In an era where attention spans are shrinking and video dominates digital communication, one founder saw an opportunity that others missed. Gaurav Misra, the visionary behind Captions, didn’t just build another video editing tool—he reimagined how stories are told in the digital age. His journey from a curious teenager in India to the CEO of a multi-million-dollar AI video platform is a masterclass in disruptive innovation, rapid execution, and product intuition.
What makes Misra’s story remarkable isn’t just the success of Captions—it’s how close it came to never existing at all. This is the story of:
- A weekend experiment that accidentally became a top App Store product
- A near-deletion moment that could have erased a future unicorn
- How listening to users (not investors) led to product-market fit
- Why charging from Day 1 became their secret weapon
With tens of millions of users, 100,000+ daily active creators, and $100M+ in funding, Captions has become indispensable for everyone from TikTok influencers to Fortune 500 companies. But the real lesson isn’t in the numbers—it’s in the counterintuitive decisions that got them there.
The Making of a Builder—From India to Silicon Valley
Early Days: A Hacker’s Mindset Forged in India
Growing up in India’s competitive education system, Misra developed skills that would later define his entrepreneurial edge:
Accelerated Learning: His high school computer science curriculum was so advanced that his first two years at Boston University felt like review sessions. Instead of coasting, he used this time to:
Build and launch multiple apps (2011-2012)
Experiment with game development and security software
Develop what he calls “meta-learning“—the ability to master new domains rapidly
“In India, we were solving complex algorithms while many US students were still learning basics. That gap taught me to always look for the next challenge.”
The Accidental Entrepreneur at 16
Long before formal business training, Misra stumbled into his first venture:
Built security tools for online games as a side project
Sold them to gaming companies without realizing it was a “business”
Key Insight: “I didn’t know what a startup was—I just saw a problem and built a solution people would pay for.”
The Pivot Point: Why He Dropped His PhD
After starting a machine learning PhD, Misra made a pivotal decision that defied conventional wisdom:
Left academia to join Microsoft’s Azure Machine Learning team
Later moved to Snapchat, where he:
Bridged the gap between engineering and design
Led the Design Engineering team, creating tools for AR/VR
Observed firsthand how short-form video was becoming the new language of the internet
*”At Snap, I saw creators spending hours editing 15-second clips. The tools were archaic—it felt like using a typewriter in the smartphone era.”*
The Birth of Captions—A Weekend Project That Exploded
The Original Vision: A Social Network That Almost Was
Misra’s initial plan wasn’t to build an editing tool:
Wanted to create a next-gen social platform
Started with video creation features as stepping stones
The first feature? Auto-captions—something no app did well in 2020
The Lightning Strike Moment
What happened next defied all startup advice:
Built the first Captions prototype in one weekend
Launched with zero marketing, no PR, no influencer push
Woke up to 600 new users per minute
Organic App Store Top 10 within 48 hours
“We kept refreshing the analytics—it felt like a glitch. No one believed a tool this simple could explode like that.”
The $10,000 Monthly Server Bill Crisis
Early success came with an unexpected problem:
AWS costs ballooned to $10K/month
Team debated shutting it down to focus on their “real” product
Misra’s last-ditch experiment: A paywall with a “pay or we sunset” ultimatum
The Paywall That Changed Everything
The decision to charge users $4.99/month seemed suicidal for a new app—but the results stunned them:
Left the paywall live but forgot about it for 6 months
Came back to $500,000+ in revenue
0% churn—users stayed even with no updates or support
Lesson Learned: “When people pay, they’re telling you something real.”
The Pivot That Changed Everything
The Existential Crossroads
With two growing products (Captions and their original social app), the team faced a brutal choice:
Stay the course on their venture-backed social network
Abandon their plan to double down on this “accidental” tool
Why They Bet on Captions
Three unconventional insights drove the decision:
Organic vs. Forced Growth
Social app needed heavy marketing
Captions grew with $0 CAC (customer acquisition cost)
The Pain Point Hierarchy
Social was a “nice-to-have”
Captions solved an actual workflow nightmare
The Paid User Signal
Willingness to pay = real pain
Free users = vanity metrics
The Relaunch and Exponential Growth
After refocusing entirely on Captions:
User base 10X’d in months
Enterprise inquiries from media companies and educators
Investor interest shifted overnight
“We went from ‘Why would anyone pay for this?’ to ‘Holy shit, we’re onto something’ in weeks.”
The Execution Playbook—Scaling Against the Odds
1. The MVP Mindset: How They Avoided the “Overbuilding” Trap
Most startups fail by building too much too soon. Captions succeeded by:
Shipping the simplest possible version
Using manual backends before automating (e.g., early captions used human transcription fallbacks)
Killing features that didn’t impact retention
“Our first ‘AI’ was literally just me and my co-founder fixing errors manually at night.”
2. The Paid-First Strategy: Why Charging Users Was Their Superpower
While competitors chased vanity metrics with free plans, Captions:
Filtered out casual users
Funded development with revenue (no desperate fundraising)
Gathered higher-quality feedback (paying users are brutally honest)
3. Technical Debt vs. Speed: Their Unorthodox Approach
Prioritized “good enough” code over perfection
Outsourced non-core tech (e.g., used off-the-shelf speech recognition early)
Only scaled infrastructure after proving retention
4. The Olympics Principle: How Micro-Decisions Won the Race
Misra’s counterintuitive belief:
Big visions matter less than daily execution
Example: The 2-hour paywall experiment that saved the company
“Startup success is the sum of 1,000 small right decisions.”
By the Numbers: Captions’ Traction
| Metric | Figure | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Daily Active Users | 100,000+ | Surpassed many venture-backed competitors |
| Total Downloads | 5M+ | Organic, non-paid growth |
| Peak Revenue (Pre-Scale) | $500K+ | From a near-deleted app |
| Funding Raised | $100M+ | From top-tier VCs post-pivot |
| App Store Peak | Top 10 | Without marketing spend |
The Future—Where Captions Goes Next
The AI Video Revolution
With generative AI exploding, Captions is positioned to:
Automate scriptwriting, editing, and effects
Launch real-time collaborative video studios
Dominate the “Canva for Video” category
Enterprise Expansion
Recent moves into:
Corporate communications (automating CEO messages, training videos)
Education (lecture captioning, interactive video lessons)
News/media (instant transcriptions for journalists)
Misra’s Founder Lessons
Risk Early, Not Late
“The best time to take big swings is when you have nothing to lose.”Listen to Users, Not Experts
“Our investors wanted a social network. Our users wanted captions.”Charge From Day 1
“Revenue isn’t validation—it’s oxygen.”Small Decisions > Big Plans
“No business plan survives first contact with users.”
Final Thought: The Unstoppable Rise of Video
*”Text had its 5,000-year reign. Video is the next universal language—and we’re building the tools to make it accessible to everyone.”*
—Gaurav Misra, Founder & CEO of Captions
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