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From the creative labs of Y Combinator to a startup, Weiwei Hsu has charted a journey with Tonic, her AI-driven video editing app. After gaining valuable experience at Dynamicland, Hsu, alongside her brother Anthony Hsu, launched Tonic, achieving a million video plays within just 24 hours. Tonic closed seed funding, spearheaded by First Round Capital, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco.
Graduated from the design studios of California College of the Arts to the innovation hub of Silicon Valley, Weiwei Hsu's story unfolds like a roadmap for aspiring tech enthusiasts. It was at the college where Hsu, an interaction design student, crafted a graduation thesis, which caught the eyes of big thinkers at MIT and Y Combinator's research labs. Her blend of design and technology wasn't just homework; it was a ticket to the big leagues of tech research.
After college, Hsu didn't take the usual route of joining a big tech firm or starting a business. Instead, she stepped into the world of Dynamicland, a Y Combinator research lab that wasn't about making money but about dreaming up the future. Here, surrounded by the brightest minds, she worked on projects that most people wouldn't see for decades. She started as a regular visitor, quickly became the person who showed new people around, and finally earned her spot as an intern. In this lab, Hsu started playing around with an idea for an app that could edit videos using AI. It was just for fun--at first.
In 2020, Weiwei Hsu decided it was time to venture out on her own. Weiwei Hsu found her perfect business partner in her brother, Anthony Hsu. Anthony Hsu brought with him a wealth of creativity honed at the game company, where his role involved designing and testing various styles in the gaming industry. Together, they started a journey to explore the untapped potential of augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) on videos. The effects combined create multiple virtual universes—realms that could be as varied and vast as the imagination itself. Their approach was straightforward: build something that they found genuinely fun and intriguing.
Drawing inspiration from Anthony Hsu’s gaming background, they adopted a game-maker’s craft in their startup’s DNA. They looked at landmark moments in gaming history, like Mario's leap from 2D to 3D, where the joy of play was originated from the character’s range of motions and responses, even when the newly-born 3D Mario was within a plain white background. Users who joined the tests loved it and couldn't help playing around.
This focus on a core enjoyable experience—something that users found addictive and fun—was paramount. They planned to launch with a solid, entertaining core before scaling up with additional features. This incremental approach mirrored the gaming industry's method of perfecting the core gameplay before adding complexity. The app they envisioned wouldn't just edit videos; it would transform them by syncing with the rhythm of the music, selecting art styles, and offering a plethora of combinations for users to play with and enjoy.
Mastering the art of AI and AR effects is akin to weaving a tapestry with threads of light and data. In other words, it's intricate, time-consuming, and requires a meticulous eye for detail. For Weiwei Hsu and Anthony Hsu, Tonic shall be the exact app for users to achieve the fancy effects for their videos.
“Crafting just one style could take anywhere from three to four, sometimes even five, hours of rendering time,” said Anthony Hsu. And with their sights set on offering a library of over 300 unique styles, the scale of the task was monumental. Each 10-second clip necessitated the fusion of 200 to 300 different images.
This wasn't something that could be rushed or automated carelessly. Popular platforms like TikTok could merge one single image with AI, but the computational costs were staggering when it came to more complex sequences.
To ensure the market appeal, Anthony Hsu took to manually editing and rendering different styles before committing them to the automated process. They even manually edited the AR and AI-style videos for influencers as a market trail. As a result, the influencers got their most viewed videos in return. As Tonic continues to experiment with more narrative elements, editing techniques, and camera movements, the team aims to build a universal tool for video editing.
Going live in mid-October of 2023, Tonic saw its edited video plays skyrocket to a million within a month, a testimonial that audiences love the blend of AI and AR video styles. Users weren't just watching; they were engaging, with an average of three videos blended per user and an outstanding average share rate of over 83%. This level of user interaction hints at a bright future for the app’s place in social media.
Tonic closed its seed round funding, led by the First Round Capital. Known for their keen eye for potential unicorns, having previously backed successes like Uber, Notion, Spline, and Roblox. With this strong backing, Tonic positioned its marketing and growth team in the United States, setting its sights on capturing the U.S. market.
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