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Interviewing indie founders about their journey and their products. itslaunchday.com
Dagobert Renouf (00:01)
Hey, Leira, welcome to lunch day.
Lera (00:04)
Hey, Dago, nice to meet you, finally.
Dagobert Renouf (00:07)
Yeah, after years of knowing each other on And you wanted to be in launch day and I told you I wasn't sure because it's like an agency and product at the same time. And I remember you started basically with a product, a generate shorts, I think, ⁓ for social media from a long form video. And then you ended up doing an agency.
mostly from that. So I think that was interesting to have you because I think it's an interesting trajectory that I think quite a few people do actually. I thought that was cool.
Lera (00:46)
Yeah, we also, we're not like just an agency, we're like a productized agency. use our clip-in application too in our work. yeah, it's probably... Yes, yes. Not for editing, but for finding... So we do short form clips from long form videos and to find the best moments that we can clip, we use clip-in. We just upload it, get the transcript and work with the text. So yeah.
Dagobert Renouf (00:57)
You use your own product. Yeah, okay, cool.
Yeah.
I see, see,
Yeah, because that's the hard part is finding the right moment. And I might need you because for launch day, I want to do more clips, but it's so time consuming. I cannot do it. I don't want to do it. So yeah, we'll talk about that later. But so before that, my God. So where are you from actually? Where are you? Where do you live?
Lera (01:31)
Yeah.
⁓
I live in Poland, but originally I'm from Belarus and I live in Poland. It's my first year here already.
Dagobert Renouf (01:47)
Okay how do you like it?
Lera (01:49)
To say honestly, ⁓ of course it's fine, it's interesting, but of course I prefer to live in my motherland, but it's not possible, so I just used to live in another country. But Europe is quite interesting, yeah.
Dagobert Renouf (02:05)
And
And how is the relationship with Polish people? Because, for example, my fiancee is Russian and she literally cannot go to Poland, ⁓ because of the war and everything. And so how is it for you? Belarus is kind of like in the middle.
Lera (02:16)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
⁓ It's very, they are...
Like Poland is a great place for Belarusian people and for Ukrainian people. So like, I think there are a lot of, I don't know, maybe even more Belarusians here than Ukrainian people here. Because we started to move here not when war started, but in 2020 year. It's about political reason. So we started moving here like a long time ago. It's fun for Belarusians,
Dagobert Renouf (02:41)
wow, okay.
Yeah.
Okay, I see.
Lera (02:58)
But yeah, there are some moments right now, like some protests about immigrants, like anti-immigrants events, all this stuff. But I believe everything should be good. We're in Europe, we live in modern society, and I believe it should be good, yeah.
Dagobert Renouf (03:22)
Yeah.
Yeah, good. So how did you...
So what were you doing when you were in Belarus? Did you have a job? Were you creating products? How was it?
Lera (03:40)
No, I was a designer, a designer. ⁓ And also when I moved to Poland, I also was a designer. ⁓ And only then, there was one moment when I started thinking about something, to build something myself. It was even before I was in love with building public community on Nix, on Twitter. And it was a moment when, in my...
Dagobert Renouf (03:44)
Okay.
Lera (04:07)
9 to 5, they had like a nano fund event when we have a lot of founders and they all building products, they sharing their ⁓ updates, fails, wins, all this stuff. Yeah, we had this community and I was a designer, there was also, yeah, sorry.
Dagobert Renouf (04:24)
And
what was your 925 that gave that thing? Because that sounds awesome.
Lera (04:30)
Parallect. Parallect. goes... Yeah. It is like outsource company, ⁓ but they had some events like VC, NanoFund stuff. So yeah. ⁓
Dagobert Renouf (04:33)
Okay, have no idea. Is it like an agency? Is it a big, what is it?
Okay.
Nano fund,
does that mean just like small fund? I guess.
Lera (04:51)
⁓ They had this name, I don't remember why, ⁓ it wasn't, it was, you know, they haven't like invest, they had no investment for these startups, but they have like non-agreed challenge. And we have, I don't remember how, like the number, but let's say 10 startups, they all accepted this challenge. They shared their updates. Some of them was too lazy for it. Some of there was like, yes, we want to be entrepreneurs. And we had a,
Dagobert Renouf (05:21)
Yeah.
Lera (05:21)
And the winners, like Parallect, they built a startup for them. So it was like investment.
Dagobert Renouf (05:30)
Yeah, I see, see, cool. So there was this event and you see founders building their own thing and I started getting you thinking, that got you thinking of what you wanted to do.
