Free guide
Fundraising kit, guide 4 of 6Your founder video is one minute, one take.
Reviewers watch the founder video to meet you, not your slides. Every founder on camera, six beats, sixty seconds, and the words you would use across a table.
- 60 seconds
- Every founder on camera
- One take, no edits
- A phone is enough
At a glance
Six beats in sixty seconds
In order: who you are, what you are building, why this and why you, why this team, how far along you are, what you want. Tap a beat to jump to it.
Beat by beat
What each beat must do
The question the reviewer has, what to say, what to leave out, and a test to check it passes.
Ten seconds. Names, roles, and where you are. Every founder speaks their own name, looking at the lens. The reviewer is matching faces to the application.
Say
- Each founder: first name, surname, role, one clause of background
- Where the company is based
- All founders in frame from the first second
Leave out
- A cold open with a logo or a slogan
- Job titles from a previous life
- Reading names off a screen
Pass test: The reviewer can name every founder and their role without pausing.
Setup rule: The founders cannot be in one room. Record one video call, both cameras on, no editing between speakers. Say where each of you is and how you work together.
One sentence a stranger could repeat: for whom, which problem, what you make. The same sentence as the top of your application and your one-pager.
Say
- One sentence: who, problem, product
- The words your customers use
- The same line as the application form
Leave out
- The vision before the product
- Two sentences where one would do
- Category words: platform, ecosystem, solution
Pass test: A stranger can tell a friend what you make after hearing it once.
The thing you know that others miss, and how you came to know it. Time spent in the problem, a customer you lived beside, a system you built before. This beat separates a founder from an applicant.
Say
- The insight in one line: what is true that others miss
- How you learned it: years in the industry, a pain you had yourself, a thing you built
- One specific detail a tourist would not know
Leave out
- Market size
- The word passionate
- A story that starts in childhood
Pass test: The reviewer believes you know something they do not.
How you met, how long you have worked together, and who does what. Reviewers bet on the team holding together; show them the seams are strong.
Say
- How you met, and how long you have worked together
- Who builds, who sells, who runs the rest
- One thing you have shipped together before
Leave out
- Every job each founder ever had
- Advisors and mentors
- Claiming skills nobody on camera has
Pass test: The reviewer can say who builds the product and who sells it.
Setup rule: You are the only founder. Say so in the first beat, then spend the team beat on how you cover what you cannot do alone: the first hire, a contractor, a technical partner. Never hide it.
What exists today and who uses it, in numbers with dates. Before users, what you shipped and when. Before shipping, what you learned from whom.
Say
- What is built and live
- Users, customers or revenue, with the date
- How long you have worked on it, and how much of that full-time
Leave out
- Projections
- Rounding up
- Vague words: traction, momentum, interest
Pass test: Every claim has a number or a date.
Five seconds. Say what you are asking for, then stop. No thank-you speech, no recap, no music.
Say
- The ask in one line: the programme, the round, the meeting
- A plain ending: your names, or nothing
Leave out
- A thank-you speech
- A recap of the minute
- An outro card or music
Pass test: The video ends within sixty seconds, on a full stop.
Example
We are raising £600K to launch in two more cities this year. I am Sara, this is Dan.
Make it yours
Solo, remote, or camera shy
The default is every founder in one frame, talking to the lens. Three cases change the rules, and a few beats are optional.
Solo founder
When: You are the only founder.
Change: Say so in the first beat, then spend the team beat on how you cover what you cannot do alone: the first hire, a contractor, a technical partner. Never hide it.
Co-founders in two places
When: The founders cannot be in one room.
Change: Record one video call, both cameras on, no editing between speakers. Say where each of you is and how you work together.
Camera shy
When: Talking to a lens makes you stiff.
Change: Put a friend behind the camera and talk to them. Record five takes and keep the most natural, not the most polished. Notes on a card are fine; reading is not.
Optional beats
- A product glimpse. Five seconds of the product on screen say more than a sentence, and the demo video is separate.
- Name captions. The reviewer may watch on mute. Add names and roles as text, nothing else.
- A customer line. A customer said one sentence you can quote, with their name.
- The demo link. The programme allows a second video. Point to it in the close.
Build it with AI
Hand this framework to your AI
Drafting the script with ChatGPT, Claude or any AI? Point it at this guide so it writes sixty seconds you can say naturally, not a press release. The whole method is published as two files, built from the same data as this page.
Or paste this prompt into your AI and add what you know about your team and your company:
Act as a startup application coach and follow the MrAdib founder video framework at https://mradib.com/founder-video/llms.txt. Ask me about the founders, what we are building, how we met, and where we are, then write my sixty-second script beat by beat: who says each line, the words in plain English, and the seconds it takes. One take, no slides, no buzzwords, no invented numbers.
Sources
Where this comes from
The beats distil what the programmes that ask for founder videos say they look for. Read them.
Questions founders ask
Should I script the founder video?
Write the six beats as bullet points, not sentences. Say them ten times until they sound like you, then record. A read script sounds like a read script.
Where should I record it?
A quiet room with daylight on your faces and a plain background. Phone at eye level, landscape, on a stack of books. Test the sound with a ten-second clip first.
Does video quality matter?
Sound matters, picture barely does. Reviewers forgive a phone camera and never forgive an echo or a voice they strain to hear. Quiet room first, then light, then camera.
How is this different from the product demo?
The founder video sells the people; the demo video sells the product. Keep them separate, one minute and three minutes, and never mix slides into either.
The fundraising kit
Six guides, one set of facts
The whole kit, in the order you build it. Every piece draws on the same facts, so none of them contradicts another.
They want to meet you.
Sixty seconds of the founders talking plainly does more than any slide. Questions about your video? Say hello.