Z Potentials | @AkoolInc (AKOOL), an AI video tool created by Jiajun Lv, has rapidly gained popularity in North America, reaching an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $40 million in just two years! In this interview, Jiajun Lv shares in detail how Akool achieved product-market fit (PMF) by leveraging differentiated technological products, transitioning from its initial startup positioning to product transformation. He also discusses how the company continues to expand its feature matrix around human-centric video generation, ultimately providing deep services to enterprise clients and content creators. Lü explores the profound impact of technological development on the future of the industry and envisions Akool’s long-term goal of competing with Adobe to become the leader in the video production field. Let’s dive into Akool’s story. Enjoy! “Elon Musk’s goal is to enable humanity to survive across planets, whereas I am more focused on how technology can transform humanity itself, making us wiser and stronger in the future. This might sound a bit like science fiction, but for me, I still want to do something that has a real impact... Although I’ve been involved in two entrepreneurial ventures before, I realized that if I want to drive the things that truly interest and excite me, the best way is to strike out on my own.” "First, it was the technological shift that caught my attention, such as models like Stable Diffusion starting to truly work and becoming more mature. This marked a huge difference. Of course, the fastest evolution has been in Language Models, but at the same time, we also see the trend expanding towards images and videos... This shift was also driven by the fact that we noticed data for these functionalities on the platform had started to rise, so we decided to go all-in in this direction." "The signal for reaching PMF (Product-Market Fit) is incredibly strong——it feels unstoppable. When we pivoted to video generation, our servers were on the verge of collapsing; no matter how many machines we added, it was never enough. If you're unsure whether you've reached PMF, there's a high likelihood that you haven’t actually reached it yet." "Our differentiated advantage lies in our deep focus on the Enterprise market. Unlike competitors who focus on the Prosumer market, we believe the enterprise market has a higher ceiling, deeper barriers to entry, and stronger customer retention. Video production/editing is also more of a systemic engineering problem. On one hand, it's about how to implement the solution in more scenarios, which requires extensive engineering development. On the other hand, it's about refining the product experience, which demands significant product polishing. Whether it's engineering or product refinement, these are areas where our team excels." "In the early stages, one of the key reasons our product was well-liked by users was because our technology was superior. Looking at the medium to long term, we still believe that technology is crucial to user experience. We’ve maintained a tech-first mindset and have continuously pushed for breakthroughs and advancements in technology. We’ve made groundbreaking progress in foundational large model frameworks, high-precision 3D modeling, and neural network rendering." ⬇️Below is the full interview👀