cocreate

What do they actually do

cocreate is an early-stage, AI‑assisted post‑production tool focused on the prep work between camera offload and the first edit. The product is in pilot/early access with a public demo and a waitlist, and the team is actively recruiting professional users (post houses, DITs, assistant editors) rather than offering a broad commercial release yet (cocreate.so, YC company page, demo video).

Today it runs during ingest: it verifies copies with checksums, creates edit‑friendly proxies, auto‑syncs external audio to camera clips, and organizes media by scene, take, camera, people, and date to make footage searchable (cocreate.so — how it works, YC company page).

It can generate a machine‑assembled rough cut (including simple natural‑language assembly) and export prepared projects to major NLEs like Premiere, Avid, Final Cut, and DaVinci Resolve. The company emphasizes a local‑first approach so source media stays on the user’s devices/workflows (cocreate.so — how it works, YC company page).

There are no public case studies or pricing yet; access appears gated through demos and direct outreach, so evaluators should expect a hands‑on pilot experience rather than a mature, self‑serve product today (cocreate.so, YC company page).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Assistant editor at a post house: They spend hours on checksum copies, proxy creation, audio syncing, and tagging before editors can work. Delays here routinely push schedules; they need reliable automation to shrink prep time (cocreate.so, YC company page).
• Digital Imaging Technician (DIT) on set: They must offload safely, verify media, and turn around dailies quickly. Slow or error‑prone ingest risks lost shots and schedule slips; automated safe copy and local processing help reduce that risk (cocreate.so, YC company page).
• Freelance editor or small team handling high‑volume shoots: Tight deadlines make waiting for proxies, audio sync, or organization impractical. They need footage to be immediately editable after offload to start cutting sooner (cocreate.so).
• Post supervisor or production manager: They coordinate many handoffs and are hurt by inconsistent naming, missing metadata, or exports that don’t import cleanly into NLEs. They need organized, searchable media and reliable exports to reduce rework and status checks (cocreate.so, YC company page).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Run targeted, free pilots with a short list of post houses and DITs, ingesting real camera cards on upcoming jobs and measuring time saved and errors avoided; ask for testimonials or referrals after successful runs (cocreate.so, YC company page).
• First 50: Turn early pilots into short case studies and tailored demos, then offer paid, low‑friction pilot packages (remote onboarding + one‑job support) to post supervisors, rental houses, and freelance editor communities with referral incentives (cocreate.so, YC company page).
• First 100: Open a gated paid beta with clear onboarding templates, export presets, and video guides, and add 1–2 reseller/partner channels (camera‑rental houses, post integrators, DIT services) that standardize installs and recommend cocreate by default (cocreate.so, YC company page).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

The relevant market is post‑production. Published estimates place the global post‑production market around $22–26B today (e.g., $22.15B per Verified Market Research; $25.85B per market.us) (Verified Market Research, market.us).

Bottom-up calculation:

IBISWorld reports ~3,546 US post‑production businesses; assuming the US is roughly one‑third of global revenue implies ~10k post houses worldwide. The U.S. has ~43.5k film & video editors (many freelance), indicating tens of thousands of professional users addressable by ingest/prep tooling (IBISWorld, BLS).

Assumptions:

• US share of global post‑production revenue is ~35%, used to scale US business counts to global.
• Only a subset of post‑production spend is addressable by ingest/prep software; capture scenarios are framed at small shares.
• Customer units may be per seat, site, or project; counts approximate potential buyers rather than contract structure.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Hedge: Checksum‑verified offload and ingest management used by DITs and post teams; overlaps on safe copy and ingest automation.
• ShotPut Pro (Imagine Products): Longstanding industry tool for checksum‑verified media offload; widely used on set for reliable copies and reports.
• Pomfort Silverstack: On‑set data management and dailies software with logging, verification, and metadata tooling for professional workflows.
• Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve: Full NLE with proxy, sync, and dailies workflows; while broader in scope, it covers parts of ingest and early assembly.
• Descript: AI‑assisted, text‑based video editing and rough‑cut assembly; not an ingest tool but overlaps on quick first‑pass edits.