How I Hit 10M Users in Just 1 Year l Creati, Ella Zhang

Key Concepts

• Agentic AI for marketing video creation
• Network effect between influencers and brands
• Importance of understanding user pain points
• Iterative product development and launching early
• Pivoting based on user feedback
• Building a community around a product
• Adapting to rapid changes in the AI landscape
• Focusing on unchanging user needs

Initial Product & User Growth

The speaker, Ella, founder and CEO of Criti AI, discusses the company's rapid growth. Criti AI is described as an "agentic AI" that helps automate marketing video creation.

• The first version of their product was "rough" and developed in only two weeks.
• Despite the initial imperfections, user adoption doubled, and revenue increased significantly.
• Criti achieved over 10 million downloads and $10 million in annualized revenue within a year.
• This early success indicated they were addressing a real market need.

Lessons from Apple: User Research

Ella shares her experience as a hardware engineer at Apple, emphasizing the importance of user research.

• Apple prioritized face-to-face user interviews over online surveys.
• Face-to-face interviews provide deeper insights beyond pre-defined questions.
• Users often have needs ("D") that the product team hasn't considered in their initial assumptions (A, B, and C).
• Understanding user pain points is crucial for building a successful product.
• "You really need to understand people's pain points. You need to really know why people need it when you are building it."

Motivation & Vision

Ella explains her motivation for leaving Apple and starting Criti AI.

• She was driven by a passion for building something new and impactful.
• She envisioned a future where video is the primary form of communication and information consumption.
• She recognized the growing demand for high-quality online content and the difficulty in creating it.
• She believed AI could bridge the gap between content demand and supply.

Launching & Iterating

Ella emphasizes the importance of launching a product early and iterating based on user feedback.

• The initial product didn't have a fantastic UI/UX or batch mode.
• However, users were still willing to use it, indicating underlying value.
• "It's not just about fantastic UI UX or how you're marketing it, right? It's more like what result users are get."
• Waiting for perfection is detrimental in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
• The recommended approach is to launch, develop, and learn simultaneously.

The ZMO.ai Pivot: A Painful Lesson

Ella shares a painful lesson learned from their first product, ZMO.ai.

• ZMO.ai was a text-to-image generator created because of the hype around Midjourney.
• The team didn't fully understand the users' needs or the business model.
• User growth didn't translate into revenue, and the team felt lost.
• They reached out to their users, emailing over 500 and conducting 300 face-to-face conversations.
• They discovered that most users were just curious about AI, but a small group needed it for marketing.
• These users, often selling on platforms like Amazon and Etsy, needed mobile-friendly content creation tools.
• Based on this feedback, they pivoted ZMO.ai to Criti, focusing on mobile marketing video creation.

Building a Network Effect

Ella explains how Criti is designed to create a network effect between influencers and brands.

• Criti is not just a tool but a community for influencers and brands.
• Brands need influencers to create engaging content.
• Influencers understand social media trends and what resonates with audiences.
• Influencers create video templates that brands can use.
• Viral videos created by influencers drive traffic to Criti, attracting more brands.
• Brands pay for the platform, enabling Criti to hire more influencers.
• This creates a flywheel effect, benefiting both influencers and brands.
• "We believe the ecosystem actually need both sides. We need both influencers and brands to help them to grow marketing at scale."

Adapting to the AI Era

Ella discusses the challenges and opportunities of building in the AI era.

• The AI landscape is constantly changing, with new technologies and products emerging daily.
• Founders need to be adaptable and flexible.
• Criti focuses on understanding unchanging user needs, such as what kind of content goes viral.
• Industry-specific data and knowledge are crucial for building a sustainable competitive advantage ("moat").
• Technology changes should be seen as opportunities rather than disruptions.

Synthesis/Conclusion

The key takeaways from Ella's discussion are the importance of understanding user needs through direct engagement, launching early and iterating based on feedback, and building a community around a product. In the rapidly evolving AI landscape, adaptability and a focus on unchanging user needs are crucial for success. Criti AI's journey, from a rough initial product to a thriving platform with a network effect, exemplifies these principles.