San Francisco is where a lot of startups live, but it's also where a lot of them come to visit. Founders fly in from Europe, Asia and everywhere else for investor meetings, conferences and launches, often for a week or two. That's a big part of who we film for.
Quillon is a good example. The company builds audit-ready AI for technical accounting and was founded in Sofia, Bulgaria, by a team of engineers whose backgrounds include Goldman Sachs and Citibank. More than 500 accountants use the product, and earlier this year Quillon raised a $1.5M pre-seed round led by 42CAP.
How it started
Nikolay Dakov, Quillon's CEO, reached out before the team's trip to San Francisco. They were getting ready to launch the Memo Drafting Agent, wanted to film the launch video while they were in town, and wanted to do it with us. Founder-led launch videos are most of what we make, so we went straight into pre-production.
A conservative industry, a clear product
We started by looking at launch videos from their space and around it. Accounting and audit are conservative fields, and Quillon's users are accountants at public companies, audit firms and consulting firms. A loud, flashy video would have worked against them. So the question became: how do we keep it restrained and still make the product's value obvious in a minute or two? The answer shaped every choice that followed.
Picking the room
Instead of filming in a borrowed office, we rented a space that matched the company's look: calm, clean and professional. We arrived early, lit the room and set up two cameras, so every line had a wider shot and a tighter one.
Directing the founders, not just recording them
We don't just press record. During the shoot we talk founders through each part, point out where a line could land harder, and record several versions of the key moments. A sentence that sounds fine the first time often sounds much better on the third, once the founder has said it out loud a couple of times. By the end of the day there were plenty of strong takes to choose from.
The result
The video went out on LinkedIn with the Memo Drafting Agent launch. Read the Quillon case study, or see it next to other examples on our founder launch videos page.
If you're flying in to launch
If your team is visiting San Francisco and wants to film while you're here, a few things help:
- Reach out before the trip, so pre-production happens remotely and the shoot fits your schedule
- Send two or three launch videos you like, including ones from your own industry
- Decide on the tone early: restrained or bold
- Block about two hours for the shoot itself
- Tell us where the video will be posted, so we plan the right formats
We film founder-led launch videos at your office, in a rented space that fits your brand, or at our studio in SoMa. Tell us about your trip.
Francisk Hanchar
Founder, FogLine Visuals
Francisk Hanchar is the founder of FogLine Visuals, a video production company in San Francisco. He produces video podcasts, launch videos and event coverage for startups, and hosts The Bay Signal.
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