Synthesia: A $4 Billion Valuation

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1:25Start your GoFundMe today at GoFundMe.com. That's GoFundMe.com. GoFundMe.com. This podcast is supported by GoFundMe. Synthesia just hit a$4 billion valuation. They're one of our longtime video generation AI companies we've talked about for a long time. They kind of fell out of the limelight a little bit here, but now they're back. They do interactive training videos using generative AI. So pretty interesting company. They have increased their valuation over$2 billion in just one year. So they're doing big things today. We're going to talk all about that. But before we do, Jayden, why don't you tell them about our school community?

2:05Yeah. So every single week, Jamie and I record a piece of bonus content that we only post on the school community. And we've been doing this for over a year. So we have over 300 members in here. We'd love for you to be one. We basically break down how we're growing and scaling our businesses with AI. And we show you the inside scoop that we don't share anywhere else, the numbers, the finances, the strategies, tutorials on the software we use. This week and for the last couple of weeks, we've been doing a segment on how to vibe code a full on app or software platform completely from scratch. This is something I have a lot of experience.

2:35I've been building software companies, building and selling software companies for over the last, I think, seven years now. And so I traditionally have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, getting close to a million dollars I've spent on software development and building apps and companies. And with Lovable now, I think that is going to be massively disrupted. And I've now built an entire app completely by myself. I am not a coder in any way, shape or form. It's called podcaststudio.com. And so on the in the school community, we break down how I was able to build that. We do videos, demos on how to make it look good, how to make it function well, all of the stuff you need to know to build a full tool.

3:15So if that sounds interesting to you, go check out the AI Hustle School community. There's a link in the description. It is$19 a month. So that's a discounted price. We've had it higher in the past. And so if you want to check it out before we raise the price, go join. And I'm telling you, do not miss the Vibe Coding Bubble. If there's something that you want to build, now's the time to do it. And the first mover advantage is a very real thing. So we'd love to have you in there joining us building tools. All right, let's get into what's going on with Synthesia. I think this is a phenomenal company.

3:45And this is actually one that I personally have been using for years, long before ChatGPT was ever a thing. I was using Synthecia with my first software company, SelfPause, which is like a meditation company. I'm trying to remember what I was using Synthecia for. You know, I think, you know what I was using Synthecia for? I have a hilarious story that I probably told on the podcast before, but it was a long time ago.

4:08Synthecia is a video model. So like the thing that's cool about them is that you can generate these avatars. And Jamie, you mentioned training videos. That's kind of what they're famous for, but I think you could do a lot of things with them. But like you essentially, if you go to their website, they have a cool like demo basically where you go and upload like a link to a video documentation or something on your website. And it will make a whole video where it's a person talking you through walking how to do explainer video. These are really good for like software companies that like if you're on there and it's like a confusing page, there's a person that can explain it.

4:36Or like if you're trying to do a corporate training for something, you can make these videos very easily. And it's a person talking with a good voiceover. Now, what I was using this for many years ago, I think the video wasn't even that good back then. But what was really good back then, they'd really perfected the AI voice model. I was using a bunch of different companies for AI voice. And I actually found that Synthecia was one of the better ones, even better than the ones that only did voice, just the voice off of theirs. So I actually had a Synthecia account. And I'm trying to remember the numbers on this.

5:05I probably could go pull up an old email when you're talking, Jamie. me. But I essentially made an account and I was paying it was whatever it was like an unlimited account. Maybe it was like 100 bucks a month or 50 bucks a month or something. And I just went and created like hundreds and hundreds of AI generated episodes for podcasts. I made these like AI generated podcasts about like meditation and stuff. I was doing this for my last software company. This is like even before I started podcasting as myself. So it's kind of funny. It got me into it for sure. Anyways, they were not happy because, I mean, it was kind of their fault, but they didn't really have a limit to how many episodes you could create, how many podcast episodes that you could create with their unlimited tier.

5:49And so I very easily, all of a sudden, couldn't log into my account anymore. I sent their customer support request and they had some email that basically said, you have exceeded your credit limit by an insane amount. if you want to resubscribe instead of$50 a month, it's going to be$1 ,300 a month or$2 ,700 a month. And I was like, yeah, that's okay. And I like downloaded all my stuff and I was like, I'm done. So I think I got like$3 ,000 worth of Synthesia usage for 50 bucks. And I think I'm probably the reason why they put limits on their unlimited tier and changed it. This is years ago. So anyways, that's my funny story with Synthesia.

