and start from a better starting point than you did when you were first doing this. Totally. I want to be really clear. All my videos are like look very produced, but that's because it comes very naturally to me to make a produced video for me will take like an hour before other people may take longer. So while I'm showing this, I want to be clear, like. you don't have to produce your videos. It could just be an iPhone video and just do really well. So this is one of those videos where I just knew, even when I, when I, when I wrote the script, that it was going to go big. Uh, it doesn't have 21 million views on Instagram. And believe it or not, this one video is still driving a lot of our traffic. So that's how these algorithms work. Like they'll keep serving the content to people, to more people that want to see it. Also, I've made this video an ad now. So I'm running Facebook ads now on a video. So yeah, there's a lot of benefit to making videos for your company. Last week I went super viral for an idea that I that I thought was actually kind of terrible. And this week I'm somehow in... Why comedy? Let me show you what... - Okay, so just that hook. - Yeah. - Like, what did I say? Last week I went super viral for something I built that I thought was kind of ridiculous or whatever, bad. Cool. That's interesting. And now he's in this thing called Y Combinator. Oh, I've heard of Y Combinator. So I was kind of targeting that niche. And then a very simple, let me show you what I'm working on. My formula is always the same. This is who I am. This is what's going on. This is what I'm working on. Let me show you. Show you what I'm building. It's called Clicky. It's a little AI buddy that lives next to your computer cursor and teaches you anything in real time for free. Let's say I'm learning how to color grade in DaVinci Resolve. Instead of going to a YouTube video, I just got to ask out loud and Clicky will literally tell me exactly how to get there and even point at it for me. So again, a little pretty produced, but again, this took us like four to six hours to make because we've done this. But again, even if this was a simple video where I'm like, hi, this is what I'm working on. Check this out. And then I turn the camera to literally show my computer i think the effect may not have been as big but again you just start and you make like 10 of those then you get really good at talking about stuff but again like that video super clear hook a very clear like why you should why you should care right now why you're on your scroll and so a big thing that i always do when i watch videos uh on the internet regardless if Am I bouncing? When am I bouncing? And so if I go to Instagram Reels anytime, and this is what I do a lot, actually, I watch a lot of content, not for entertainment. Just to kind of study. And so I can go to Instagram reels page to block my long distance girlfriend and post my weight loss journey. First of all, this is a random video we just stumbled upon, right? There's so much to learn. Dark background, light on his face. Kind of a cool little caption at the bottom where it starts with two months ago. You kind of want to know two months ago, what? And you're just curious. Right. And so I'll mentally take that as a note and be like, oh, cool. Like maybe we can make a video that uses this as like a template. Maybe it's like two months ago I was working on something and I didn't really know what it was. And then tell the story. Yeah. And so, again, I'll just keep doing this. Okay. So this song just hit two million streams. You wanted to know where I've been. Welcome back to features we should have released six months ago, but we're unreleasing them now. This is cool. This is what startups should be doing. Yeah, so I'm seeing a lot of this now, but mostly younger founders, which is cool. There's almost something self-deprecating about it. You know, yours is like, ah, I have this thing that I thought was terrible. And they're, ah, this is the stuff we should have launched six months ago. And this guy's like, ah, broke up with my ex-girlfriend. Everyone wants a story. And so how can a demo just be a mini story or what you're saying be a mini story? about this where it's not actually you in the video it's the character farza And it's almost like all these people, they're a character that the audience can identify with and ultimately root for, potentially. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that, like... When a founder talks to the camera, like you come off as a certain type of way. And so totally sometimes I'm like, yeah, like I am not playing a character, but like I'm a character to the people. Right. Like when someone watches me on their little TikTok feed or the Twitter feed, like I'm just a random character in their eyes. I'm not like a real I'm a person, but I'm kind of a character. I'll show you guys this, too, which is just something we've been doing that our users have been loving. It's not going viral. but our users have been loving it and there's just these little actually some of them have been going viral which is pretty cool this is everything we built this week so clicky had been uh had some problems about like the integration and our [25:00] registration of the agents now clicky has a new brain and it will feel way more smooth to spawn the agents to control them to pause them and you're gonna see a lot of improvements overall a lot of people complaining about like clickies keep following uh them so i made a fix for them so there's no there's no hook there's no attention there's no story it's just we're a group of people and we