Founders Behind the Frame: The Story of Tella’s Creation

Tella was co-founded by Grant Shaddick and Michiel Westerbeek. Grant Shaddick, who now serves as Tella’s CEO, holds a Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) in Marketing and Economics from the University of Auckland (2009–2012). After his studies, he worked across several companies, eventually moving into the tech industry around ten years ago. This transition marked the beginning of his involvement in product management and related roles. (Grant Shaddick)

Before founding Tella, Grant co-founded Kople. Prior to that, he spent sometime at Bynder, where he held multiple roles: Chapter Lead Front End NL and Product Manager. Grant is also a Y Combinator alumnus, having completed the program in September 2020.

Michiel Westerbeek, Tella’s co-founder, also co-founded Birdy and was involved with iGolfinstructor. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Informatica (Software Engineering) from HAN University of Applied Sciences. Before Tella, Michiel worked as Lead Software Engineer at InVision. He also co-founded Kopie and worked at Bynder, where he served as Chapter Lead Front End NL. (Michiel Westerbeek)

The idea for Tella emerged while Grant and Michiel were working at InVision, a design software company that, even before the pandemic, operated as a fully remote team of 800 people—an uncommon setup at the time. One of InVision’s internal practices was for product teams to share work updates via videos in Slack channels. This enabled teams across departments—from sales to customer support—to stay informed at their own pace.

They realized that while these videos significantly improved internal communication and engagement, there was no easy, user-friendly way to create them. The available tools were either too simplistic (basic screen recordings) or too cumbersome (complex, time-intensive video editors). This gap inspired them to build Tella—an app designed to make creating work-related videos both easy and enjoyable.

The Big Picture: Why the Screen Recording Market Is Booming

The global screen recorder market is experiencing substantial growth, driven by increasing demand for content creation, online education, and remote work solutions. Valued at USD 1.2 billion in 2023, the market is projected to reach USD 2.1 billion by 2031, exhibiting a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.5% during the forecast period of 2024-2031. (Verified Market Research)

Several factors contribute to this impressive growth. The surge in remote work and e-learning has created a need for screen recording technologies, with professionals and educators using these tools to deliver presentations, webinars, and training materials. The expanding content creation landscape on platforms like YouTube and Twitch also fuels demand, as gamers and content creators rely on screen recorders for live streaming, software tutorials, and gameplay recordings.

Furthermore, the increasing adoption of online communication and collaboration platforms boosts the market, as screen recording becomes essential for capturing webinars, meetings, and other virtual interactions, improving documentation and communication within remote teams. Ongoing technological advancements in recording software, including high-definition recording, cross-platform compatibility, editing tool integration, and cloud storage, further enhance usability and appeal, attracting a wider range of users.

The screen recorder market spans various geographic regions, each with unique characteristics and growth potential. North America, with its high internet penetration, tech-savvy population, and thriving e-learning sector, exhibits strong demand for advanced screen recording solutions, particularly in business applications for training and webinars. Europe follows closely, driven by stringent regulatory demands and a focus on cybersecurity, leading to increased adoption of high-quality screen recording tools among educational institutions and corporations.

The Asia-Pacific region is witnessing remarkable growth, fueled by the digital transformation of industries and the rising adoption of smartphones, which propels mobile screen recording applications. The Middle East and Africa are catching up, driven by investments in digital infrastructure, particularly in the education and entertainment sectors. Lastly, Latin America is experiencing a surge in screen recording software usage, driven by the growing demand for video content production.

Meet Tella: The Recorder Reimagined for the Modern Creator

Tella aims to transform screen and camera recording into its own unique format by providing creative tools and making it enjoyable for users to create engaging videos on their computers. Its mission is to revolutionize how people create and share video content, making it easier and more accessible for everyone to communicate effectively in a visual world. 

Tella aims to solve several key problems in the video creation landscape. Traditional video creation can be complex and time-consuming, often requiring specialized software and technical skills. Simple screen recordings often lack the polish and creative options needed to make a lasting impression. 

Tella bridges this gap, offering a user-friendly platform that allows users to simultaneously record their screen and camera, create unique and engaging videos quickly. The company understands the increasing importance of visual communication, believing that everyone has stories to tell and content to share. By simplifying the video creation process and providing creative tools, Tella unlocks the power of video for a broader audience.

Product Tour: Everything Tella Offers (And Why It’s a Game-Changer)

Tella.tv is a modern screen recording and video editing platform meticulously designed to simplify video creation for a diverse range of users, including entrepreneurs, educators, and creators. The platform’s core strength lies in streamlining the entire video production process, empowering users to efficiently create professional-quality videos with minimal hassle.

Core Features for Simplified Video Production

Tella offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to simplify and enhance every stage of video creation:

• Clip-Based Recording: Tella adopts a modular approach to recording, allowing users to record videos in small, manageable clips. This makes editing and rearranging content significantly easier, resulting in a more efficient and flexible production workflow.
• Speaker Notes: To aid users during recording, Tella provides a built-in speaker notes feature. This enables presenters to jot down ideas, talking points, or entire scripts, ensuring they stay on topic and deliver coherent and well-structured content.
• Cross-Platform Compatibility: Recognizing the diverse technological landscape, Tella provides both a native macOS application and a browser-based web app. This ensures accessibility and flexibility across different devices and operating systems, catering to users’ preferences and workflows.
• Zero-Effort Editing: Tella prioritizes ease of use, especially for individuals without extensive video editing experience. The platform boasts intuitive features like transitions, zoom effects, customizable backgrounds, and various layouts, which facilitate the creation of engaging, multi-shot videos with minimal effort and technical expertise.