6:24But they have just hit a$4 billion valuation. So evidently, However many credits I used back then wasn't too many. I didn't destroy their company. I'm happy to hear. And they're also letting some customers cash out, which I think is interesting. Yeah. So, you know, what's cool about this company is that a lot of AI companies, it's based on speculation, or at least their valuation is. But Synthesia actually is making money. They have recently crossed the$100 million in annual recurring revenue. That was last April. So almost a year ago, that was their ARR. So that's pretty impressive. You know, they're based in London and they're really doubling down on what they do.

7:05So, you know, if you think about it, training videos for corporations are extremely expensive to make, especially if you're paying a production company, you know, to make these training videos. If you can have AI do it, it's going to save companies a ton of money, especially if it's effective and, you know, natural, not too computerized looking. And from what you can see, if you go to Synthesia, a lot of their avatars are quite natural looking. They're getting better all the time. Another unique value proposition they have is that they are kind of hopping on the AI agents trend. But more specifically, they're creating agents that will allow employees to interact with the company knowledge in a more intuitive, human-like way.

7:51So picture like role playing different scenarios as a way to train the employees. So that's kind of not just it's not just a video generation model, but they also have some AI components built in so you can actually interact with the avatar. So there's a lot of unique things that they're doing that other companies aren't. Yeah, I think it's phenomenal. OK, I found the email from 2022 and I just have to share it because it's funny. The title is Credit Consumption. It's from their customer support. They said, we hope you're having a great day. Our system has warned us of an extreme overconsumption in this account.

8:28This account has consumed a total of 448 credits while only having paid for a total of 10 credits. For this reason, this account has been temporarily blocked. To continue using this account, an invoice for the credits of overuse and an upgrade to the corporate plan will be required. Please let me know if you have any questions. Then the upgrade thing that they sent me was for$3 ,000 a month. and the funny thing was like i mean i don't know they just said it was like an unlimited thing i was like i didn't do anything i just kept clicking generate and their system hadn't blocked it or something so i didn't know i was doing anything wrong but it was pretty funny um back in 2022 uh the ai generated podcasts were going crazy okay i think this is phenomenal for the company though sorry for the the tangent on that uh what's exciting for me is that their uh employees are going to be able to cash out i think this is cool they're getting the ability to sell some of their shares.

9:19This company has grown absolutely, it's an absolutely astronomical run. I'm curious to see where Synthesia sits. I wouldn't count them up because they're such a big company. They're doing so well. So many people know about them. But I'm curious to see where they sit because I feel like there's so many new AI video generation companies coming out. They really kind of were on this model of, and maybe they're going to just go all in with training brand new video models that can do everything. But they really have this kind of niche where it's like corporate, it's one person. I've seen how they train these models.

9:48Like they put a real person inside of like an orb of cameras with like cameras from every angle all around them talking. They train the model that way. And because of this, they actually had a new feature that came out a while ago that I did think was cool back when it came out. And it was multi angle. So they're able to have like the camera switch angles mid shot, which was kind of cool. And they essentially trained that by like filming a whole bunch of models from different angles. and then they were able to, you know, you can generate a video, like a corporate video explainer video, but it's like you have three different camera angles on it.

10:19To me, that's really cool. But what I think the industry is moving towards more is like, I mean, basically being able to generate that same concept completely from scratch. You don't need a model that you're sitting there training. It's just like generating, like something like Higgs field, where it just feels like it just, or like Google's VO3, where it's just generating anything completely from scratch. Now, the quality is a little bit lower, I think right now on some of those, and they have a little bit more glitching. So this, because it's for corporate, I think it's a lot more streamlined for a specific use case.

10:49But I think eventually Synthesia, if they want to stay relevant, they're going to have to get into the lane of something like Google VO3 where they could just generate an image of literally anything or a video because otherwise that's probably where people would go for a lot of this same work. Yeah, no, absolutely. And apparently they have over 500 team members now. So 500 employees, a 20 ,000 square foot headquarter in London. They have offices in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Munich, New York City, and Zurich. So they're all over the place. And I, you know, I think, um, I think they do have a unique ability to be able to train their model to do some of these different things, like, uh, having different angles, I think is pretty valuable when it comes to making an engaging video, especially if it's a training video, for example, and you're going to make your employees sit through a, you know, a two hour training of AI generated video.

11:38It's got to at least have some some pizzazz you know what i'm saying so exactly yeah so overall excited about this company i think they're doing good things congratulations to everyone on the team for hitting a four billion dollar valuation and doing the secondary sale where you're letting your um people go and uh be able to sell sell shares and your employees are being taken care of i think is an exciting thing so that is phenomenal hey thank you so much to everyone that joined us for the episode today. Make sure to leave a rating review wherever you get your podcasts and make sure as always to go check out the AI Hustle school community and all of the vibe coding videos that we've been posting.

12:16I'll see you guys in the next episode.

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