This is the first episode in a series of interviews with content creators and entrepreneurs who are leveraging AI in novel ways. You can watch/listen to our full interview with Vibehut.io founder Chris Dolinski above, or read the highlights below.
Chris Dolinski first realized the power of getting under the hood with hands covered in engine grease. In the early days of founding Clutch.ca, the Canadian equivalent of Carvana, he and his brother were elbow-deep in a car engine, scrubbing away grime with toothbrushes to prep the vehicle for a photoshoot. This willingness to get his hands dirty and understand how things work at a fundamental level has driven Dolinski's 15-year career in building technology.
Now, as the founder of Vibehut.io, Dolinski aims to unlock the hidden value in the 3+ trillions of hours of conversations on Zoom and other video conferencing tools each year. In an era where meaningful exchanges and idea generation often happen in unstructured, free-flowing conversations, Vibehut bridges the gap between teleconferencing software (like Zoom or Hangouts), recording software (like Riverside.fm), and course creator/community platforms (like YouTube, Skillshare, or Udemy).
To grasp Vibehut's vision, it's helpful to know Dolinski's journey. In his early ventures, getting coding help meant diving into the uncharted waters of IRC chat rooms and enduring a barrage of insults from more experienced programmers.
"I kind of just ate proverbial glass for years," he recalls. "You can actually go to my Stack Overflow and see some of the stupid questions I asked in 2011."
"I kind of just ate proverbial glass for years."
But Dolinski persevered, driven by insatiable curiosity and a stubborn refusal to be deterred by insults or obstacles, solving problems by getting under the hood.
Decentralizing Social Media
This same curiosity that led Dolinski to the world of blockchain technology in the mid-2010s. It was here that Dolinski first encountered the text-based social media platform "DeSo," short for decentralized social, a term that has since become a buzzword in the tech industry.
On this platform, Dolinski had a chance encounter with Dharmesh Shah, the co-founder and CTO of HubSpot, a $30 billion marketing software company. Dolinski had written a post about his vision for the future of decentralized social media, and to his surprise, Shah not only read the post but also shared it with his followers.
"I was talking to these people and like I had Dharmesh who's the CTO of HubSpot, which is like a $30 billion company, reading my post and being like, 'You know what, I agree with you, Chris. That sounds like a great post,'" Dolinski recalls. "He's reposting it on his feed and I was like, 'Holy smokes, that's not... Dharmesh is on a different level.'"
This moment was a turning point for Dolinski. It signaled that he was on the right track and that his ideas about the future of online communities resonated with influential people in the industry. It also reminded him of the power of building meaningful relationships with the right people who shared his values and vision, rather than merely accumulating followers for vanity metrics.
Reimagining Online Collaboration
Dolinski knew from the start that he wanted Vibehut to be different from dominant social media giants. Rather than creating another platform for mindless scrolling or fleeting viral fame, he aimed to facilitate genuine human connection and collaboration, helping people unlock the full potential of their conversations and ideas.
One of the first things you'll notice if you get invited into a Vibehut call is that the platform integrates with existing social media accounts, eliminating the need for yet another login. This user-centric approach minimizes friction, making it easy for people to connect.
Vibehut also lets creators to build their communities for free, and only charges a fee when they start to monetize their audience. If OnlyFans and Zoom had a baby, it might look something like Vibehut – a platform that combines the monetization potential of the former with the video functionality of the latter, but without the stigma often associated with adult content.
Unlocking the Value of Conversation
We're most excited about the potential to unlock the full value of our conversations, turning them into a rich source of insights, ideas, and inspiration. Just as we only use a fraction of our brain's potential, we may only be using 10% of the value in our conversations, losing the rest to the digital memory hole.
Vibehut makes it easier than any other platform to repurpose call content – both clips and full-length videos, as well as transcripts. Features like instant upload to TikTok or YouTube and immediate access to call transcripts streamline the process of capturing and distributing valuable content from unstructured dialogue.
At Content Vikings, we are pioneering a new approach to content creation that combines human conversation with large language models (LLMs) and automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology to extract insights from unstructured data sources like audio and video recordings.
Our long-term ambition is to act as a midwife for a new category of digital media – conversational content. Vibehut offers a way to capture and amplify the value of these exchanges, turning them into a rich source of insights, inspiration, and creative raw material. By making it easy to record, transcribe, and repurpose conversation content, Vibehut is helping to unlock a vast new frontier for content creators and knowledge workers.
Just as platforms like YouTube and Instagram have given rise to new categories of creators and influencers, Vibehut has the potential to spawn a new generation of thought leaders and innovators who can build their brands and businesses around the power of conversational content.
To help content creators maximize the value of their conversations, we've developed a set of prompts to quickly repurpose recorded content into various formats:
Generating Blog Post Ideas
What are the most compelling ideas or insights from this conversation that could be expanded into a full-length blog post? Identify the key themes, arguments, and examples that could form the basis of an engaging and informative piece of content.
Creating Timestamped Summaries
Create a detailed summary of the key points and highlights from this conversation, complete with timestamps indicating where each point can be found in the original recording. Use a clear and concise format that makes it easy for readers to navigate and find the information they need.
Extracting the Best Quotes
Identify the most memorable, insightful, or thought-provoking quotes from this conversation, and compile them into a list or collection. Be sure to include the speaker's name and the timestamp for each quote, so that readers can easily find and reference them in the future.
Generating Shareable Clips
Create a series of short, engaging video or audio clips from this conversation that can be easily shared on social media or other platforms. Focus on the most interesting or entertaining moments, and use eye-catching visuals or animations to make the clips stand out.
Identifying Audio Glitches
Carefully review the audio recording of this conversation and identify any glitches, errors, or issues that may need to be addressed in post-production. Create a list of these issues, complete with timestamps and descriptions, to streamline the editing process.
Generating Titles and Subtitles
Based on the content and themes of this conversation, generate a list of potential titles and subtitles that accurately reflect the key ideas and insights discussed. Focus on creating titles that are attention-grabbing, informative, and easy to understand, even for readers who may not have listened to the full conversation.
Standard Operating Procedure
Create a step-by-step guide or standard operating procedure based on the key processes, techniques, or strategies discussed in the conversation.
Meeting Notes with Action Item Summaries
Summarize the main points discussed in the meeting, along with a list of action items, deadlines, and responsible parties.
Key Learnings and Takeaways
Identify the most important lessons, insights, or takeaways from the conversation, and compile them into a concise list or summary.
It’s hard to understate the possibilities opened up by the combination of Large Language Models with content created on platforms like Vibehut. Early adopters who tap into this potential stand to reap outsized rewards.
We will be exploring how the platform fits into our own content strategy and look forward to getting our hands dirty under the hood in setting up our own Vibehut community in the near future.
Stay tuned!
