Kaps: Revenue, team and how it was built
Kaps (AI subtitle plugin for Adobe Premiere Pro, Israel): US$20K MRR reported by Startup Spells, December 2023. Evidence grade D: reported, not verified. Team: 2 founders, a virtual assistant and a support representative (4 people) at the December 2023 figure; 6 to 8 people with offshore contractors by September 2024, when Startup Spells reported US$70K MRR. Launched September 2023; still running.Added 27 October 2026 · updated 31 October 2026
- Outcome
- US$20K MRR reported by Startup Spells, December 2023
- Evidence
- D reported, not verified
- Launch
- September 2023
- Status
- Still running
- Team
- 2 founders, a virtual assistant and a support representative (4 people) at the December 2023 figure; 6 to 8 people with offshore contractors by September 2024, when Startup Spells reported US$70K MRR
- Outside funding
- None reported
- Group
- Voice and audio
- Main channel
- Creators and short videos
What is not verified
The headline figure of US$20,000 MRR in December 2023 rests on one source: issue 151 of the Startup Spells newsletter, published on 4 September 2024, which shows it as the caption "$20k MRR by December 2023" under a picture. The same issue is the only source for the US$7,000 to US$8,000, US$23,000 and US$70,000 MRR figures. The newsletter does not name its author, and this page could not see what the pictures show, because the picture host (media.beehiiv.com) answers its robots.txt with 403 Forbidden, which this site treats as a block; they may be the founders' own posts on X, which this site does not open. PartnerKin's article of 16 November 2024 repeats the same figures and captions and links to Startup Spells, so it is a copy, not a second source. The dates are also uncertain: no source gives a launch date, and the order of the early figures is worked out from "one year after launch". No TrustMRR profile exists under kaps or getkaps (both answered Not found on 27 October 2026). A reader could look for the founders' own dated posts or dashboard pictures, an interview, or a payment-processor profile. The headline number is grade D: one claim or one estimate, with no second source. Aiolum shows it because the story is useful, and marks it so that it is not mistaken for a verified figure.
Kaps is a plugin, a small program that adds a panel to a larger program, for Adobe Premiere Pro, the video editor that many professional editors use. It does speech-to-text: it listens to the speech in a video and writes it out as text. Startup Spells, a newsletter about startups, wrote on 4 September 2024 that users upload a video and get back an SRT file, the plain-text subtitle format that lists each line with its start and end time, and that the transcription comes from Whisper, a speech-recognition model made by OpenAI. In October 2026 the same company also sells Kitcut, a plugin that cuts raw footage into short videos, and PodKaps, which edits podcasts filmed with several cameras.
Yuval Steuer and Roey Lalazar started it after they saw editors at a friend's video agency type subtitles by hand. They began with Hebrew, which, the newsletter wrote, Adobe's own speech-to-text did not support. According to Startup Spells, one Instagram story by a friend who is an influencer among video editors brought US$4,000 in pre-orders in 30 minutes; the Hebrew market gave US$7,000 to US$8,000 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR, the subscription income that repeats every month) within about two months; and Kaps reached US$20,000 MRR by December 2023. At that time the team was the two founders, a virtual assistant in the Philippines and a customer-service representative named on the website. Startup Spells also reported US$23,000 MRR 4.5 months after launch and US$70,000 MRR in September 2024, by which time the founders had added contractors for copywriting, development, lead generation and outreach.
Every money figure on this page comes from one newsletter issue, where the figures are captions under pictures that could not be opened for this page, so the page carries the badge "Reported, not verified" and the money is graded D. A later article on PartnerKin repeats the same figures and links back to the newsletter, so it is a copy, not a second source. The headline is the December 2023 figure, not the larger one, because by September 2024 the team had grown to six to eight people, and this site accepts a team of that size only with payment-processor or press evidence. The page also shows four earlier companies that tried to automate video editing, speech recognition or translation and failed.

How much revenue does Kaps make?