want to tell you what we're doing this almost has a million views on instagram why do you think these are so popular I think that this is the most important thing I think about, like... companies making content. What we are doing on a day-to-day basis at our companies is so far-fetched from what most people think is actually happening at a company. And to just give them an inside look. of what's actually going on in your process is so cool. And it gets them excited. It gets them interested in what you're doing. What I'm so against and so anti is talking about my life as a founder on the internet. You will never catch me making those videos about this is my day as a YC founder. Never. Like, I'm not trying to like tell you about my life and tell you about like my, my, my, that stuff. I'm trying to show you like what I'm doing and why in new ways. And I think that most companies just never show their process for most companies. big companies, Apple Meta. You just see Mark Zuckerberg on stage and he's showing you his Meta glasses. But, A lot of people, especially early adopters of products that I'm sure many YC founders are working on, are interested in just like, who are these random group of four guys and girls that are making this AI product and how are they doing it? And just telling... We make these videos in 10 minutes and it's just, hey, just get up. What are you doing today? And yeah, it's interesting. It's funny when we started making these, we just made them just to stay accountable. Uh, cause it was, uh, it was good to kind of tell the people what we call like stand up in front of the world. Yeah. And so, uh, yeah. That was kind of the idea. And now we do these every two weeks and it's been really fun. Yeah, that's really cool. I think another thing that comes across here is not even just the words that you're saying, but like the joy. that is in the videos. And I think people see that in your personality. And I think they see that in the music that you choose. And everybody's kind of like clapping and supporting each other as they're giving their update. And it's just like positive vibes are coming through the video. And how do you capture that? See, this is so weird because this is where you just have to be yourself. I keep saying that people always say, how do I start making videos about my company or videos about what I'm working on or have some presence? And it's always the same feedback. Make take out your iPhone. click record, go selfie mode, and talk about what you're doing for 30 seconds and post that to your Instagram. Post that to your TikTok and then post it to Reddit and Instagram or Reddit and YouTube or wherever. And you know how many people take me up on that? Almost like maybe 1%, 2% of the time, people will actually do it. Why, though? If I told you right now, I mean, maybe you're different. I don't know. You're probably different. You're Aaron Epstein. But if I tell you to pull out your phone and record a video, how does that make you feel? And then post it to your personal Instagram. Oh, yeah. You get nervous about it. Like, what am I going to say? Yeah. How am I going to look? What if people think it's stupid? Yeah. And all these thoughts, I think, go through people's heads and they're afraid of. Yeah, you're like, my high school friend follows me. He doesn't care about this, what I'm working on. Nobody cares. But See, that's the thing, like, There's so much value to... You got to be cringe for a little while, actually, to learn how to not be cringe. And so a lot of people will post their first video and be like, this is horrible. I'm not even posting this. But then I think the important part is to continue doing it. And so again... Every day as a founder, founders watching on YouTube at YC, you're spending eight hours on your laptop making magic, smiling, seeing things that you find are interesting. If you just spend... even 10 minutes to step back and ask yourself, what's something I did today that made me smile or was interesting or felt new? And just talk about it and then show it and then click post. and then close it. back to work. That's all you have to do. That's what it means to be launching, I think, in 2026, just to show your work. Because that is what launching is, right? When you launch on Tech Crunch or New York Times, like you're showing your work. But in 2026, you can show your work every day. And you can actually get an audience just by showing your work every day. A lot of people think, well, I'm not targeting Gen Z or whoever stereotypically TikTok users, Instagram users. Therefore, I should not use that as a channel to try to acquire my business cureman or whatever but it sounds like your argument is like that's not true there's all kinds of people oh yeah using these platforms that are real humans that happen to work at companies where they could be your customer oh yeah and be interested in seeing your product right yes everybody in the world is on the Not everybody in the world, but a large majority of the world is browsing through these platforms. Billions. Yes. We found that design agencies really loved our product, like three of them that found us naturally. So the question became, how do we get more design agencies? Now, I'm curious, what would you do if you take yourself back like to... [30:00] founder mode aaron oh i don't know probably the default for a lot of people is like go look on linkedin and you know try to find people that list the place they work as a design agency or go to communities that they hang out in or like specialized design totally websites or something and those are all actually really good you should do those things but at the same time do you think a design agency founders on tiktok or instagram or youtube do you think they're on these platforms The answer is probably yes. It's probably a lot of them. And so we started making TikToks. I remember, I don't have the account pulled up here. That was just targeting design agencies. I would literally say, hey, are you a design agency? Or hey, are you the founder of a design agency? Stop right there. Let me show you something really cool. And then that's how we found like 50 design agency leads just through TikTok. And these videos didn't go viral. They each on average had like 4,000 views. But it was probably 4,000 targeted views. 