Lera (05:39)
Not really, because it's the first time I was there. I should be their designer, like design prototypes very fast for all of them. ⁓ But there was a girl who should... ⁓
talk to all these founders, ⁓ plan everything, all this stuff. And she was like, she went on vacation and I was like, I want to try it. And I was like, wow, it's so cool to communicate with all these people. ⁓ And yeah, because they had no idea about Twitter and I was already on Twitter. Like I had maybe 50 followers, but I followed a lot of people. I learned some stuff from them and I tried like,
Dagobert Renouf (06:05)
Yeah.
Lera (06:22)
I understood that I already know a lot of things that I can share based on people experience that I learn on Twitter. And I just felt that I like it. I like to share what I know. I like to also like...
Dagobert Renouf (06:31)
Yeah.
Lera (06:42)
watch how people build their stuff and when I also see that I have something to share why I'm just making designs and not something more. So yeah, that was the moment.
Dagobert Renouf (06:56)
Wait, you mean like you wanted to share more than just designs? That's because you wanted to share that you started to do more? Is that what you're saying?
Lera (07:04)
When I started, like ⁓ I was sharing only, like I was a designer, but I understood that I want to be more than a designer. I also already have something to share and I want to share it. So when we started, yeah, when I started building in public, it wasn't about product because I had no product, but I just wanted to share what I'm doing, ⁓ even on my nine to five. And then it just...
Dagobert Renouf (07:15)
Yeah, I see.
Yeah, this
experience of talking with the founders gave you, plus Twitter, like this connection with people was something that you enjoyed and sharing. Yeah, no, I relate because yeah, that's the same for me. I was just building things and then I just was desperate to get some sales. So I started spamming link to my preview startup on Twitter. And then eventually I started talking with people and like, wait, we can have friends and we can be, and I was 10 times more interesting. So yeah.
Lera (07:37)
Yes, yes, a lot, a lot.
Yeah.
Dagobert Renouf (07:59)
That's really cool. You know, when I think of you, I think of crazy videos. I remember this. I don't know where. I forget exactly what, but...
Lera (08:05)
You
Dagobert Renouf (08:13)
Like I remember you doing like editing videos with like crazy effects on it. Like maybe I'm wrong with like with some explosions and some shit like some crazy sounds like some really super creative like super cool shit. So how was so you were a designer and how did you get into making videos? Was it how did it happen?
Lera (08:33)
⁓ So actually it started ⁓ when I started building Flipping application. ⁓ I was still a designer, but there is Igor Momentum on Twitter and he had a... Yes. ⁓ my God. my God. Let me check if it's working.
Dagobert Renouf (08:45)
wait, can I ask you to show some of your designs you used to do? Just out of curiosity, if you have some, if you can. Just curious.
You don't have to, yeah.
Lera (09:02)
Maybe. Yeah, one moment.
The only thing I have right now is probably that I can ⁓ easily find is my Dribbble, but it has just some shots. I will share it.
Do you see it? So here's some, ⁓ just some shots. And also I was an illustrator when I started, so also some illustrations by me.
Dagobert Renouf (09:28)
Yeah, cool.
super cool stuff.
They look cool, yeah, I love the designs. I just noticed this Crystal Castle's album, because I know them, so that just reminds me, you made an app for that. Was it just all for your agency you were working at, for this big company? Or was it personal things?
Lera (09:46)
Yeah.
Thank
⁓
I haven't published anything from this, my 9to5, but before this I worked as a designer in design agency, but we wasn't like allowed to post something because it was like everything on NDA that can be posted, published only on corporate Dribbble account.
Dagobert Renouf (10:20)
Yeah.
Lera (10:20)
So
yeah, without mentioning the designer name. yeah, nothing from me.
Dagobert Renouf (10:26)
That's kind of frustrating,
especially if you have this desire to share that you talked about. You cannot share what you work on. That's kind of sad. Yeah.
Lera (10:34)
Yeah, yeah, but ⁓ then on mine, like, you know, when you work on design agency, you do a lot of stuff and you have something to share. But when you have a ⁓ work like ⁓ product designer at the product company, because I worked for three years as a product designer in one startup and I had nothing to share honestly, because it was about very, very boring, like tables, all this stuff. Yes.
Dagobert Renouf (11:00)
Yeah, wireframes,
super like deep stuff, but not like visually interesting. Yeah, Yeah, see. Okay. So eventually you had this itch to go on your own. And so what's the first thing you did on that journey?