Each row shows the evidence grade and the source numbers from the list at the end of this page. The grades are explained in How Aiolum verifies.
| Fact | Value | Grade | How we know | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly recurring revenue, December 2023 | US$20,000 | D | Startup Spells, 4 September 2024: "$20k MRR by December 2023", a caption under a picture that could not be opened for this page. PartnerKin repeats the caption on 16 November 2024. No founder post, payment processor or independent second source was read for this figure. | [1, 2] |
| Run rate from the December 2023 figure | US$240,000 a year | calc | Calculated: 20,000 times 12. This is the headline figure of the page. | [1] |
| Team at the December 2023 figure | 4 people: 2 founders, 1 virtual assistant, 1 customer-service representative | C | The founder's post of 21 December 2023, shown as text in Startup Spells, says he had delegated his growth work to a virtual assistant "for $500/mo". The Wayback copy of the home page from 22 December 2023 names a customer-service representative who answers on WhatsApp. No source says whether other people worked there. | [1, 7] |
| MRR after about two months, Hebrew market only | US$7,000 to US$8,000 | D | Startup Spells: "reached $7-8K MRR within 1.5-2 months". The newsletter adds that the founders then hit a ceiling in that market. | [1, 2] |
| MRR 4.5 months after launch | US$23,000 | D | Startup Spells: "$23,000 MRR in 4.5 months with a 30% month-over-month growth rate". The newsletter gives no calendar date for this figure. | [1, 2] |
| MRR, September 2024 | US$70,000 | D | Startup Spells: "As of September 2024, Kaps has reached an impressive $70k MRR just one year after launch." A caption under a picture. PartnerKin repeats it. Not the headline, because the team was larger by then. | [1, 2] |
| Growth from the December 2023 figure to September 2024 | 3.5 times in 9 months | calc | Calculated: 70,000 divided by 20,000, from December 2023 to September 2024. Both figures are grade D. | [1] |
| Team by September 2024 | 6 to 8 people | D | Startup Spells lists roles, not a headcount: the two founders, the virtual assistant, a customer-support representative hired through OnlineJobs.ph, and then "Copywriter for specific languages", "Developer for new plugin versions", "Lead generation specialist" and "Outreach specialist". The count is 8 if each role is a different person; PartnerKin writes the roles in the plural. | [1, 2] |
| Pre-orders after one influencer's Instagram story | US$4,000 in 30 minutes | D | Startup Spells. The pre-orders were taken in a WhatsApp group that the founders created for the purpose. | [1, 2] |
| Influencers working with Kaps, May 2024 | about 70 to 80, from a list of 1,000 | D | Startup Spells, "as of May 2024". Languages named: Hebrew, Polish, Hungarian and Arabic, among others that Whisper supports. | [1] |
| Pay of the virtual assistant | US$500 a month plus US$10 to US$25 for each influencer deal, about US$1,000 a month in total | D | Startup Spells. The founder's post of 21 December 2023, shown as text, says the assistant "CLOSED $5k in influencer collabs on his own". | [1] |
| Response rate of the assistant's outreach to Arab countries | 26%, four times the founder's own rate | D | Startup Spells and PartnerKin. | [1, 2] |
| Speech model | OpenAI Whisper | D | Startup Spells: "They realized this could be automated using OpenAI's Whisper model." No source says whether Kaps runs the model on its own servers or calls OpenAI's paid service. | [1] |
| Editors using Kaps, claimed by the company | more than 50,000 | C | Installation guide, read 27 October 2026: "it's used by 50k+ editors around the world today". The company's own count, not checked, and not a count of paying customers. | [8] |
| Prices, December 2023 | US$39, US$60 and US$199 a month | C | Wayback copy of the home page, 22 December 2023: Individual Editor with 25 minutes, Professional Editor with 180 minutes, Business Plan with 999 minutes and 3 seats. | [7] |
| Prices, October 2026 | US$39, US$60 and US$199 a month, or US$22.90, US$34.90 and US$119 a month billed yearly | C | Pricing page, read 27 October 2026. The monthly prices have not changed since December 2023; the yearly prices are 40% to 42% lower (calculated), although the page says "Save up to 21%". | [4, 7] |
| Company name | Kaps Media LLC | C | Footer of the home, pricing, Kitcut and PodKaps pages, October 2026; the installation guide is signed "2024 Kaps LLC". No source read for this page gives the state or country where the company is registered. The founders started in the Hebrew-speaking market in Israel, and the founder's name in the newsletter's copy of his post carries an Israeli flag. | [3, 8, 1] |
| Outside funding | none reported | D | No source read for this page reports an investment round. This is an absence of a report, not a statement by the company. | [1, 2] |
| Launch | about September 2023 | D | No source gives a launch date. Startup Spells writes that the US$70,000 MRR of September 2024 came "one year after launch". The earliest Wayback copy of getkaps.com is from 22 December 2023. | [1, 7] |
| Time from launch to the headline figure | 3 months | calc | Calculated: September 2023 to December 2023. The launch month is itself an estimate from the newsletter's words. | [1] |
How to read this table: a grade D value was reported by the Startup Spells newsletter (or copied from it by PartnerKin) and was checked by no one else. A grade C value was read on the company's own pages, in a Wayback copy of them, or in a founder post that the newsletter shows as text. A "calc" value was computed on this page from the rows above it. No value is grade A or B.
| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kaps Individual Editor | 22.90 | 39 | 30 transcription minutes a month, 1 seat |
| Kaps Professional Editor | 34.90 | 60 | 180 minutes a month, unlimited automatic cuts, 1 seat |
| Kaps Business Plan | 119 | 199 | 999 minutes a month (sold as unlimited), 3 seats |
| Kitcut Private Editor | 19 | 90 editing minutes a month; billing period of the shown price not stated | |
| Kitcut Professional Editor | 35 | 300 editing minutes a month, silent-part cutting | |
| Kitcut Business Plan | 99 | 1,000 editing minutes a month, more seats available | |
| PodKaps | 19 | unlimited podcasts, 1 editor, 14 days free | |
| Kaps Individual Editor, December 2023 (historical) | 39 | 25 minutes a month; Wayback copy of 22 December 2023 |
Kaps plans are sold by transcription minutes in each month and by seats; each seat is one editing computer, and more seats can be added. The yearly price is shown as a price per month. The page says "Save up to 21%", but the yearly prices are 40% to 42% below the monthly prices (calculated). Kitcut and PodKaps are separate plugins with separate plans. The Kitcut page shows one price per plan next to a switch between a yearly and a monthly subscription, and the downloaded copy does not show which of the two the price belongs to; PodKaps starts with 14 days free. In December 2023 the Individual plan cost US$39 a month and included 25 minutes instead of 30.
When did Kaps launch, and how did it grow?
From a Hebrew-only subtitle feature in 2023 to US$70,000 MRR reported by Startup Spells a year later, then three plugins in 2026. The sources give few exact dates: dates before September 2024 are worked out from the newsletter's words "one year after launch". Each entry carries its grade.
- 2023DThe founders see editors at a friend's video agency typing subtitles by hand. Adobe Premiere Pro does not support Hebrew speech-to-text, so they build a Hebrew feature on OpenAI's Whisper model. [1, 2]
- About September 2023DLaunch, as worked out from the newsletter's "one year after launch". A friend who is an influencer among video editors posts an Instagram story about Kaps; a WhatsApp group for pre-orders collects US$4,000 in 30 minutes, according to Startup Spells. [1, 2]
- Autumn 2023DUS$7,000 to US$8,000 MRR within 1.5 to 2 months in the Hebrew-speaking market, Startup Spells reported. Growth then stops, and the founders decide to launch in every country whose language Adobe does not support. [1]
- By 21 December 2023CYuval Steuer hands influencer research, outreach and negotiation to a virtual assistant in the Philippines for US$500 a month. His post of 21 December 2023 says the assistant closed US$5,000 in influencer deals on his own. [1]
- December 2023DUS$20,000 MRR, according to a caption in Startup Spells. The team is the two founders, the assistant and a customer-service representative. [1, 2]
- 22 December 2023CThe earliest Wayback copy of getkaps.com offers "Automatic English Captions for Davinci Resolve", plans at US$39, US$60 and US$199 a month, and support on WhatsApp. [7]
- Early 2024DUS$23,000 MRR 4.5 months after launch, with 30% growth from month to month, as Startup Spells reported. [1, 2]
- May 2024DAbout 70 to 80 influencers out of a list of 1,000 work with Kaps, in Hebrew, Polish, Hungarian, Arabic and other languages. [1]
- September 2024DUS$70,000 MRR, Startup Spells reported. The team now includes contractors for copywriting in each language, plugin development, lead generation and outreach, 6 to 8 people in all. [1]
- 4 September 2024DStartup Spells publishes issue 151 about Kaps. [1]
- 16 November 2024DPartnerKin publishes a rewritten version of the same story, with the same figures and a link back to Startup Spells. [2]
- October 2026Cgetkaps.com sells animated captions for Premiere Pro, the Kitcut plugin for automatic cuts and the PodKaps plugin for multi-camera podcasts, under the name Kaps Media LLC. The installation guide claims more than 50,000 editors. [3, 4, 5, 6, 8]
Why did Kaps work?
