I Built a Video Messaging Platform to $1M Per Year
Who are you and what business did you start?
I’m Denis, co-founder of VidDay, a collaborative video platform that helps people create surprise group video gifts for birthdays, weddings, retirements, and more. It started with a single birthday video and has grown into a global celebration tool, no editing needed, just invite, collect, and we do the rest.
Our customers are everyday people looking to make someone feel loved, no matter the distance. With VidDay, you invite, we collect the videos, and together we deliver a surprise that’s meaningful, emotional, and unforgettable. It’s the easiest way to bring people together in one epic video montage.
Beyond digital, we offer personalized keepsakes like video books, USBs, DVDs, and video postcards, along with a digital wedding guestbook and custom song gifts.
We’ve also expanded into new ways to celebrate with CineGreet (video surprises in movie theaters) and VideoGreet (QR-linked messages on gifts and flowers).
We’re fully bootstrapped and now generate over $1M/year in revenue, with millions of users across 180+ countries.
VidDay — Group Video Gifts Made Easy
How do you come up with the idea for VidDay?
The idea for VidDay started in 2013 when I made a surprise birthday video for a close friend. I invited everyone to send short clips, stitched them together, and watched this “macho” guy cry happy tears, calling it “the best gift ever.” That was the aha moment. People didn’t need more stuff; they needed to feel loved and seen.
The idea stuck with me. It grew in my head until I couldn’t sleep. I had to build it. In 2015, I launched a simple website called VidDay. To customers, it looked automated, but behind the scenes, it was just me doing everything manually. That hands-on work helped me learn every step of the process and obsess over how to streamline it. I had zero background in tech or video, which helped. I built it for people like me: no editing skills, just big hearts.
I’d had other startup ideas, but VidDay was different. One person invites 20 others, they feel the magic, and suddenly they’re asking how to make one too. Every video became a live demo, every participant a potential superfan. It was the kind of organic growth you can’t fake. Real people, real emotions, spreading it one surprise at a time.
The feedback sealed it: tears of joy, “best gift ever” reactions, and people coming back to create more. That’s when I knew this wasn’t just a good idea. It was something people truly needed.
How did you launch VidDay and get initial traction?
VidDay didn’t launch overnight. It was slow and scrappy. I threw up a simple website in 2015 and started stitching videos together by hand. One a month. Then one a week. Nowhere near viable, but I wasn’t chasing quick wins. I was building something real.
Growth came from word of mouth. One person invited 20 others. My first sale from a stranger came a month in; a $10 birthday video booked three months out. It felt like gold.
People said I was wasting my time, editing for hours for almost nothing. But I touched every clip, every message. That’s how I learned the product inside and out.
The real gut punch came when I outsourced app development. I burned through my life savings, over $30,000, in two weeks and ended up with nothing usable. That really hurt. But it taught me the hard truth: you can’t build something lasting alone.
The turning point was finding the right team. People who believed in the mission and could help bring it to life. That changed everything.
From left to right, Jeff Laxson, Will Robinson, Greg Stevenard, Denis Devigne, Ross Sabourin, Kyle Sierens
What was the growth strategy for VidDay and how did you scale?
We’ve grown VidDay through product-led growth, word of mouth, SEO, and paid ads. Every group video includes 10 to 30 contributors, each of whom experiences the product firsthand, and many go on to create their own. That built-in virality has fueled our organic growth from day one.
Since group video gifting was a brand-new concept, most people didn’t even know something like VidDay existed. We had to be creative, not just marketing the product, but educating people on what it was, how it worked, and why it mattered. We even coined the term “video gift,” which is now used widely online, including by our competitors.
To support long-term growth, we focused heavily on SEO. People started searching for things like “birthday video maker” and “retirement video gift,” so we built optimized landing pages and blog content around every major life event. SEO remains one of our most reliable growth channels.
We also added PPC, targeting people during key celebration moments with ads that highlight VidDay’s simplicity and emotional impact.
When the pandemic hit, demand exploded almost overnight. People were apart but still wanted to celebrate together, and VidDay became the solution. The wild part? We weren’t even fully automated at the time; we were scaling while still building the plane in the air.
One of the smartest product moves we made was building a “smart invite” system. We introduced RSVP tracking, reminder nudges, and invite management tools to help organizers stay on top of submissions. This not only improved the user experience, but also increased completion rates and viral spread.
Start with a product that moves people. Then remove the friction, amplify the story, and let your users do the talking. That’s real growth.
VidDay's smart invite tools
What were the biggest lessons learned from building VidDay?
Lessons From Building VidDay
Success doesn’t come from one big breakthrough. It comes from showing up, solving real problems, and learning faster than you fail.
Hard Lessons First
One of my earliest mistakes was thinking I could outsource my way to a scalable product. I spent my entire life savings on a dev team, only to be left with a broken app and nothing usable.
That hit hard. Very hard. But it forced me to stop looking for shortcuts and instead build the right team - people who believed in the mission and could grow with it. That decision changed everything.
Timing Matters (But Only If You’re Ready)
When the pandemic hit, people were physically apart but emotionally in need of connection. VidDay became a lifeline.
The wild part? We weren’t even fully automated yet. But we adapted fast and scaled through the chaos. Luck matters, but only if you're ready to meet it when it shows up.
Get Close to the Product
One of the best habits I developed early on was staying close to the product. I personally edited hundreds of videos in the first few years.
That hands-on experience taught me what customers cared about, where the friction was, and what we needed to fix or improve. It shaped everything from features to flow.
Customer Support = Your Secret Weapon
We offered live customer support from day one. Not just because it was great for users, but because it gave us a live pulse on how the platform was operating.
We could spot bugs faster, flag confusing steps, respond to feature requests in real time, and truly understand what people wanted. It wasn’t just support. It was product research, quality control, and relationship building all in one.
What Founders Often Miss
A mistake I often see? Founders spending too much time polishing the perfect pitch or obsessing over the site before launching. Just start.
Even messy momentum is more valuable than perfect stillness.
My Advice to Aspiring Entrepreneurs
- Don’t chase trends. Chase meaning.
- Build something people feel, not just use.
- Make it ridiculously easy to share.
- Get as close to your customers as possible and stay there.
- Let feedback shape you.
- And remember, growth is just the reward for building something people love.
Keep going. Even when it’s slow. Especially when it’s slow.
Discover Similar Business Ideas Like VidDay
|
|
Idea
|
Revenue
|
|---|---|---|
|
Affordable web solutions specializing in UAE st...
Affordable web solutions specializing in UAE startups. |
$20K
monthly
|
|
|
Fastest Growing Eyewear Brand in the UK
|
$350K
monthly
|
More about VidDay:
Who is the owner of VidDay?
Denis Devigne is the founder of VidDay.
When did Denis Devigne start VidDay?
2015
How much money has Denis Devigne made from VidDay?
Denis Devigne started the business in 2015, and currently makes an average of $960K/year.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