Lera (11:18)
⁓ So the first thing that I made, like the really first thing was ⁓ launching Momentum page on Product Hunt. was also years ago, it was Igor's product, but he, Igor Momentum on Twitter and he's my friend and he asked me to help with marketing stuff. Yes.
Dagobert Renouf (11:38)
Can you show us his Twitter page so we know who that is?
Lera (12:02)
Can you see my screen? Yeah, I think that is. Here's Igor. Yeah. So yeah, we decided to, he asked me to help with Momentum because he also started building in public and he wanted to publish it on Product Hunt and I was a designer so he was like, help with creative pictures, something like that. ⁓ It is a no-code landing page builder.
Dagobert Renouf (12:04)
Yeah? yeah, yeah.
And what was the product?
Lera (12:31)
We also had inside some stuff at the moment like a feed when you can copy your best, collect your best tweets or articles or LinkedIn posts, all this stuff in one place. ⁓ Yeah, so we decided to launch it and I helped with pictures, also with videos, all this marketing stuff and we won product hunt. ⁓
Dagobert Renouf (12:41)
Hmm.
Lera (12:55)
the product of the day and also product of the week. So this was the moment when I woke up like famous because I had a lot of followers finally. ⁓
Dagobert Renouf (13:03)
And I think your
design style is the big reason for that.
Lera (13:09)
Yes, maybe because it was times when I was really creative and...
Dagobert Renouf (13:13)
Now I remember
that you do some crazy but interesting things, like crazy in a good way. Do you mind showing momentum, or the launch page? Because I remember, think. I'm sorry for asking you all this, but I noticed it's cool to show people examples and it's more fun.
Lera (13:18)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yes. ⁓
So here we are. Well, I need to.
Dagobert Renouf (13:47)
And how long ago
was this? A few years ago.
Lera (13:50)
So we, Igor built it by himself. We also, I think he was building it maybe for three months and like six months in total in marketing on Twitter, maybe even less. ⁓ And then published it. Then in a few months we started PlayPring. So momentum was like...
Igor still has a momentum page and clipping website also built on momentum. But it's still live, but Igor doesn't just spend any time on it. it's it's out of...
Dagobert Renouf (14:34)
I see. And ClipWing
is just you or you're also working with him still?
Lera (14:38)
⁓
It is just me, but ⁓ he helps a lot with it. I don't have a developer, but we still have application and I don't know how to say it. like when something breaks in Cliffhanger, he can help with it because he was CTO. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he just...
Dagobert Renouf (14:56)
Yeah, for sure. And
how did you get the idea for ClipWing, which is your product, like from Momentum? Momentum, how did you?
Lera (15:02)
Mm-hmm.
So yeah, was also when ⁓ it was like the best times of building in public on Twitter and people already started some hosting some podcasts and Igor also had a podcast, do it in public. I will also show it on YouTube. ⁓
Dagobert Renouf (15:23)
Yeah.
Lera (15:42)
So here we are.
Dagobert Renouf (15:45)
Yes.
Lera (15:47)
⁓ So yeah, Igor had this podcast and he was like, I want to create clips, but I hate all these video editing software because they are to overload it. I want to make clips, but I don't want to spend time on it, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, okay, let me design it. And I just started designing it and I was like, okay, so why not to build it and... ⁓
I wanted to do something and we finally got an idea. And we also, the crazy moment that we also recorded our design call because I made the first prototype and we had a call when we discussed, we just went through this Figma file. We discussed every frame of it. It was like one hour, maybe even longer call and we published it on Twitter. So like...
Dagobert Renouf (16:11)
Wow, this... Yeah.
And did
people watch it?
Lera (16:42)
Yes, I think yes, but not a lot of people because I still had like less than 200 followers at the moment and but it was also the times when people were more active and there was like closer to each other. So yeah, I always
Dagobert Renouf (16:56)
Yeah, yeah,
the algorithm also was different and you could have smaller numbers and still have people who see you every day and you build a small community like this. I think I'm maybe making some changes now. It's going to be a bit more like that, I hope. Okay. So, ClipWing. It started as a product, like a complete... What was the initial idea when you launched it? Like to just make a product?
Lera (17:01)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Dagobert Renouf (17:26)
or to also provide some services, how did it came together?
