Captions

Mirage is LIVE Generate energetic, high-converting ads with people that don’t exist — complete with animated body language and micro-expressions — using Mirage, the first foundation model built to generate UGC-style content. Get started with a script or an audio file, then specify the look of your spokesperson, their background, outfit, objects, and even emotion. It’s never been easier to iterate and scale ad production with Mirage, now available in Captions Ad Studio.

Gaurav Misra?was an early employee at?Snap Inc. where he pioneered the 'design engineer' function, was an engineer at?Microsoft?and a couple of other startups, and most recently is the co-founder and CEO of?Captions, one of the most successful, cutting-edge, and fastest-moving consumer AI products out there right now. In our conversation, we essentially do an archeological dig into how a modern AI-oriented startup operates. Learn: ?? Why every engineer ships a marketable feature *every week* ?? Why they keep a “secret roadmap” in addition to a regular roadmap ?? Why they take on strategic technical debt, and why that's essential for startups to outpace larger companies ?? Why they cut scope rather than compromise on timelines ?? Why marketing will be the first industry transformed by AI ?? How Captions accidentally ignored their most successful product for 1.5 years (after noticing 500K sitting in their bank account) ?? How Snap’s unique product development approach—with designers functioning as PMs—enabled their success as the last major social network to break through ?? Much more Listen now ?? ? YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gQk-n3pH ? Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gb9P3gnK ? Apple: https://lnkd.in/gPFHFX5i Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting the podcast: ?? Brex— The banking solution for startups: https://lnkd.in/gdZxf7i4 ?? Paragon—Ship every SaaS integration your customers want: https://lnkd.in/geirC2qS ?? Coda—The all-in-one collaborative workspace: https://coda.io/lenny Some key takeaways: 1. Ship marketable features weekly: Gaurav’s team follows the principle that “every engineer should ship a marketable product every week.” A marketable product is something users would come to your app specifically for or even pay for. 2. Cut scope, not quality: When faced with time constraints, aggressively reduce scope by asking, “What if we remove this? Is the product still useful?” rather than compromising on quality. They “cut, cut, cut until we can really say that it’s going to be useless if we cut anymore.” 3. Use customer complaints as prioritization signals: “If nobody complains, it’s almost a red flag,” Gaurav explains. User complaints highlight what matters most to your audience and should guide your immediate product improvements. 4. Implement a two-roadmap system: Maintain both a “public roadmap” (features users explicitly request) and a “secret roadmap” (innovative ideas that could transform user behavior). The biggest wins typically come from the secret roadmap. 5. Strategically manage technical debt: “As a startup, your job is to take on technical debt” to move faster than larger companies. Ask “Is this a problem we need to solve today, or can a future engineer solve it?” Just be mindful of your “technical debt runway.”

This is BIG Add cinematic video overlays or dynamic B-roll to your talking videos with Pika, now available in our editor. All it takes is a text prompt.

Captions has been named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies of 2025! We’re grateful today and everyday to our global community of creators for giving us the opportunity to help amplify your ideas — and remain excited to push forward our mission of making professional-quality video accessible to all. If you’re interested in shaping the future of AI video, we’re hiring and would love to talk.?

We're live at NVIDIA #GTC25 this week! Come visit us at booth #3162 in San Jose, where we're showcasing Mirage—our latest foundation model that's redefining AI video creation and UGC content. If you're attending, stop by to chat! We'd love to connect and show you the future of AI-powered video.

New week, new partnership drop! Udio is now officially available in Captions. Instantly generate any soundtrack for your video with just a text prompt.

Our UGC video foundation model "Mirage" is available now for marketers everywhere. If you’re spending 30K+ a month or more on ads, you can 10X your outputs at a fraction of the cost.

We’re heading to Las Vegas for?#AdobeSummit next week. If you’re attending, drop by Booth 278D—we’d love to chat!

Eleven Labs ?? Captions

This week, we're excited to announce our partnership with ElevenLabs — making it easier than ever to create videos with studio-grade voices, in any language, directly in Captions. With this partnership, you can dub your videos into different languages, select a professional-quality voice to narrate your content, or clone your voice so you can create polished videos any time, anywhere. Try it out and stay tuned for a third partnership announcement next week!