A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders His Video AI app hit $10M+ ARR in Months—with 0 outbound sales. | Michael Lingelbach, Founder of Hedra
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Aug 18, 2025 Michael Lingelbach, the founder of Hedra and a former Stanford PhD student, shares insights on skyrocketing his generative video app to over $10M ARR in just months. He discusses the pitfalls of relying on free users as a false signal and the importance of a prosumer-to-enterprise strategy. Michael reveals how he slowed growth to develop a more impactful V2, emphasizing workflow over flashy features. He also shares his creator-led launch tactics that drove organic virality and crucial early hiring lessons for startups navigating the AI landscape.
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Omnimodal Models Demand New UX
- Hedra builds natively omnimodal models to operate over image, text, and audio together.
- Michael argues UX/UI must be rethought as model capabilities grow to enable real workflows.
Build Models Only For Real Differentiation
- Only build proprietary models when you truly need differentiated capabilities for your use case.
- Otherwise prefer integrating leading models so users can stay in one workflow.
Dropping Out To Chase The Moment
- Michael dropped out of his PhD at Stanford to seize a post-ChatGPT opportunity and start Hedra.
- He planned to return to finish his defense but raised funding and stayed fully committed.