Las Vegas-based Lucihub, an artificial intelligence-powered video production platform and mobile app, was founded with one goal: to deliver high-quality, professionally edited videos to consumers within hours, versus the typical video productions that cost tens of thousands of dollars and take so long to complete that they often become meaningless.
The 18-month-old company now has just over 20 employees across the globe and was recently accepted into the accelerator program of non-profit business incubator StartUpNV, giving Lucihub access to a wealth of resources and funding to drive its product forward.
“We're just getting started,” said Amer Tadayon, CEO of Lucihub. “I want our platform to become the de facto standard for professional phone content capture and conversion. That's where I'm heading, and I think the possibilities are endless.”
Tadayon said Lucihub specializes in rapid video production, where customers film their content, sometimes even on their smartphones, submit it to Lucihub, and get a professionally edited final product in up to 24 hours, sometimes even less.
Tadayon said that while social media has created a huge market for video content, it has also shortened its lifespan: time-consuming and expensive commercials that once lasted nearly a year now lose their relevance within days.
“We wondered if there was a way to democratize professional video production so that any brand team could do it themselves,” he said, “and that's exactly the idea behind Lucihub.”
Tadayon said the company, which started in the wedding video industry and has since expanded into corporate communications and other businesses, is a global company with many employees working remotely not just in Nevada but also outside North America.
Additionally, Lucihub has AI “built into its DNA,” Tadayon said: Butterfly, the platform's AI-powered assistant creative director, helps consumers write scripts, storyboards, press releases, blog posts and more.
He stressed that Butterfly is an assistant and requires human input and intelligence to complete the tool, but it helps users work more efficiently and accelerate their overall business.
Tadayon said Lucihub's core value is “AI for good,” which has so far proven to take the company “from nothing to something” quickly.
Now, Lucihub plans to grow with capital match support from FundNV, StartUpNV's pre-seed venture capital fund, and Nevada's State Small Business Credit Initiative, which offers startups an investment match of up to $500,000, according to a news release.
Jeff Salling, co-founder and executive director of StartUpNV, said the organization wants to support Nevada-based companies like Lucihub that are working to solve important market problems.
“We thought this was a really interesting, scalable idea, a really big market, and we had founders who were passionate about it and had a vision,” Salling said.
Local support is “essential” to building a startup ecosystem in Las Vegas, Salling said, and like many startup hubs across the country, the city has an atmosphere of creativity that fosters entrepreneurial spirit.
“When you think about entrepreneurs who are creating businesses, it's just like any other artist, they create something out of nothing,” he said. “They have an idea and they create something, whether it's a painting, a sculpture, music or a startup. So it's a very consistent behavior, and here in Las Vegas we see it all.”
Tadayon said that previously, they would have had to look outside of Nevada for resources and capital to build LuciHub, but thanks to opportunities like those offered by StartUpNV, they no longer have to do that.
Salling added that the city also offers an attractive lifestyle for entrepreneurs, with an easy commute, affordable cost of living and a growing venture capital community — making it a more attractive option than arguably more established tech hubs like Silicon Valley, California, or Austin, Texas.
“We're starting something great,” Salling says. “We have everything we need. It's just not as mature as other places. It's not the same, and we don't want it to be the same. We want it to be our version. We don't need to copy what someone else has done.”
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This article originally appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.
