The traditional funding announcement submit is getting the Gen Z remedy.
Extra startups, particularly these led by younger founders, are shifting away from LinkedIn posts or X threads and turning to viral TikToks and short-form movies to face out, Enterprise Insider not too long ago reported.
With conventional media protection tougher to land and social posts rapidly vanishing from feeds, founders are rethinking how they announce main milestones.
Cluely, the “cheat on all the things startup,” not too long ago raised $15 million and introduced it with a shot-for-shot homage to The Social Community. Earlier this 12 months, in addition they launched with a video that value $140,000 to provide. The 90-second narrative brief, posted to X, reveals a person on a primary date being fed traces in actual time by Cluely. The funding paid off. The video went viral and crashed Cluely’s servers, founder Chungin “Roy” Lee informed Enterprise Insider.
Cluely is out. cheat on all the things. pic.twitter.com/EsRXQaCfUI
— Roy (@im_roy_lee) April 20, 2025
For Hedra, a startup targeted on digital avatars, the announcement video doubled as a product demo. Founder Michael Lingelbach seems within the clip as himself, as a Studio Ghibli character, a Pixar animation, and with a full tech bro makeover, full with gold chain. These viral child podcast movies that have been in every single place final month? That was them.
@hedra.labs
We’re hooked on the infant podcasts, so we made our personal with Character-3. #ai #babypodcast #aibaby #aivideo #chatgpt #hedra
♬ authentic sound – Hedra – Hedra
Not each announcement must be a high-budget manufacturing, although. British entrepreneur Grace Beverley turned to TikTok final 12 months to announce two fundraises: one for her activewear model TALA, and one other for Retrograde, her AI-powered expertise company.
“Signal my enterprise’s sequence a funding spherical with me,” learn the caption of 1 TikTok, the place she signed the £5 million take care of a pink fluffy pen. Only a few months later, she returned with a white fluffy pen to signal the €1.9 million spherical for Retrograde.
@gracebeverley
a pinch me second
♬ authentic sound – grace beverley
As a substitute of counting on weblog posts or LinkedIn updates, startups navigating a saturated market could discover {that a} viral video is extra more likely to entice new clients—and even the best investor sliding into their DMs.
