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Welcome back to Startup Sphere, the newsletters for builders, founders and operators.
I took a bit of a break to figure out what direction I want this project to go. This is the first issue of that direction.
Instead of focusing on abstract “ideas”, I’ll be covering tangible tactics and case studies that you can implement as soon as this week to grow your online (or in person) business.
Thanks for sticking around. I’m excited about this new chapter. Let’s get into it.
If you're paying for ads or waiting on SEO, try this first: film yourself using your product, copy the formats already going viral in your niche, and let ManyChat send users the link.
This took an AI video app from about $2K a month to past $10K in roughly a month, with no ads.
The Tactic
Start a separate Instagram account that only posts UGC, meaning you on camera using your product. Each video borrows the structure of a competitor video that already went viral, with your product in place of theirs. Vadim Strizheus did this for Vugola, his AI video-clipping app, after posting on X had stalled it at $2,000 to $3,000 a month.
1. Setup
Open a new Instagram account just for UGC and connect a ManyChat DM automation. ManyChat costs $15 a month.
2. Format
Spend about 45 minutes a day studying competitors' viral UGC posts. Note the sound, the transitions, and how long the hook, demo and call to action run. Then film yourself with that same structure and your product swapped in.
3. Volume
Post several times a day and reuse a format until its performance dips, then find the next one.
The Business
Vugola turns long videos into captioned short clips and schedules them. Its site says it's "loved by 95,000+ creators." Plans are $19.99, $49.99 and $99.99 a month.
Its founder says it now makes about $11,200 a month from roughly 400 paying users. The category has real money in it, too. Competitor Opus Clip has raised $50 million.
How It Was Built
Vugola was built by someone with no coding background. It started on Lovable for about four months, then moved to Claude and Codex, and it runs on GitHub, Supabase and Vercel.
Here's the prompt I'd use to get a v1 going in Claude Code:
I want to build a tool where I upload a long video and get back 3 vertical clips with captions.
It's for creators who want short clips from their long videos.
I have no coding background, so explain your choices in plain English.
Before writing any code:
1. Ask me up to 5 questions about anything unclear.
2. Tell me the hardest part to build, and whether an existing service or API can handle it.
3. Propose the smallest v1 that proves the core works: no login, no payments yet. List what we're leaving out.
4. Recommend a stack and the accounts I'll need to create.
5. Give me a step-by-step plan where every step ends with something I can test myself.
Wait for my OK before building.Your Move
Find one competitor video that did far better than their usual. Write down its hook, sound, transitions, and how long the demo and call to action run.
Film three versions with your product, each with a different hook, and post them.
Reply with a link to your first video and I'll feature the best ones next week.
How useful was this week's tactic?
Till next week,
— Vlad