Lera (17:31)
So I had clipping as a product and I wanted it to be product. I was like reading all these tweets, how it's easy to build a product and get millions of money. And I was like, why can't do it? I also can do it. I know so much about it. But no, I failed with it because I was building clipping for like one year. And...
Dagobert Renouf (17:43)
Yeah.
So yeah.
Lera (17:59)
And I think that my most successful month was when I had like three paying clients at once. Yeah, only three paying clients. For paid plan, it was $29 per month.
Dagobert Renouf (18:09)
Yeah, for the product. And how much was the product? How much it cost? It wasn't super expensive.
Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah, okay.
Lera (18:21)
Yeah,
just a regular price, but yeah, only three clients. ⁓ Good thing that these clients who subscribed, they haven't unsubscribed then. So they were using, yeah. So they probably like the product and they also... One client still uses this, yes.
Dagobert Renouf (18:32)
⁓
Still now?
Lera (18:41)
And also we got a lot of feedback ⁓ from these users. They were very supportive. Those people who stayed for a long time, they were very supportive. they were also like, ⁓ if something breaks, if we have any bugs, ⁓ they were like... ⁓ They haven't like...
Dagobert Renouf (18:46)
Yeah.
Lera (19:04)
pressed unsubscribe and find any other solutions. They told us about this box and we fixed it and everything was really really cool with it. But yeah, only three.
Dagobert Renouf (19:07)
Yeah.
Yeah,
but the first users is awesome because like they give a shit, they're not gonna accuse you, like they understand also, you know, it's a new product. They're usually kind of like, you know, it's like a special type of people. For example, me, which I'm ashamed to say, I almost never use new products. I'm like very conservative. And so I'm like, I'm waiting.
So I feel ashamed of it because I'm doing launch day to support indie makers and new products, but me, it's really not usually something I do. It's very rare that I do it. ⁓ But yeah, when you find people who are willing to take the risk with you and they're excited and they want to help build the product, they want to give you feedback, that's that's amazing. When you have that, it gives you so much hope and everything. So that's really cool. Yeah.
Lera (20:03)
Yeah, was even like, ⁓ thank you for using Klingon ⁓ and I offered ⁓ free subscription to upgrade manually for free because they give us feedback. It's very cool for me. Not everyone will spend time on giving feedback. And so I was offering a free upgraded plan, but they was like, no, we want to pay for the product we use. And I was like, my God, thank you. Thank you so much.
Dagobert Renouf (20:18)
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's
amazing. That's what's beautiful about, you know, this community. So, okay, so it didn't work. ⁓ And so how did you come about kind of pivoting to doing the short creation yourself?
Lera (20:47)
⁓ So it started also with ⁓ people launching their products on Product Hunt and having these launch videos when it's just started. Not the cinematic videos, not these fancy videos, but just promo videos. ⁓ Yes.
Dagobert Renouf (21:01)
Yeah, with text and like, how do you call it? You know, I
forget, like after effects shit, like, you know, like that. Yeah.
Lera (21:07)
Yeah, yeah.
So people started to make these videos and I was like, okay, my product is about videos, but I have no idea how to sell this product, how to market this product. Nothing works for me. But in my nine to five, there was a video editor.
that has no tasks. Like she was working on this 9 to 5 but no one needs her so I was like okay maybe I need her and I decided to why not to take her to a clip ring team. For some yeah not for full time but for some projects because I was trying to make I was like I had an idea to make in public some launch videos for some products
Dagobert Renouf (21:43)
Wow.
Lera (21:56)
quite simple based on the content on the website. So I see the website, I see the title, I see the main ⁓ button, like call to action, see some screenshot of that product, and it can be a video. So we started to make these videos. I published it on Twitter. ⁓ When we made near 50 videos, I think, for free, I started to sell it. Like it was my offer, promo videos.
Dagobert Renouf (22:24)
Yeah, So you make 50 videos for free for founders and they put it on their product hunt launch?
Lera (22:24)
And the price was...
⁓ Some of them just reposted it, some of them maybe never needed it. I was just making these videos and sharing in public on Twitter and yes, it's up to them if they use it. But I made my portfolio and also got testimonials for this. ⁓ And then I started selling it ⁓ for $9.
Dagobert Renouf (22:39)
Yeah, okay.
Can you show
your favorite video from this time?
Lera (22:55)
Yeah, I also still have a page for requesting promo videos. And here are some... I don't know, maybe this is good. I will share it. But I will share it maybe without sound.
Dagobert Renouf (23:04)
Okay.
Yeah, I guess.
Cool.