Four causes, in the order they mattered. Each one is a reusable lesson.
A language that Adobe did not support
Premiere Pro already had speech-to-text, but not in Hebrew, according to Startup Spells. Whisper handled Hebrew, so the first product filled one gap that the large program left open. The newsletter wrote that each new language was a small technical change, one parameter in the call to the model, for example language="en" to language="pt". So each country where Adobe was weak became a new market for the same code.
Influencers before advertising
The first sales came from one friend's Instagram story, which Startup Spells reported brought US$4,000 in pre-orders in 30 minutes. The newsletter's explanation is that the influencer had built trust with editors over years, and that trust passed to the product. The founders then built lists of influencers in each language market; by May 2024 they worked with about 70 to 80 of them, out of a list of 1,000.
Offshore contractors for the growth work
A virtual assistant from the Philippines took over the influencer lists, the outreach and the negotiation; Startup Spells reported that he was paid US$500 a month plus a bonus for each deal and that his response rate in Arab countries was four times the founder's. A customer-support representative came through OnlineJobs.ph. Later the founders added copywriters for each language, a developer for new plugin versions and lead-generation and outreach specialists.
One page template for each language
Each market gets its own landing page in its own language, built from the same Tailwind UI template, Salient, as the newsletter showed with the English and Arabic pages. The English site in October 2026 still carries a sentence about "Transcription quality in Polish", a sign that the pages are translations of one another.
How it was built
These details come from Startup Spells (grade D), the company's own pages and installation guide (grade C), and the page source of getkaps.com, read on 27 October 2026. [8, 1, 4, 3, 7]
- The plugin is an Adobe extension file that the editor installs with a separate ZXP/UXP installer. It needs Premiere Pro version 23 or later, works on Mac and Windows, and opens under Window, Extensions, Kaps. The editor logs in with the account made at registration.
- Speech-to-text is done by OpenAI's Whisper model, according to Startup Spells. The result is a subtitle file, and the newsletter wrote that adding a language means changing the language parameter of the call.
- The plans on the pricing page also list DaVinci Resolve and After Effects, while the answers to frequent questions on the home page say that only Premiere is supported now and After Effects will come later.
- The website is built with Next.js, as the page source shows, and the newsletter identified the Tailwind UI Salient template on both the English and Arabic pages.
- The page source loads a Google tag with a Google Ads account ID and a TikTok pixel, code that measures visits from advertising. No source says how much the company spends on ads.
- Support is by WhatsApp and email, with a customer-service representative named on the site since December 2023. Contractors were hired through OnlineJobs.ph, according to Startup Spells.
Tools named in the sources
Each one opens its page in the Tools tab, with every story that uses it.
Who tried this before Kaps, and why did they fail?
Four companies in our database of failed startups tried to automate video editing, speech recognition or translation before a general speech model existed. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.
HighlightCam
The promiseAutomatic editing that finds the most interesting moments in raw video.
Why it diedSmartphones and consumer editing programs such as iMovie and Adobe Premiere Elements offered easier ways to edit and added similar features, and the market adopted automatic editing slowly.
ReelSurfer
The promiseCut and share short clips from online videos without editing skills.
Why it diedYouTube and Facebook built clipping and sharing into their own products, and mobile apps replaced its desktop tool.
Tellme
The promiseInformation and transactions over the phone by voice, with automated speech recognition.
