a founder intro video is a short film where you say what you are building, who it is for, why it matters and where it stands, in your own voice, to people who have not met you yet. investors, buyers, early customers, hires and anyone arriving at your page cold. most advice about it is about production: lighting, length, a template, an agency. the hard part is not any of that. the hard part is knowing what to say, and saying it like a person rather than a pitch.
the short answer: answer six questions, in order, in plain words. what it is. who it is for. what problem it solves and what those people do today instead. where it honestly stands. the hardest part right now. what comes next. the easiest way to answer them well is to be asked them, by someone or something that has already read your website, so it does not ask you to recite it.
this page covers what the film is for, the six questions with what a good answer sounds like, length and setup, the mistakes that make founder intros sound like adverts, and how underway records one as episode zero of a series.
what a founder intro video is for
page one for this search splits into three intents, and it helps to know which one you are.
- raising money or applying to a programme. the film is a first meeting before the meeting: can this person explain the thing clearly, and do they seem to know where it really stands?
- selling a business. marketplaces like acquire.com suggest a founder video with the listing, so a buyer can hear the story, see the product and hear the numbers explained by the person who knows them.
- starting to build in public. the film is the first episode of a series, the place a new viewer starts, and the before shot everything afterwards is measured against.
the questions underneath are the same in all three. what changes is emphasis: an investor wants the market and the goal, a buyer wants the numbers and why you are leaving, an audience wants the person and the stakes. answer the six honestly and you can cut any of those versions from the same footage.
the six questions a founder intro video should answer
these are the beats underway's episode zero covers for every founder, whatever they are building. they work just as well for a video you film on your own.
- what it is, in your own words. not the tagline: the sentence you would say to a friend who asked across a table. if it needs a second sentence, the first one was not plain enough.
- who it is for. one real, specific kind of person, not a market. "independent bookshops with one till" beats "retail".
- what problem it solves, and what those people do instead today. the second half is the one people skip, and it is the one that makes the first half believable. a spreadsheet, a cousin who does it, nothing at all: say which.
- where it honestly stands right now. an idea, half built, ten customers, years in. for a business that already exists, this is the current chapter, not the origin story.
- the hardest part of it right now. the answer people remember, because nobody puts it on a website.
- what comes next, as far as you can see it. a direction is plenty: if you are starting something new you will not know yet what to measure, and a target invented on day one helps nobody.
notice what is not on the list: why it is the best, how big the market is, a call to action. a question that invites marketing language has failed, because an intro that sounds like an advert is the one nobody finishes. if you need a call to action for an application form, put it in the text next to the video, not in your mouth.
the shape of a founder intro: one person, one camera, talking to someone who has not met them. an ai illustration, not a customer.
why founder intro videos come out as pitches
when you write your own script, you write from your website, because that is the version you have already polished. the result is a founder reading their homepage aloud, and the camera picks it up straight away: the even pace, the eyes going slightly up and left, the adjectives nobody says out loud.
two things fix it. first, do not script; make a list of the six questions and answer each one as if you were asked. second, better still, be asked. an interviewer who has read the website already knows what it claims, so it has no reason to ask you to repeat it. it asks what a website cannot say: who actually pays, how close the site is to where things really stand, why you started, what you tried that did not work. those are the answers that sound like you.
how long should a founder intro video be?
for an investor email or an application, the common advice is sixty to ninety seconds, and it is good advice: a short film is more likely to be watched to the end. for a business sale, a buyer will sit through several minutes if the numbers are in it. for the first episode of a series, a few minutes is fine, because the people who watch it chose to start at the beginning.
the practical answer is to record more than you need and cut down. a five-minute conversation that covers all six questions properly will contain a one-minute version. a one-minute script read to camera will not contain anything longer.
setup: the parts that matter and the parts that don't
- light from in front of you, a window or a lamp behind the camera. light from behind makes you a silhouette.
- sound matters more than picture. a quiet room and headphones or a simple microphone beat a better camera.
- the camera at eye height, on something steady. a phone on a stack of books is fine.
- a background that is yours and is not busy. your actual desk is better than a blank wall.
- landscape for youtube, a website or an investor email; portrait if it will live on a phone first. pick before you start.
- what does not matter much: an expensive camera, a ring light, a perfect take. a slight stumble said honestly reads better than a smooth line said like a script.
recording a founder intro video with underway
on underway the founder intro video is episode zero, the first episode of every series. it is not a script and it is not a piece to camera. it is a conversation: your co-host asks about what you are building and follows what you say, and you answer as you would answer a person. it can be on camera, or with just your voice, like a podcast.
- step 1 asks your first name, what it is called, one line about what you are documenting, your website (optional), and how you see yourself making it: on camera, mostly my voice, or a bit of both.
- save my series, and under your series card give it a head start offers github, google calendar and slack, all optional.
- then what it picked up: underway reads your website (the homepage, the pages it links, its sitemap) and, with github connected, what you have shipped lately, and writes each down as plain facts in a box you can edit. fix anything wrong, or press take it out. it takes under a minute.
- before anything records, one screen says what is about to happen: completely private, an optional three-minute practice by voice and one on camera, and a real one of up to ten minutes that you can keep, redo or delete.
- the real one opens on what you are building, from your series name and your one line, and works through the six beats as the conversation allows.
- when it is saved: keep this as episode zero, have another go, or delete it. episode zero and every go at it are free on every plan.
episode zero on underway's demo account, recorded as a conversation with the co-host rather than read to camera.
different questions for every founder
what underway knows changes the questions, never the ground they cover. with only your one line, episode zero is open and curious. with your website read, it asks what a website cannot say: who actually pays, how close the site is to the truth, why you started. with github connected, it names the work you have been shipping. the first question always asks you to say what it is in your own words, because someone arriving cold needs to hear it from you, and nothing from your site is read back to you or quoted as something you said.
a shop, an agency and a software product each get asked the right version, because the conversation opens from the one line you wrote rather than a category you picked. a business ten years in gets asked about its current chapter, not its founding.
after the founder intro video: why episode zero matters later
episode zero does not take a number. it sits at the front of your series as the place a new viewer starts. it also does a quieter job: every interview afterwards uses its transcript as context, however long ago you filmed it. your first daily episode's questions build on it, with at least one asking about the hardest part or the goal you named, in your words.
that is the argument for filming the intro before you need it. a founder intro made for an application is used once. one made as the start of a series is the before shot, and the next fifty episodes are the evidence of what happened after it. you can redo it later from its page in the vault; the one you have stays until you keep the new one.
the card of building underway's own episode zero, an audio-only episode, at the front of the series.
an intro is the first entry. what comes after it: a founder video diary.
what should a founder intro video include?
what it is, who it is for, the problem and what people do instead today, where it honestly stands, the hardest part, and what comes next. leave out the pitch.
how long should a founder intro video be?
sixty to ninety seconds for an investor email or an application. a few minutes for a business sale or the first episode of a series. record the longer version and cut down.
do i need a website to record episode zero on underway?
no. the box is optional. without it, episode zero opens from the one line you give it and asks more open questions.
will underway quote my website at me?
no. what it read is background for the questions. it never reads a claim back to you and never asks for your pitch.
what does it read from github?
the titles of what you have shipped lately in the repositories you chose. never your code.
can i film it without showing my face?
yes. episode zero can be recorded with just your voice, like a podcast, and switching between the two is one tap.
why the first episode comes first: episode zero is the foundation.
for a channel rather than a pitch: how to introduce yourself on your first youtube video.
Originally published at https://underway.life/founder-intro-video
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