Yeah, so guess if people are just listening on Spotify, they're not gonna see shit, but it's a very cool video. ⁓ Animated, okay, see some tweets. You're animating everything. Yeah, that's awesome. Like really, like it's 10 times better than just the basic thing people put on Product Hunt. Yeah.
Lera (23:45)
Sorry, I missed. Sorry,
can you repeat? it was with sound, so I haven't heard.
Dagobert Renouf (23:53)
Yeah, yeah, you
muted. No, yes, I was saying it's really cool how like it's for most people who launch and I see it on launch day. Lots of people, don't have anything, you know, that looks decent. So they have to create it. And that's like such a game changer once you have a cool video to introduce your product. Because oftentimes the landing page or just the title, people don't get it. But with a short video, you know, 10 times better. So very high impact, I think.
for lot of people.
Lera (24:24)
Yeah, and for that ⁓ times, I think it was really, really cool because videos were something new. And when you see a video, it's now we're a bit overloaded with these videos, especially when they became very, very similar. Like all these cinematic launch videos, they all look like from the same founder about the same product. But this was times when you could be...
Dagobert Renouf (24:33)
Yes.
What do you mean by
cinematic launch video? I don't know what mean.
Lera (24:51)
⁓ It's
something like ⁓ Clue videos. not Clue, Clue-ally.
Dagobert Renouf (25:01)
⁓ clearly, okay. Well, you need some budget for that, know, like filming the founder. ⁓ Yeah.
Lera (25:02)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, and this, I guess it was the first video in this style and it looked dope, it was cool. But then everyone started making it, so it was like about... ⁓ It looks still very, very good. I like to watch it, but sometimes it just, I don't understand what is it about and if it's something new or I already saw this video, so kind of that.
Dagobert Renouf (25:15)
Yeah.
Yeah,
good point, good point, yeah.
Lera (25:30)
But yeah, at this time there was something new in the feed and people wasn't scrolling, they were stopping and watching the video and yeah.
Dagobert Renouf (25:39)
And what do you think
people should do now in 2025 to get people to stop scrolling? What kind of video? Or maybe not a video, but...
Lera (25:49)
I honestly still believe in personal branding ⁓ and it should be not focused on the person, it should have a story. It should have a talking hat ⁓ or just this character that is like...
Dagobert Renouf (26:03)
Yeah.
Lera (26:13)
So when we're talking about product, we usually ⁓ know who is founder. someone is talking about clipping, probably think about Lara or lunch day thinks about Dago. So yeah, and it's very important to see the videos that you can understand whom to, ⁓ I forgot it, like associated with someone.
Dagobert Renouf (26:36)
Yeah, yeah, associated. Yeah, yeah, I get it. That's what I'm trying to do with launch day. That's why I decided to do interviews. Because I think nobody gives a shit about products, but we give a shit about people and then we can be interested in their products. That's why I focus on people and then on products. Yeah.
Lera (26:38)
Yeah. And if you build
Yes. ⁓
Yes,
that's what I was trying to say, but you made it better.
Dagobert Renouf (27:02)
Okay, no, that's interesting. Yeah, so focus more on the story, the person, maybe also why they're building the product, the whole idea behind it. Yeah, because there's too many products now, so you need to... This is the story that matters, I think. Awesome. And now you're doing ClipWing.
Where, so how did you go from these videos to, you already were making these shorts, you know, you made these shorts to help ⁓ Igor initially and then it became your main offer. Is that it? So is that what ClipWing does now mostly?
Lera (27:37)
⁓ So yeah, yeah, we mostly make clips and we like this promo videos that we also made it's ⁓ still our offer but I don't promote it and I don't really like this offer ⁓ but still keep it because yeah people may need promo video but our main offer is ⁓ video production for like video editing for long-form videos and for short-form videos ⁓
Dagobert Renouf (27:51)
Yeah.
Lera (28:05)
So yeah, we do.
Dagobert Renouf (28:06)
And you're still
working with this girl who you had hired initially for... No? Just you now?
Lera (28:10)
No, totally new
team. Like, you know, ⁓ yes, yes, we can. was, you know, some, love creating creative people, but some creative people, are not for startups, I think, because ⁓ when you work in startup, you need another like mindset ⁓ when you don't like work like...
Dagobert Renouf (28:14)
What happened? Can you tell us an interesting story about it? ⁓
Lera (28:38)
For me, ⁓ people with whom I prefer to work are people who are very responsive and they know that they have a deadline, they have a task, they need to finish this task.
