Operand (YC W25) — Product Film

Operand is a YC W25 startup building an AI system designed to replace the strategic consulting layer at retail and e-commerce companies. This video was produced to announce their launch and position the product against the major consulting firms.

Operand needed to land a bold claim: that a small startup is going to displace a $90 billion consulting industry, and that its AI already outperforms tools from the biggest labs in the world. Delivering that with credibility rather than arrogance required a production approach that could make the statement feel earned.

We built the video around a single founder walking through multiple environments across one continuous shoot, using location changes to create energy and forward momentum. The YC launch tweet opens the video as immediate social proof, grounding the founder's confidence in something already publicly validated.

Typography carries the argument. Key claims and stats are set in large white type directly over the footage, functioning as visual punctuation rather than subtitles. The benchmark chart showing Operand outperforming competitors renders as a live graphic composited into the scene, giving the performance claim a visual weight that spoken words alone couldn't carry.