4,000 targeted views. So the goal of Michael is never to go viral. It's just. I want to talk about what I'm working on and I want to make sure it's, listened to by an audience that would be actually interested in what I'm doing. How do you think about the different channels? Every channel is different. I'll say off the bat, Twitter is our worst, in the history, I've been making stuff on Twitter for like 10 years, the worst conversion of any channel. Like this video, the original Clicky video, Got 7,000 downloads on 3 million views. If you do the math there, it's like less than 1% or some crazy low. Much less. It's very low. Screen aware dictation, this video, right? 2.9 million views on Twitter. But the conversion rate onto those people actually making accounts was horrendously low. This YouTube video, has 20,000 views. But do you know what the conversion rate on this video is? It's like 20% to them actually downloading the app. Wow. So the chances of you watching this video and downloading my app was 20%. Do you think that's something specific to the channel? Yeah, you know, every channel is different. Think about it. I'm on Twitter. I'm just like doom scrolling, basically. Not really doom scrolling. I'm just scrolling through random stuff all the time. And so for YouTube, it was so surprising. And so historically, actually, YouTube is, for most companies, the best performing channel in terms of conversion. But look, our numbers are very low. 872 subscribers, 20K views. I'm not Mr. Beast, you know, but again, if you do the math, this leads to a very real number of signups and this video will keep on performing. That's the most important part. This YouTube is a library that will last for decades. Twitter, you got your moment once and you're gone. Instagram is another one that's so important. All of our traffic, I think, 70% of our traffic is Instagram. This is where you got to be smart. You're like, I'm not trying to go viral. I'm trying to make Tell people what I'm doing, but I'm again, like down the funnel, how many people actually converted? It's worth checking out. And so that's what I think people should always make their video and then make the first couple of videos, but then start to ask themselves, maybe I should make my, for example, our link in bio is slash IG. Why? Because then I can track like, wait a second, what was the conversion rate of people who hit slash IG and downloaded my app? Or if it landed on their phone, we have a little button that lets them send it to themselves over email. How many of them clicked that? What's the conversion rate? And so by posting on all these channels, you start to see not only where I'm performing views wise, but actually just like, where is my best channel right now in terms of the audience I'm looking for. And again, for us, it is by far Instagram. And it's not even close. And you're basically using the same content for every channel. Yes, I do make videos for specific platforms. So most of our videos we make for Instagram, but then we post to Twitter, whereas some videos we make for Twitter and then post to Instagram. What is the difference between one that targets one versus the other? So simple. I mean, Twitter generally doesn't like vertical videos. It likes 16:9. So then this, for example, we have this drawing video. So we have a system that can draw directly on your screen. It can draw polygons, arrows. This is super optimized for Twitter, because let's just watch Ready? Okay, guy in front of Blackboard, AI, draw screen, I'll watch. It's that quick. It's like, AI, draw screen, Blackboard, he's drawing things, Claude Opus, demo, click. You know, like... My brain thinks like that. 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 this type of video wouldn't perform that good, but it has millions of views. And it's a vertical video, because on their phone, it looks even worse. It looks like this. 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 um 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 uh [35:00] 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 uh the videos that you're creating here yeah either i have good taste or i just put out so much stuff and some of them just hit 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 totally i think i have more the latter where i just put out so yeah Again, we're looking at the stuff that's working, but so much hasn't worked. Right. Like my old Zip School videos, nobody cared. Yeah. But 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. And so we can watch it real quick. All right. 