Startup videos you'll wish you had made | Hacker News Reader

Startup videos you'll wish you had made

attendly.com

77 pointsshandsaker29 comments

1. Great. Lightning in a bottle, the spot everyone wishes they could make, but few can. (His years with UCB def helped).

2. Mediocre. The spot that gets made by people who see #1 and think "I can do that." No, you can't. It's harder than it looks.

3. Nice animation style, but the script quickly bores.

4. I like the 8-bit style and even with the weak V/O I believe it will hit it's target market.

5. Ripping off Wes Anderson, especially with an all child cast is difficult. Do actually does very well.

6. Nicely done, but about a minute too long.

7. I really like this one. Well done all around, probably second best, just ahead of Do.

8. This one grew on me as it played. Nice SNL feel, but they needed to sell the lines better. Also too long.

20 years in film & video, the last 6 in advertising, I wouldn't mine numbers 1, 5, 6 & 7 on my reel (#8 as an alternate).

    If the original title begins with a number or number +
    gratuitous adjective, we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it.
    E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To Do X," and "14
    Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is
    meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids."

Dollar Shave Club video is outstanding. They recognize their market and target the script and humor directly at it.

And unlike the vast majority of company executives, this guy actually had comedic chops. Excellent dead-pan and timing.

If i didn't get free razors through the fitness center at work I'd definitely buy from these guys. I probably will once I leave work in the fall to go back to school.

I still don't understand Dollar Shave.

I can get the same number of Fusion blades from Amazon S&S for within 10% of price, with free Prime shipping, compared to their $9/mo deal. There's no way they're better than Fusion; at best, comparable, but I think slightly inferior.

The $1 razors suck; opportunity cost of using them exceeds the money saved. Plus, shipping, so it's really $3/mo.

The $6/mo is a Schick Quattro equivalent. You can get 4 of those for $1-$1.50 ea; same price or less.

I don't know, I can't really take any of these companies seriously, except maybe Dollar Shave Club. Did these videos really result in good conversions? Who knows, probably not.

Why everything should be serious? Why not make something for fun?

This guy (me) is dead serious: http://youtu.be/n8ifu4718BQ

Kudos to the Jotly guys. They made a video lampooning the modern tech startup community. And then they made an app lampooning the modern tech startup community.

And now they're listed as one of the top "startup videos".

Oh brother.

I haven't shown HN yet, but I think our Krit explainer video could be on that list and cost only $550 to make: http://youtu.be/EcSbBb56niI?hd=1

It looks simple and explains what your service does just nice. Have you measured how this video helps customers to select you?

It would be interesting to see more videos from other startups.

can you share the company who did that for 550$?

:) It's a combination of two things: 1. The director, Wicus Labuschagne, is a personal friend. He was my first professional web client and needed an explainer video for his portfolio. 2. Here in South Africa the exchange rate is 8.10 ZAR/USD. A pint of beer is roughly 50% cheaper than a pint in LA.

Self-promo for sure but I put a lot into this thing! http://addroid.com

Dollar shave club is the only one worth watching.

The others aren't even that good, with the exception of Jotly, which is a brilliant parody of review apps. Vooza is amusing but not brilliant, and it doesn't say anything about them. Still, Apple haters would enjoy it.

If I were a woman, I would probably feel like SnazzyRoom had no interest in hiring me.

It wasn't so bad. I was more annoyed by the bad sound (please! hire a decent microphone!)

Agreed, sorta had a brogrammer feel about it.

Twenty seconds into the "Snazzy Room" video, I decided that I do not ever want to have anything to do with this company. Seriously, who thought that playing to every stereotype of an unsavory salesman was a good idea?

Personally I respect them for taking the time to create a video to recruit talent instead of a the usual thoughtless ad on craigslist. Someone who puts as much effort into hiring as they do one selling seems like a smart company to me.

Adam Lisagor has produced a lot of great videos for startups: http://sandwichvideo.com/

He also made this great AeroPress tribute video: https://vimeo.com/40980282

I love Adam's work (even when I don't). It shows how a unique voice or vision can permeate someone's work, which can be positive or negative, but in Adam's case is almost always positive.

This is the type of creative start-ups should be looking to work with. (First hint, if you think you've found the person, try to stay out their way creatively. A good creative will give you something better than you could expect, a great one will give you something you never could have imagined.)

At the risk of self-promoting, a video we made for a yet un-released side-project: www.joycult.com

I like the live drawing, but needs a better script, voice-over and some music. 4x3 in a 16x9 frame also annoys me.

Since when did Salesforce buy a high-value, two-letter '.com' domain and turn it into a bloated to-do list application? Talk about a big, dumb company move... Aren't to-do list applications the type of thing solo hackers or small teams build as side projects?

I guess not anymore. trello, asana, workflowy are just sophisticated to-do lists. I have not checked do.com but I guess they are more complicated than simple to-do list.

While I'm doing todo list service/app as solo hacker.

The Peddl video is great too: http://vimeo.com/36041554 (Valentine's Day angle is because they released it back in February)

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