Back to directory
AI & ML · AI video & image generation

TrueShort

Original movies and series made for your phone.

CEO & Founder @ TrueShort. prev founder Humans Anon (#1 App Store for Heath & Fitness) & Set The Set (acq. by UnitedMasters) | Guitarist @ Pink Roses
New York, NY7.1K followers
TLVC Rating

Loved the video, great storyline + problem statement. Little hype would have got a lot more traction and attention on this launch.

Community Rating
No ratings yet
Your rating
Sign in to rate this launch.

About

TrueShort is a mobile streaming app that produces and distributes its own original movies and series, built vertically for the phone rather than licensed from outside studios. The app delivers bingeable short-form storytelling across true crime, romance, thriller, drama, and fantasy, including documentary series where each episode runs about 60 seconds. The pitch to founders and operators watching the AI video space is simple: instead of selling generation tools, TrueShort is using its own AI studio to write, produce, and release finished content directly to consumers. The launch marks a $12M round led by Keith Rabois at Khosla Ventures, with participation from Jeffrey Katzenberg (DreamWorks), Scott Belsky (Behance), Brian Halligan (HubSpot), and General Catalyst , alongside Ravi Nandan of A24. The capital is earmarked for hiring filmmakers, AI artists, and creative technologists to expand the slate across new genres, including a kids and family division the company has begun staffing. The investor mix, spanning a traditional animation founder, an indie film financier, and a design platform creator, signals a bet that distribution and IP, not just model quality, will define the next wave of AI entertainment. TrueShort is run by Nate Tepper, who previously founded Humans Anon and Set The Set (acquired by UnitedMasters) before starting the company in New York. The company has positioned itself as one of the fastest-growing streaming apps in the App Store, reaching the top 10 in the News category , and the launch video frames the mission around lowering the cost and credential barrier for anyone who wants to make a movie. For operators tracking how generative video moves from demo to durable product, TrueShort is a clear test of the studio model applied to phone-native, episode-length content.
Tags
B2C<500KSeedCinematicB2BGlobalAI-generatedUSVertical AIFunding announcement
Comments (8)
Sign in to join the discussion.
Yusra Qadir20d ago

Katzenberg on the cap table for vertical shorts has a delicious Quibi-shaped irony to it. Hopefully the lesson sticks this time.

Tomas Pavlik20d ago

Hot take: the actual moat here is taste, not tech. Anyone can generate slop, very few can edit it into something you finish watching.

Min-joo Park20d ago

Curious what the day-30 retention curve looks like before I get excited. Vertical originals tend to spike on novelty then crater once the algorithm stops feeding new viewers.

Adeola Banks20d ago

The launch video's first 1.5 seconds did all the work, smart cold open with the face close-up before the logo hit. Most founders bury the hook under their own name.

Dev Ganesh20d ago

ok wait, 'hire the next generation of filmmakers' is doing a lot of work in this tweet. Are we talking staff writers rooms or three kids and a Runway subscription?

Prisha M.20d ago

Worth noting that Bordwell's work on screen ratios suggests vertical framing genuinely changes blocking, not just cropping. If they lean into that as a constraint there's something here.

kara hops20d ago

The thumbnail on the announce video has the title text fighting the subject's face for attention. Move the wordmark down 40px and it sings.

Luca Serrano20d ago

Guitarist in Pink Roses to vertical Spielberg pipeline is a wild bio arc and I respect it.