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. Thank you. . Rock on. It's playing back in black now. Amazing, amazing. Click A, click A. It's a little bit loud. Could you turn it down in Spotify 50%? It's so loud. Got it. Lowering Spotify to 50%, so it's less intense. Okay, thank you. Hey, Clicky, can you open up my... So now I'm going to keep going. And this is actually a fun one. Thrive dashboard for me in my browser. Let's see if we made any money today. Opening your Stripe dashboard now. Oh man, $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. I didn't check if anybody did it before. I was just like, I'm going to make a video. Turns out I did something very novel. And again, the examples I used, playing a song on Spotify and lowering the volume. That's exactly the first use case that I had as a user myself. Yeah. And so again, always building for like the version of myself that's kind of watching out there because if i think that's cool i think someone else would too and hey look 3.8 million views on Twitter. Really good. But again, then Instagram, 4.6 million. You know, people always say like, you got to be super like, your brain has to be rotten when you're scrolling Instagram and you got to have a lot of quick edits and blah, blah, blah. Like there's not a single cut in this video. 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, 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. Oh, of course. That's all purposeful. Yeah. 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 dashboard and somebody goes, I wonder how much money they made today. There's always, there's, yeah, I'm always just trying to keep the story moving. I'm not trying to keep your attention. That's actually the wrong way to look at it. I'm always trying to, I'm always like, all right where is this going come on you know you're like come on keep going when you hear someone talking like let's get to the end of the story okay you went to the movies and and so you just keep doing that endlessly yeah And so, 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. 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 this. Mm-hmm. Am I here? 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. That's funny. Like most people who work on videos a lot have this little beat system in their head. I think another thing that's unique is you actually invest a lot in your early team, which is small, basis. Yeah. I mean, I always say like, I'm okay at videos. There are people out there who, who are way better at me. My first two hires were, I knew from the beginning, even before I started my company, it's going to be number one, a filmmaker, and number two, an engineer. And it's number one is filmmaker for me. That is the first one. Or whatever order they can come in. Why was that so important to you? I don't want to put a ton of attention on making videos. I mean, any founder watching, any founder in YC... Nobody wants to do that every day. At some level, you do have to in the beginning, in the early days. And yeah, I mean, look at my clicky videos. I'm forcing myself to just make videos and make stuff every day. At one point... you're like, well, This would be really great if someone's full-time job at my company was to kind of observe what we were doing and help us launch and constantly make it their mission to make us look good when we launch as well and make us come off properly. And so that's why... a filmmaker was one of the first hires i made at this company and my last company our film team was two people we were only like a seven [40:00] person team. Yeah. So even at this company, at one point, Hey Clicky, we had three people making videos and one engineer. Cause it's so funny now, um, It's so easy to pump out more code and more software, but it's harder than ever to actually talk about what you are doing in a coherent way in front of an audience. Because now, Aaron, you know, someone can... clone my product in like two minutes at this point but again what they what's really hard to clone is the audience and the community that i built around what i'm doing and the energy around it if you had an audience around your company you're I'll say 100,000 people that was really into what you were doing, maybe enterprise AI, you know, maybe something around like photography or whatever, whatever your niche is, that'd be useful. Because that's why, you know, I can make a video now about a new feature. And like thousands of people flood my app. That's awesome. That's like every founder's dream. Right. Tell us more about the gear that you're using today to produce these videos. Yeah. So for demos on my computer, which is just like what I'm hacking on that day, I always use this thing called Screen Studio. I think it's made by some indie hacker. It's just really good. It records your screen, records your local audio, makes your cursor look good. And I think it costs like 30 bucks. That's like one level. Then the next level is like, well, videos that more include me in a more kind of like a kind of native way and for that i just pull my iphone literally just a selfie camera and just record myself talking post or edit on my phone even um i use uh on my phone uh it's uh instagram's editing too it's called edits a lot so when i i do edit on my phone a good amount so that's the iphone nothing else required but then there's like the next level where it's like you feel like you want to do something a little bit more kind of like thought through cinematic uh and that's where i use my sony fx3 and sony fx 30 or sony fx3 the cheaper one along with a dji mic it's actually funny the most important this is actually so important i i can't believe i missed this the most important thing in any video you make Doesn't matter if it's a shitty loom or a shitty like little video or your iPhone is audio quality. If your audio is bad, I'm bouncing. I've watched some demos that are like 720p and just like the guy's in like a weird room in a basement, but his