Like how we work, I don't care if it's like eight hours a day work day or more or less. So if my guys work like two hours a day, it's fine. If they made everything, it's fine. I don't care if they need to track another six hours a day. But if it's not enough to make something in eight days, in eight hours, sorry, mean hours, ⁓ if it's not enough, so please continue working and make it because it's our like, we have these deliveries.
Dagobert Renouf (29:23)
Yeah.
Lera (29:25)
And there was some moments when we haven't finished tasks until deadline because she said like, was near my laptop and 9 a.m. I was, I'm already tired. So it's not my problem. And I was like, but it's not how it works. And it's our brand, like my brand because they always put me everywhere. And I was like...
Dagobert Renouf (29:47)
Yeah. And also,
maybe she was used to working in bigger companies and so it didn't matter. And but you at your level, it does matter. You you cannot if you let a client down, like, you know, it's fucked everything up. So yeah.
Lera (29:57)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, and it happens also several times and I was honestly very scared to say goodbye to her because I was like, maybe I won't find good people. Maybe, maybe it's my problem. Maybe really people can't work like that. But now I have five video editors and they all are very, very good. They're, I love my team. They are very good. They are very responsive. They are very creative. And I had never.
such problems during all this time.
Dagobert Renouf (30:36)
You know, I'm
kind of like impressed because you have a team and you hired this girl initially. So how did you feel the confidence to do this? Because that's kind of risky, you know. So did you have clients rolling in already? Like for example, when you took the first person, her, how was it like to do that? Because that's a risk.
Lera (30:59)
It's very risky, ⁓ but I also understood that if I won't take these risks, I'll be like...
When I haven't got any risks, I was just building clipping, getting zero clients, zero revenue, and just sitting and tweeting. ⁓ But if I want to move, if I want to experiment, I need to have risks too. So yeah. At the moment, I have very weird feeling because I understand that ⁓ I grow by growing my team.
Dagobert Renouf (31:13)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lera (31:33)
It means that to get more money, need more clients, but to get more clients, I need more editors and free hands. But for that, I need to hire them. And let's just imagine that I lost everything, all our clients, but I still need to pay salaries. Yeah, it's crazy. But also what saves me is that... ⁓
Dagobert Renouf (31:54)
Yeah.
Lera (32:01)
We don't spend all this money, like we're already profitable. We have the profit and I just save all this money for non-profitable months. And it also helps me to be, ⁓ like not to burn out from everything because I know that, okay, I can relax right now because I still have this money and at least I will have few months to find a solution.
Dagobert Renouf (32:07)
Yeah.
too.
Yeah.
And how did you find your clients? Because it seemed like you have a bunch of clients. How did you find them?
Lera (32:35)
It's crazy, but we got to our first clients on the first day of launching our product hunt, but the prices also was crazy. At the moment, our prices start with 3K per month, and the price on the launch day was $699 per month. Yes, yes, yes.
Dagobert Renouf (32:47)
Yeah.
wow, so nothing.
And what do you provide for that in this one month? What people get from that? Now.
Lera (33:06)
Now, so we have...
different plans. One plan includes only short form clips, like you share the long form video and we make three custom clips from every long video. with five days turn around, so it means that you can get up to four long form videos or up to 12 short form videos per month, custom edited and no matter what style, like if you prefer just adding subtitles, it's okay. If you prefer a lot of graphics, it's okay. If you have only audio podcast, we can also make a video clips from that.
Dagobert Renouf (33:34)
Mmm.
Lera (33:39)
to distribute it everywhere. But we also have a second plan that includes also long-form editing and we make long-form editing, short clips and something else when they need it for YouTube.
Dagobert Renouf (33:55)
Yeah, I see. Okay, Cool. And so you found these first two clients from Product Hunt, and then how did you get the following ones?
Lera (34:04)
This is my favorite story. ⁓ I was a bit stuck with these two clients. mean that ⁓ I had no new clients after that for some time, but I understood that we need to grow. ⁓
Dagobert Renouf (34:06)
okay.
And are they still paying 700
a month all this time later?
Lera (34:24)
Sorry.
Dagobert Renouf (34:25)
Are they still paying this 700 a month all this time later or 699 you said?
Lera (34:31)
16, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yes, yes. But that's the deal. But yeah, so I understood that we need to grow. I also had no idea how to market it because...
Dagobert Renouf (34:34)
Wow, they're lucky. yeah, okay cool. Okay.
