Hera's founders initially built a full video editor but found users were only excited by the motion graphics feature. They pivoted to focus exclusively on that, built a prototype in two days, and were accepted into YC a week later, validating the importance of following user excitement over a preconceived vision.
Despite YC's push to stay in San Francisco, Hera's founders are returning to Berlin. They believe they can hire top AI talent more affordably and with less competition than in the Bay Area. Since their product is global and consumer-facing, an SF presence isn't critical for customer acquisition.
Despite hundreds of thousands of users, Hera's founder doesn't believe they have product-market fit. Their true benchmark is when a user can create a complete one-minute product video in under 30 minutes. This focus on a core, high-value workflow supersedes vanity metrics like user growth.
Hera's core technology treats motion graphics as code. Its AI generates HTML, JavaScript, and CSS to create animations, similar to a web design tool. This code-based approach is powerful but introduces the unique challenge of managing the time dimension required for video.
Hera's explosive growth came from organic word-of-mouth, with YouTubers making videos voluntarily. The founder's philosophy is that the best marketing is no marketing; a product that solves a real pain point spreads naturally. Paid marketing is seen as a 'tax' for not having achieved strong PMF.
Like AI coding assistants for engineers, tools like Hera will not eliminate motion designers. Instead, they automate tedious 'pixel-by-pixel' execution. This frees designers to focus on high-level creativity, strategy, and overall vision, shifting their role from pure execution to creative direction.
Hera's target is not just existing After Effects users, but the larger market of people who need motion graphics but find professional tools too complex or expensive. By lowering the barrier to entry, AI tools create entirely new markets of creators, much like Airbnb did for home rentals.