audio is crisp. And what he's working on is actually genuinely interesting. So I stick around. And so I don't care about the rest of it. I don't care what he looks like, anything. I'm like, I can hear him and I can see what he's doing. That's it. And so I think if every founder could just invest in one of those super cheap DJI mics, find them used online or just any mic. stills don't count yeah uh that would be really good and then for editing on my actual uh laptop i use davinci yeah uh and maybe the most important part of my stack he's not here right now but vik ronth vik ronth has made all the hate clicky videos and without that guy making me look good and making us look good None of this would happen. And so I don't want to sit here and be like, I made all these videos and did all this stuff. Every video we just looked at, apart from the bad zip school ones, which were made by me, are made by Vikrant. And so having a person that is actually talented at filmmaking, storytelling, writing next to you is like the biggest thing. a bonus a founder could have today. So a big part of how I work with Vikrant, who's the person who helps me with all these videos, is we just brainstorm. We're like, "Hey, we made this feature." What should, how should we make the video now? What are we thinking? Where should we do it? And so Vikrant is actually the main guy that's like, hmm, I had this shot idea. Or hmm, I had this hook idea. Or hey, I have this other idea. And often I'm the guy that's bringing the script. and the song and the vibe that I'm going for. Because as the founder, I think you'll slowly find what are the things that you're good at in video making. There's some aspect to it. So for me, I find I'm really good at writing and I'm really good at the music. And then Vikrant is good at literally everything else from shooting to picking the set to editing after to, you know, all the little motion graphics he does. Just so talented. And then as the founder, me as Farza, I can go back to focusing on growth. Hiring. making the product. I don't want to spend all my time making videos. You know, I don't think any founder watching this wants to do that. And look, I think a lot of these, a lot of people watching probably can't afford to hire a filmmaker or like an actual person on their team. They're maybe just solo with a co-founder. And what I'll say is, hey, go back to my old Zip School videos, go back to just scroll through any of my social media and look at all my old shitty videos and just start somewhere. That's the most important thing about making launch videos and launching today is you got to start. And the more you keep doing it every day, the more natural to become. And slowly, hopefully more people check out your product. Hopefully you can then hire someone that does it even better than you. So, for example, I'm not the engineer at my company anymore. I'm not the core engineer. I have someone that's a lot better than me. And same with filmmaking, same with design, same with every aspect of my company. But the early days as a founder of... Doing everything. You're doing taxes. You're doing design. You're doing filmmaking. You've got to do everything. You can't be a little baby about it. You've got to take out your camera and start posting some cringe stuff because in order to not be cringe, you must first be cringe. So yeah. Yeah. [45:00] for all of my writing. I always use this thing called FreeWrite. It's free to download, freewrite.io. It's my app. I built it actually just for this purpose. Yeah, free, open source. You can check it out. Maybe this is one thing I didn't mention at all before is writing is so important. So spend as much time possible before the video writing it. So before you get in front of the camera and maybe record it, if you've never made a video, Don't worry about this, but if you're like on your 15th 20th 30th video, I try writing try writing for just 10 minutes about what the what it should be and then record it um you'll find that the more you think through it before you get to the video uh the better it can possibly get because then you can catch a bad idea before it gets here. And that's it. That's my stack. I think you have a challenge for everybody who's watching for something they can do today to get started, right? My challenge to everyone watching this is... If you've never really made videos or if you have never really talked about your work online, but you've been hacking, you've been tinkering, you've been working on something. Super simple. Every day, just spend 10 minutes, take your phone out, iPhone or Android. It's okay. And then just record yourself talking about what you were doing, what you did that day. And then post it to your social media of choice, Instagram, TikTok. You know what? Make a new Instagram account so your existing followers don't even know. Just post it somewhere. and do that for 30 days straight. And I promise you within those 30 days, one of those videos will surpass probably a thousand views. And then you can look back and ask yourself, That one did a thousand views. maybe the next one and you can learn from that and you can make the next one uh based off the one that got a thousand views and you can slowly get better and better and better that's a challenge yeah 30 days straight every day one video send it to me uh i'll be i'll be i'll be one of your likes If you're doing this challenge, go for it. And it's never been easier to do this, right? To get that message out. It's never been easier. It's never been easier. Farza, thank you so much for being here. This is incredible advice. Thanks, Ahmed.