AI-Powered Editing for Enhanced Efficiency

Tella incorporates cutting-edge AI-driven tools to further enhance the editing process, automating tedious tasks and improving overall video quality:

• Delete Silences: This feature automatically detects and removes silent segments from recordings, streamlining the final video and eliminating unnecessary pauses.
• Remove Filler Words: Tella’s AI can identify and eliminate common filler words such as “um” and “ah,” resulting in more polished and professional-sounding content.
• Edit with Text: This innovative feature allows users to edit videos by directly modifying the transcript, making the editing process as simple as correcting a text document.
• Trim Start & End: Tella automatically cuts unnecessary content at the beginning and end of videos, saving time and ensuring a clean, professional start and finish.

Publishing and Sharing Made Easy

Tella simplifies the process of sharing your finished videos with the world:

• Host on Tella: Users can directly host their videos on Tella’s platform, enabling instant sharing and facilitating viewer engagement.
• Export in 4K: Tella provides the option to download videos in stunning 4K resolution, making them suitable for high-quality playback on platforms like YouTube and LinkedIn.
• Embed on the Web: Offers embedding capabilities, enabling videos to be seamlessly integrated into websites or applications, expanding reach and engagement opportunities.

Under the Hood: How Tella Works Its Magic

The platform prioritizes a user-centric design, ensuring accessibility for individuals of all technical skill levels, while simultaneously incorporating powerful AI-driven functionalities to streamline and enhance video production.

At the heart of Tella’s innovative approach lies its AI-powered editing suite. This suite automates several crucial aspects of the editing process, significantly reducing the time and effort required to produce professional-quality videos. One key feature is silence detection and removal. Tella’s AI intelligently identifies and eliminates silent segments within recordings, creating a more engaging and dynamic viewing experience. Similarly, the AI automatically detects and removes common filler words (“um,” “ah,” “you know,” etc.), resulting in content that is more concise, polished, and professional.

Beyond automated cleanup, Tella offers a revolutionary text-based editing experience. Users can edit their videos simply by modifying the transcript. Changes to the text are directly reflected in the video, providing a more intuitive and efficient editing workflow. Furthermore, Tella’s AI automatically trims unnecessary content from the beginning and end of videos, ensuring a smooth and engaging viewing experience from start to finish.

Tella also emphasizes a user-friendly interface with features such as drag-and-drop functionality, real-time previews, and customizable templates contribute to an accessible and efficient user experience. Recognizing the diverse needs of its user base, Tella provides both a native macOS application and a web-based platform. This cross-platform approach allows users to access and utilize Tella’s full suite of features regardless of their operating system, offering unparalleled flexibility and convenience.

Small Team, Big Wins: Tella’s Market Impact

Operating with a compact and agile team, Tella.tv has demonstrated impressive growth. Revenue figures indicate a 33% increase in 2022, followed by a substantial 100% surge in 2023. While annual revenue remains under $1 million, this trajectory signals strong market adoption and a growing user base attracted to Tella.tv’s user-friendly interface and efficient video creation capabilities. 

One key integration is with SiteManager, a platform that empowers users to build comprehensive websites. By integrating with SiteManager, Tella allows users to easily embed their videos directly into their web projects. This is particularly useful for creating engaging product demos, informative tutorials, and compelling presentations right within their websites. This integration simplifies the process of incorporating video content into web development, making it more accessible to users of both platforms, and can be found in the SiteManager Marketplace.

Powered by Passion (and $150K): The Funding Story

Tella has raised a total of $150,000 in equity funding through a single seed round that took place in August 2020. This initial funding round was facilitated by the renowned startup accelerator, Y Combinator. (Tracxn)

The $150,000 seed investment served as the foundational capital for Tella, enabling the company to begin development of its screen recording platform and take its first steps toward establishing a presence in the market. This funding allowed the team to focus on building a product.The fact that Y Combinator, one of the most respected startup accelerators in the world, backed Tella at such an early stage is a strong signal of the company’s potential. It reflects a high level of confidence in Tella’s founding team, vision, and ability to execute. This endorsement not only provided financial support but also opened doors to a network of mentors, investors, and early adopters that helped shape Tella’s initial growth.

Tella’s Mission in Action: Final Thoughts

Tella empowers individuals and teams to create engaging and informative video content effortlessly. As a screen recorder and video editor designed for asynchronous communication, Tella allows you to capture your screen, webcam, and voice, then quickly stitch them together into polished videos. 

This eliminates the need for lengthy meetings and facilitates clear, concise communication across distributed teams. Whether you’re onboarding new employees, providing product demos, or sharing feedback on designs, Tella streamlines the video creation process, saving you time and boosting productivity.

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