Jason Hsiao: How to Save the Best for First in Your Video Content

In this episode, I sit down with Jason Hsiao, the co-founder and Chief Video Officer of Animoto. Listen in as we discuss video marketing, entrepreneurship, and the future of digital mediums.


Topics include:

  • Jason’s origin story and what it was like in the days before the iPhone
  • The state of video today and the “wave” that Jason and his team managed to catch
  • The early skepticism that Animoto encountered when they first started the company (and how they navigated the “free on the internet” theme at the time)
  • The counterintuitive business model Animoto used when they first launched (and what fueled their growth)
  • Why you can’t make everyone happy and what you need to do instead
  • How Animoto “disrupted” themselves and how it led to serious growth 
  • One of the hardest decisions product creators have and how to navigate all of the choices that get thrown at you
  • The “builder paradigm” and how to make a product where no one can really fail
  • How Jason deals with the inbound he encounters as the popularity of his tool grows 
  • Current trends in video and social media (and which platform is growing the fastest right now)
  • What you should NOT do when it comes to creating your own video
  • Why telling content creators to think like a movie director is actually horrible advice
  • Jason’s take on the “personalized” video and what he thinks works (and doesn’t)
  • The most interesting answer to the Golden question we’ve had so far! 
  • And much more!

Jason Hsiao is the co-founder and Chief Video Officer of Animoto, an award-winning online video maker that makes it easy for anyone to create professional-quality marketing videos, even if they have no technical skills and have never created a video before. With the mission of empowering everyone to create powerful videos regardless of age or experience, Jason founded Animoto with his high school and Dartmouth College friends back in 2006. Animoto’s certified partnerships with Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and the Small Business Administration give it unique insight into the changing social media and business landscape — which may be why more than 1-million businesses around the world are already using Animoto to create marketing videos. Prior to founding Animoto, Jason was a producer for MTV Networks and Comedy Central.


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