How He Built a SaaS for Creators 💡 | Ansh Vashisht - E55

In this episode of Funds & Founders, we sit down with Ansh, co-founder of Quickreel, the AI-driven platform that helps content creators, brands, and marketers transform long-form videos into viral short-form clips.

We dive deep into his entrepreneurial journey — from selling stickers in second grade to building a SaaS product with over 100K users. He shares his growth mindset, the ups and downs of building a startup, fundraising stories, and how Quickly stands out in the crowded content creation space.

Ansh shares:

💡 The inception of Quickreel and solving real creator problems

💰 The grind of early-stage fundraising and finding the right investors

🎯 Scaling from 0 to 100K+ users with minimal marketing

⚡ The challenges of building in the creator economy

📊 Pricing strategies, customer acquisition, and competition insights

If you're a founder, content creator, or just love stories of building from scratch — this one's for you! Watch the full episode

⏰ Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro & Guest Introduction

01:05 - What is Quickreel? Solving the short-form content problem

02:30 - Early entrepreneurial spark: Selling stickers in 2nd grade

05:00 - Choosing tech over family business

08:15 - The idea behind Quickly: From agency work to product building

11:45 - First MVP struggles and user feedback

14:30 - Acquiring the first 500 users without ads

17:20 - Fundraising journey: From self-funding to investor backing

21:00 - Pricing strategies: Moving from free to paid users

25:45 - Competing with Opus Clip & other clip generators

29:40 - Balancing profitability vs. user growth

33:00 - The future of AI in video editing

36:15 - Expansion plans: APIs, agencies, and scaling globally

40:00 - Rapid Fire Round: Tech stack, marketing tools & resources

42:30 - Biggest startup challenges & what's next for Quickly

44:20 - Advice for First-Time Founders

46:00 - Question for the Next Guest