Lera (34:47)
I always try to try something new, but if it doesn't work, I still think that I need to find something new. And I decided to make a before-after video. We took a podcast from YouTube, we make a short clip from it and made a before-after. So on the left side we see before, like a raw cut, and after what we made. And they published it on Twitter.
And it was, ⁓ so I took a lemon squeezy podcast and yeah, and Jar, he replied like, can we hire you? ⁓ And I will, I will let you say yes. Yes, yes. And I was like, it was. ⁓
Dagobert Renouf (35:20)
Yeah.
That's good social proof. You can put that on your landing page.
Lera (35:37)
First or second, it was first experience in my life when I posted this before after video and already this reply and I was like, what is going on? I thought it's like, haven't, I was like, maybe, you ⁓ he replied it to sound nice or something, but no, we made clips together and yeah, it was very, very impressive. And also then after that, Harry Dry, do you know Harry Dry?
Dagobert Renouf (36:06)
No, I'm not sure.
Lera (36:08)
I will show you.
So, one more.
So here's Harry Dry. And he has these marketing examples and marketing newsletter number one in the world. So yeah, he...
Dagobert Renouf (36:37)
Okay.
Oh yeah, I remember that for some time ago. Yeah.
And wait, can you show
before you because you only share for one second. Can you show one of the videos you made for him just so we get an idea?
Lera (37:00)
I am not sure. will just... Okay, I can. I think I can.
Mm-hmm.
no idea how to find it.
Dagobert Renouf (37:26)
But so he hired you.
Lera (37:26)
But I see
the screenshot. I see the screenshot also in Harry Dry website. So yeah, here was my tweet, video we made, comment, and yeah. So Harry Dry made the, he has this newsletter and I was featured in his newsletter. And you.
Dagobert Renouf (37:50)
Wow, really cool.
Lera (37:52)
Yeah, it gave me really, really good boost. ⁓ And I think that that's how it started.
Dagobert Renouf (38:01)
Yeah, you know, that's why we should tweet more. know, people should always post and share, especially, guess, when you do...
Lera (38:05)
Yes.
Dagobert Renouf (38:11)
You know, people are, we're afraid of like cold DM or like maybe tagging someone like this and doing all this work for free because we get spammed with low quality shit like this all the time. But when you do high quality, people notice instantly usually. Like if you do high quality work and you like tag the person or you send them a message, you know, people will look at it usually. They will take a look.
So it's worth doing, it's a very good method to get some awareness if you do good work.
Lera (38:43)
Yeah.
I don't remember who said it, but it says like, ⁓ start working on them, for them, before they hire you. yeah. No, I mean this, before after videos they really worked well for a long time.
Dagobert Renouf (38:56)
wow, probably a slave owner who said that.
Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Okay, so that was the story. That was the main thing you wanted to say about being retweeted. Yeah, that's really cool. And then you got picked up by this guy from the marketing examples. And then that got the ball rolling, then people started calling you, I guess.
Lera (39:12)
Yes.
⁓ Yeah,
I was fished with his newsletter and after that I got some calls with leads and two clients.
Dagobert Renouf (39:31)
Yeah,
so at this stage you have like five clients and some big ones and so the ball is rolling. And so you don't do any special marketing. I mean, you post your videos, I guess, and you talk on social media. Do you do any special marketing or?
Lera (39:45)
At the moment I just, I even stopped to publish before after videos because at some point I...
felt like maybe it became boring because I used to publish it every week, every single week, so maybe it was... like people wasn't expecting something interesting from it. ⁓ There was like another video from there, so I decided we need to start something new and make something new. Then I started to make...
Dagobert Renouf (40:07)
Yeah.
Lera (40:18)
not before after videos, but just to edit something and publish on Twitter. Just maybe even if it's a long form video, I once made this for 10 minute video and it also gave us, it was something fresh and it gave us ⁓ one client and then one more client. yeah.
Dagobert Renouf (40:37)
That's awesome. Yeah, it's super important on social media. ⁓ Eventually you exhaust an idea and you have to refresh it. You cannot post the same shit all the time and expect to... That's why launch day for me is still a lot of pressure because basically every launch day, I need to make it interesting. people will... Because product hunt is the most boring thing. You don't go on product hunt every day. I some people probably do, but like...
Lera (40:47)
Yes. ⁓
Dagobert Renouf (41:07)
There's no point, you can search for a product or support some friends, but it's kind of boring. ⁓ And so to create an event is like, so I experiment every time and I'm glad for now it's still working. But yes, how do you stay interesting? How do you keep it? So me, what I found is since every time it's new people, I'm showing a video of short clips of things that they said.
