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Please review my startup - Vipidme.com - a video generator

11 points by pogos ↗ HN
A couple of weeks ago we launched http://vipidme.com.

It is a webapp where you can create your own customized video using our predefined templates. Currently you can only customize textual information, but we're working on new features like the possibility to upload your own pictures and audio files to use in the templates.

Video rendering turned out to be very expensive, but at the same time we wanted for new users to try how it all works, for free. So we included a possibility to produce one low-res video for new users. Making more videos or higher resolution costs money, starting from $2.

We are aware that English on the website sucks, but none of us knows English well, so we planning to find native speaker who will fix that.

We would love to hear your feedback. Thanks.

DEMO: http://vipidme.com/watch/1020f3685f8e68a933d8bcd33a95a1cdafa2/

8 comments

[ 14.4 ms ] story [ 981 ms ] thread
_grrr
Just a heads up that the grey font on black background is pretty hard to read on my (albeit crappy) monitor.
pogos
Thanks for feedback! We are planning to implement site themes feature so users can choose the one they like.
_grrr
Probably best to make the default on the homepage somewhat more readable though.

Who's your target market for this product? The styling on the homepage is pretty tech/minimal, but if you're going after the home user maybe something more light-hearted would be appropriate? I can see people using the videos to create custom Christmas or Birthday messages, but style-wise that market probably respond better to something more like: http://www.moonpig.com/uk/

_grrr
By the way, I made a video for someone and they loved it... their first reaction was that they wanted to make one too.
aquark
Looks like a great implementation. Maybe have a couple of demos on a landing page that use something other that the placeholder text.

If you do get any traction though you might attract the attention of the copyright holders the videos are based on. Did you get any legal advice on that before putting it up?

retube
I have to say this is pretty genius. This could take e-cards to a whole new level. Suggestions: some of the text is impossible to read - I had to guess what the registration form fields were. But the rest of the design is nice. Also it's slow. I know you're doing video rendering, but if you could find a way to cut down the render time, you'll probably up your retention and repeat rates. Also you want to be able to add a longer message at the end of the video: the video is the "front" of the card, the end message the contents. Plus get your cost down to a dollar.