How We Got Our First 100 Paid Users (With No Marketing Budget)

Let me set the scene.

It was December 2022, and Magic Hour was a prototype living in a Google Colab notebook.

It had one purpose: take in a Youtube URL and generate a music video using AI.

The idea had a lot of risks: Does anyone even want AI music videos?

To derisk it, we started posting the outputs on social media from Day 1.

The First Test

Our first post was an Elliot Smith track paired with AI visuals. It didn’t go viral. But it got 49 likes and 14 saves.

That was enough signal to keep going.

In January 2023, my cofounder David joined. He focused on building the product; I focused on getting it in front of people.

Posting Daily

From January onward, I posted 4 videos a day across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and later Douyin (I had to ask my grandfather for his phone number for this one).

The goal was simple:

• Figure out what people liked
• Build demand for something that didn’t exist yet

We hacked together a landing page with just an email input hooked up to a Google Sheet. It felt scrappy, even a little embarrassing, but it worked. By June 2023, when we finally launched, 600 people had signed up for the waitlist.

1. Our landing page with a waitlist:

2. Our Youtube bio:

3. A pinned Youtube comment:

Launch Night

We emailed 100 people on launch day. Three subscribed immediately:

• Me (testing Stripe)
• My cofounder’s girlfriend (thanks Soojee)
• And one stranger named Ashton, who paid $120 for a full year

That single payment from a stranger felt surreal. But it also revealed the challenge: out of 600 sign-ups, only 20 converted.

In hindsight, we waited too long. By the time people got access, many had already forgotten who we were.

Searching for Viral

Pre-launch, most of our videos did a few hundred views. Occasionally one hit 100K, but nothing stuck.

I tried everything:

• Different art styles
• Audio-reactive visuals
• Camera effects
• Using album covers as prompts

Nothing consistently worked.

Until August 10, 2023.

The Breakthrough

That day I posted an NBA clip: Jordan Clarkson dunking, transformed into the style of a Chinese illustration.

At first it looked like any other post. But while I was brushing my teeth, the views started doubling every hour. By the time I woke up, it had gone viral.

That single video changed everything:

• 200M+ views across platforms
• Reposts by House of Highlights, Bleacher Report, SportsCenter
• Likes from Jaylen Brown, Jordan Poole, Baron Davis
• Mark Cuban subscribed and got the Mavericks using our product

All with $0 spent on marketing.

Reaching 100 Paid Users

It wasn’t quick. It took:

• Posting over 1,000 videos
• Daily iteration based on feedback
• Launching new products like video-to-video
• Growing to 100K+ followers
• Slowly converting creators, teams, and agencies

After eight months, we crossed 100 paid users. Creators, sports teams, and marketing agencies subscribed because they wanted to replicate our viral content.

What We Learned

1. Volume matters. Out of 1,000 videos, only a handful drove almost all the growth. If we’d stopped early, we never would’ve had a hit.
2. You can test demand without code. Posting videos gave us immediate signal about what people liked long before we had a real product.
3. Don’t let waitlists go stale. Launch sooner, even if it means manually faking some features.
4. Go where your people are. Each platform gave us different audiences—and different lessons.

Final Thoughts

Getting to 100 paid users wasn’t easy. It took months of posting into the void, learning from tiny signals, and pushing through doubt. But those early users gave us the foundation for everything that followed.

If you’re just starting:

• Post early and often
• Iterate relentlessly
• Don’t be afraid to be promotional
• Celebrate every small win

That first $120 from Ashton is still one of my favorite moments.

If you want to try the same kind of videos that helped us break through, check out our Video-to-Video tool.

And if you’ve been through a similar grind, I’d love to hear your story:

• Instagram: @magichourai
• Twitter: @runboli
• Email: runbo@magichour.ai