Shorts

The situation

February 2024. Vertical short drama was exploding out of China — 60‑to‑120‑second episodes, 50‑episode arcs, shot for the phone — but Western audiences had almost no access to English‑language originals. Everything was subtitled Chinese or Eastern European production. We saw a three‑month window before the US market ignited.

The bet: be first with US‑produced, English‑language vertical dramas. The problem: nobody in the US knew how to make them. We had to learn an industry while building at startup speed.

What I did

I started by decoding the industry — translating Chinese trade reports, reaching production companies over WeChat, interviewing insiders. Then the decision that shaped everything: own production instead of licensing. Higher upfront cost, full creative control, and unit economics the incumbents couldn’t touch.

As the sole American at a French company, I became the bridge to US production: leveraging LA entertainment connections to secure an exclusive production partnership, hiring and running a ten‑writer team spanning the US and China, and executive producing 40+ exclusive series — building the workflow from pitch to script to production to release, while coordinating engineering and design on the platform itself.

Outcome

Zero to $15M ARR in 24 months. 40+ exclusive original series. And a moat the incumbents can’t replicate: LA talent at startup economics, run through an AI‑assisted production workflow.