The classic funding announcement post is getting the Gen Z treatment.
More startups, especially those led by young founders, are moving away from LinkedIn posts or X threads and turning to viral TikToks and short-form videos to stand out, Business Insider recently reported.
With traditional media coverage harder to land and social posts quickly vanishing from feeds, founders are rethinking how they announce major milestones.
Cluely, the “cheat on everything startup,” recently raised $15 million and announced it with a shot-for-shot homage to The Social Network. Earlier this year, they also launched with a video that cost $140,000 to produce. The 90-second narrative short, posted to X, shows a man on a first date being fed lines in real time by Cluely. The investment paid off. The video went viral and crashed Cluely’s servers, founder Chungin “Roy” Lee told Business Insider.
Cluely is out. cheat on everything. pic.twitter.com/EsRXQaCfUI
— Roy (@im_roy_lee) April 20, 2025
For Hedra, a startup focused on digital avatars, the announcement video doubled as a product demo. Founder Michael Lingelbach appears in the clip as himself, as a Studio Ghibli character, a Pixar animation, and with a full tech bro makeover, complete with gold chain. Those viral baby podcast videos that were everywhere last month? That was them.
@hedra.labs We’re hooked on the baby podcasts, so we made our own with Character-3. #ai #babypodcast #aibaby #aivideo #chatgpt #hedra
♬ original sound – Hedra – Hedra
Not every announcement needs to be a high-budget production, though. British entrepreneur Grace Beverley turned to TikTok last year to announce two fundraises: one for her activewear brand TALA, and another for Retrograde, her AI-powered talent agency.
“Sign my business’s series a funding round with me,” read the caption of one TikTok, where she signed the £5 million deal with a pink fluffy pen. Just a few months later, she returned with a white fluffy pen to sign the €1.9 million round for Retrograde.
@gracebeverley a pinch me moment
♬ original sound – grace beverley
Instead of relying on blog posts or LinkedIn updates, startups navigating a saturated market may find that a viral video is more likely to attract new customers—or even the right investor sliding into their DMs.
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I was reading funding news last week, and I came to a big realization: Andreessen Horowitz is not a venture capital fund.
A lot of people are thinking it. So there, I said it.
