Ask HN: Favorite startup demo videos | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Favorite startup demo videos

38 pointsandreshb33 comments

I am searching for examples of really great demo videos that explain a product or service. In your opinion what are some of the most clear and/or creative videos from startups out there?

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Square, without a doubt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSzsFAJAKHI&feature=relat...

For more Adam Lisagor, try the video for the Birdhouse iPhone app, which is even more charming than the Square video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8yRaWY1xV8

He's one of the developers of Birdhouse, which he started as a side project from doing Hollywood VFX work. Now he's working on making these kinds of promotional videos full time — he's mentioned that he's done internal stuff for companies, and he just published a new one for an iPad app: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2vpvEDS00o

Y'all should hire him, he's the new Stan Freberg.

We're working on making a video demo for our payment system (http://www.facecash.com) that's as good as Square's video or better. (We think our system is already better, but their videos are really good.) If anyone has any ideas that you think we should incorporate, let me know!

Wonder what the costs are like, for this kind of quality.

I thought this one was genuinely funny and well executed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FC_eMDnCRg

Thumbtack; saw this because they just got funded through Venture hack's Angel list.

I'm a big fan of the SoundCloud demo: http://vimeo.com/1857085 just feels slick & tells you exactly what the service does.

The woman's accent helps too.

LOL yeah. I digg her accent. and the BGM is pretty sweet

Funny how you say digg instead of dig.

My first thought was "Wow, she's an Aussie!", and immediately looked for SoundCloud job postings in the local area.

They're all in Berlin. Nuts.

Straight up, Shopify made my favourite promo video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVVui4oXL4Q&hd=1

Aside from high production values, the reason this is a great clip is that they start with "Why?". If you're not familiar with Simon Sinek's awesome TED talk, I highly recommend it:

http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspi...

+1 for the Simon Sinek link, that was great!

Flipboard. Very clearly explains the point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2vpvEDS00o

is he the same bloke as the square guy?

Slightly OT, but I got distracted by the strange Aphex Twin cover they used as background music. Followed the link, and now that group (The Bad Plus) has at least one new fan. I like seeing new business models like that in practise.

I'd just like to add that spending the time to put together a good-quality demo video for your startup can be a rewarding experience, and very worthwhile too. I think many still treat it like an after-thought when getting ready to launch their app, though. I was almost more proud of my demo video than when I launched LeadNuke in the first place (realizing that I lack any considerable experience making screencasts). I also took the opportunity to slip in a plug for my other startup, RateMyStudentRental.

That being said, it's just a simple screencast, so I wouldn't say it's inherently creative or out of the ordinary. But it does go to show that you can make a decent quality demo video on the cheap in under a few hours if you take it seriously.

EDIT: Oh, and just in case you'd like to see it: http://s3.amazonaws.com/leadnuke-com-cdn-streaming/introduct...

YC plug, but I really always thought DropBox did a great job - one of the things I most appreciated was the key example - they put it in terms of an item that everyone recognizes and a problem most people (if not all) have probably dealt with. I think the present version is even extended a bit from the original (now includes some computer files info)

The Google TV introduction is fantastic, note the use of simple graphics and the clear, simple language:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diTpeYoqAhc

In a similar vein, the famous "Twitter in Plain English":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

I collected some startup pitches/demo and did a blog post a while back. There are some good ones here including Loopt, AdMob, Dropbox, etc.

http://jonbischke.com/2009/11/13/a-dozen-of-the-best-start-u...

I find this introduction to Cloud Computing very nice - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae_DKNwK_ms

Though not a product demo, but the way of explaining it in simple words and illustration makes it stick to my mind.

One of the best I've seen recently is by blippy, http://blippy.com/ Just very simple animations that make it easy to quickly grasp the concept and answer potential questions about the product (security, privacy etc.)

Back when DabbleDB was new, hot and for testers, they posted some videos on what DabbleDB is. Those videos were so good. This application was everything you wanted spreadsheets to be.

Take a look: http://dabbledb.com/demo/

Video that explains putpat, a german music video service:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EAkuKwS1JM

This has to be the most entertaining of all the videos so far.

Lost it at the equalizer segment.

The one by rule.fm that was shown a few days ago is quite good, even if I will disagree with the way it was messages.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onDwiw2rfJE

That one is boring, left me with no idea what rule.fm is/does (I stopped watching after about 45 seconds), and looked lovely doing it. F+ (a + for looking good while being completely and utterly pointless).

Agree. Crappiest demo in a while. It's very decieving in that you know these guys know how to use a video editing tool. But if there was a well-edited demo with the CRAPPIEST content, rule.fm demo wins it hands down.

So these are all really well done videos -- very professional, and probably cost a ton. anyone know of a web service that lets you easily create your own demo vid?

I know of a studio in Costa Rica that makes these really well really fast and do not cost a ton.

I love: http://culturedcode.com/things/ipad/ the one for the iPhone app is pretty good too

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