How the Squad.so launch video was made, and how to make yours

The launch film opens with "I'm going against Grok Bot". That is not an accident: it names an enemy in the first three seconds, which is the fastest way to earn the next ten. The rest of the script alternates between a claim, a product shot proving it, and a receipt from the real world. Write it as narration you could read out loud in one breath per line.

If you want to know what actually performs in your niche before you write, the CLI can read the room for you. It returns viral videos with their transcripts, hooks and engagement, which is a much better starting point than a blank page.

revid search "ai agents for founders" --json

HOOK (0:00-0:05)   Name the enemy. "I'm going against Grok Bot."
STAKES (0:05-0:20) Why it matters to the viewer, in their words.
PROOF x3           Claim, then the product doing it on screen, then a receipt.
GAG                One unexpected beat (the phone call). Earns the share.
CLOSE              What it costs, where to get it, one line, end card.

Every shot of Squad's interface in the film is a real screen recording, captured with Screen Studio and exported as mp4. Revid does not need to invent your product, and it should not. Record the three or four moments that prove your claims, five to ten seconds each, with the cursor doing something meaningful.

Upload the recordings anywhere public (your CDN, S3, even a Revid upload) and keep the URLs. They go into the payload as your own media, which Revid uses as the visuals for the matching script sections instead of generating something.

"media": {
  "type": "ai-video",
  "quality": "pro",
  "provided": [
    {
      "url": "https://cdn.yoursite.com/shots/inbox.mp4",
      "type": "video",
      "title": "Support inbox demo"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://cdn.yoursite.com/shots/briefing.mp4",
      "type": "video",
      "title": "Morning briefing"
    }
  ],
  "useProvidedInOrder": false
}

This is the step people assume needs a studio. It needs one photo. Revid builds a consistent character from it, and every scene that features that character keeps the face, hair, glasses and outfit. A front-facing shot on a plain background works best; a full-body reference next to it helps with wide shots.

Create the characters in Revid under AI characters (one upload each), then read their IDs from the API. Any video that lists those IDs will feature them.

curl -s https://www.revid.ai/api/public/v3/consistent-characters \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REVID_API_KEY" | jq '.[] | {id, name}'

"characterIds": ["chr_tibo_xxxx", "chr_bhanu_xxxx"]

Pick a narration voice from the catalog, or clone your own so the presenter that looks like you also sounds like you. The film's "unknown number" phone call uses a separate, custom voice for the caller, which is what turns a feature list into a scene people quote.

revid voices labels --json          # accents and descriptors to filter on
revid voices --json | jq '.[] | select(.labels | index("energetic"))'

"voice": { "voiceId": "your-voice-id" },
"options": { "soundEffects": true }

Screenshot the posts and articles that set up your story (here: the Grok Bot launch coverage), export short clips from relevant videos, and add them to media.provided next to your product shots. Give each a title that says what it is; the script planner uses those titles to decide where they belong.

{
  "url": "https://cdn.yoursite.com/receipts/grok-bot-news.png",
  "type": "image",
  "title": "News coverage of Grok Bot launch"
},
{
  "url": "https://cdn.yoursite.com/receipts/reaction-post.png",
  "type": "image",
  "title": "X post reacting to the launch"
}

Because the script is final, use script-to-video, which speaks your text word for word. Prompt-to-video would rewrite it. Landscape, 1080p, and a quality tier of pro for the first render; go ultra only for the final.

{
  "workflow": "script-to-video",
  "aspectRatio": "landscape",
  "source": { "text": "I'm going against Grok Bot. ..." },
  "characterIds": ["chr_tibo_xxxx", "chr_bhanu_xxxx"],
  "media": {
    "type": "ai-video",
    "quality": "pro",
    "mediaPreset": "REALISTIC",
    "provided": [
      {
        "url": "https://cdn.yoursite.com/shots/inbox.mp4",
        "type": "video",
        "title": "Support inbox demo"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://cdn.yoursite.com/receipts/grok-bot-news.png",
        "type": "image",
        "title": "News coverage"
      }
    ]
  },
  "voice": { "voiceId": "your-voice-id" },
  "captions": { "enabled": true, "position": "bottom" },
  "options": { "soundEffects": true },
  "render": { "resolution": "1080p" }
}

revid create --payload payload.json --dry-run --json   # validates, spends nothing
revid credits --payload payload.json --json            # exact cost before you commit
revid create --payload payload.json --wait --output launch.mp4

Open the project in the editor, tighten the cuts around your product shots, check the captions against the script, drop the end card with the price and the URL, and export. Squad's in-house editor did exactly this pass on the film before it went out.

Post it natively on X with the video as the first thing in the post, then build the thread underneath: the making-of, the pricing, the receipts. The launch thread and its quote posts are what took this one past a million views.