So it's kind of like always new because it's always fresh people, fresh ideas. So that's kind of cool. I hope it can keep going like that. But yeah, social media is so brutal because things get trendy, then they get boring super fast and you have to renew and reinvent yourself all the time. it's a lot of, it's the reverse of SEO basically, where you post one thing and you have it for 10 years. Well, social media is for 24 hours. So yeah.
Lera (41:59)
⁓ But I think it's also about modern life when you need to try something new every, every time. Otherwise you will stuck on your place.
Dagobert Renouf (42:09)
Yeah, and it reminds me what you said before about risk, that you need to have some risk to do things. And I relate to that because I was procrastinating for a long time. But then I removed my Plan B, I was almost having no money left, and I'm like, okay, I'm going to do lunch day for real. Because then you kind of need it. If you don't have that, it's kind of...
Lera (42:27)
Mm.
Dagobert Renouf (42:33)
Yeah, you need that kind of adventure to push you. At least for me, I do. yeah. One last question I want to ask you is Chad from previous launch, they told me I should ask this question. And that's interesting. So they're the first person I asking. And what is the most recent thing that you've learned? Like related to indie making, but yeah.
Lera (42:58)
Uh-huh. Like recent?
Dagobert Renouf (43:01)
Like the experience you had that made you think about business differently or like something you understood recently.
can be about managing people, be about product marketing, whatever.
Lera (43:15)
⁓
It's not about what I learned, it just maybe...
The thing about me, what I understood about myself, like when I was always working hard, like no weekend, no evening, free evening, all this stuff. And I was thinking that I'm doing it to have relaxed life later. And this was my first month when I had this relaxed life and I hate it. And what I understood is probably when you love what you're doing and when you ⁓
Dagobert Renouf (43:45)
Yes.
Lera (43:52)
want to always move and grow. You want love stability. You will always want to have this roller coaster. yeah, so I learned that stability is a way to stack on your place and to stack with no growth. So that's probably what I learned about myself.
Dagobert Renouf (44:19)
That's interesting, you finally took a break, finally I deserve it, and then you hate it. Yes, that's fun.
Lera (44:24)
Yeah, yeah, I wasn't like I deserve it. I was like ⁓ I need to go is my friend ⁓ She lives in our in Belarus. So we meet not really often and there was like I want to spend time with her but I was afraid that if I will be offline like for one day everything will be very bad Like I will lose everything I was like, my god, how can I do it? But then was like one week two weeks three week and I was just working on my phone and I already came back to Poland and I'm still mostly on my phone
Dagobert Renouf (44:32)
Mm-hmm.
⁓ yeah, I know.
Lera (44:54)
because I understand that I built it seems that can work without me.
Dagobert Renouf (44:59)
that's
amazing. Yeah.
Lera (44:59)
And yes,
my team understands everything. Sometimes when they ask for some help, of course I'm here, but I was always a bit... not micromanagement, but ⁓ I was always afraid if I won't ask them something, they will forget or miss something, all this stuff. But no, they are so good. I'm happy that I built this team because ⁓ managing people is also not an easy task. People are very different.
but everything is out.
Dagobert Renouf (45:33)
That's amazing. that's
the next step I think is like, at least for a lot of people, for me also, like once you can hire people and you can rely on them. Cause like it's a burden, I guess, like you said, like that you have stress if you don't have clients, you need to pay these people. It's super scary, but it's also a big asset. Like if you, can also count on them. So it's like, you know, there's both sides. So that's cool. Well, thank you Lira. I was glad to, is it Lira or Lira?
Lera (46:03)
Lera.
Dagobert Renouf (46:04)
Lara, okay. And I was very glad to finally meet you and to see your journey. That was really cool.
Lera (46:13)
Yes, thank you. Thank you for inviting me on this podcast. think lunch day is very crazy cool and I really love this podcast. I already commented that it's like reminds me of this old good Twitter times and I like that it's community again. Very, very nice vibes. I love it.
Dagobert Renouf (46:25)
Yeah, yeah, that's it, yeah.
That's awesome. So I'm going to send you an invite for the Slack channel right now, because now you are officially part of Launch Day people. So you will feel hopefully this community vibe here. yeah, good luck for your launch day.
Lera (46:40)
You
Yeah, thank you. Goodbye.