Why it diedSmartphone apps with screens replaced voice menus. Microsoft bought it in 2007, and the voice assistants of larger companies took the market.
TurboTranslations
The promiseFaster and cheaper translation through a marketplace of freelance human translators.
Why it diedNeural machine translation from Google and DeepL became good enough for most work, and the human marketplace lost its reason to exist.
The failed startups come from our database of 1,749 dead startups, retold here in our own words. Its entries are AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so these cards carry no evidence grade.
What changed
The four companies on this page tried to take slow manual work out of video, speech or translation. HighlightCam wrote its own algorithm to find the best moments in raw footage, and ReelSurfer built a desktop tool for cutting clips; both needed investors and a team, and both lost to features that the large platforms and editing programs added. Tellme worked on speech recognition over the phone for twelve years, and our database of failed startups lists US$238 million in funding for it. TurboTranslations sold human translators and was overtaken by machine translation.
Two things changed. First, speech recognition that once needed a funded research team became a model that a two-person company could build on: Startup Spells wrote that supporting a new language was a matter of changing one parameter. Second, Kaps does not ask editors to change programs. It sits inside Premiere Pro, where they already work, and it filled one gap that Adobe left, a language that Adobe did not support. The risk is the one that ended HighlightCam: the maker of the editing program can add the feature itself, which is a reason why the company now also sells automatic cuts and podcast editing.
Can one person copy Kaps now?
The Hebrew opening, no. The method, yes.
A first AI subtitle plugin for an unsupported language was an opening in 2023, and there are now many AI caption tools. The method is still open: find a feature that a large program lacks for one language or one group of users, build it on an existing model, and sell it through the people those users already follow. Startup Spells reported that this took Kaps from US$7,000 to US$8,000 MRR in one market to US$70,000 MRR about a year after launch; no payment record confirms it.
Where it is still open: Other large professional programs with weak support for some languages or tasks, and tasks next to captions, such as automatic cuts and multi-camera podcast edits, which Kaps itself added later.
- 1Look for work that professionals still do by hand inside a large program because the program does not support their language or task.
- 2Build the missing feature as a plugin inside that program, so customers do not change their tools.
- 3Pre-sell through one trusted creator in that field before building much; Startup Spells reported that a WhatsApp group of buyers was enough for Kaps to start.
- 4When one market stops growing, copy the page and the influencer plan into the next language, with an assistant who builds the lists of influencers.
What could go wrong for Kaps?
The risks are the mirror image of the causes above.
What is not verified
The headline figure of US$20,000 MRR in December 2023 rests on one source: issue 151 of the Startup Spells newsletter, published on 4 September 2024, which shows it as the caption "$20k MRR by December 2023" under a picture. The same issue is the only source for the US$7,000 to US$8,000, US$23,000 and US$70,000 MRR figures. The newsletter does not name its author, and this page could not see what the pictures show, because the picture host (media.beehiiv.com) answers its robots.txt with 403 Forbidden, which this site treats as a block; they may be the founders' own posts on X, which this site does not open. PartnerKin's article of 16 November 2024 repeats the same figures and captions and links to Startup Spells, so it is a copy, not a second source. The dates are also uncertain: no source gives a launch date, and the order of the early figures is worked out from "one year after launch". No TrustMRR profile exists under kaps or getkaps (both answered Not found on 27 October 2026). A reader could look for the founders' own dated posts or dashboard pictures, an interview, or a payment-processor profile.
The team grew past five
At the headline figure the team was 4 people: the two founders, a virtual assistant and a customer-service representative. By September 2024, when Startup Spells reported US$70,000 MRR, the founders had added a copywriter for each language, a developer, a lead-generation specialist and an outreach specialist, 6 to 8 people in all; the sources list roles, not a headcount. This site accepts a team of six to ten people only with grade A or B money, so this page uses the December 2023 figure as its headline and shows the US$70,000 figure as a later, unverified report.
A rating with no source, and testimonials not checked
The Kitcut page says "Rated 4.9/5" and "Reviewed by expert editors" without saying who rated it, where, or how many ratings there are, and a counter on the same page reads "Editors have already saved more than 0 minutes of editing with Kitcut" in the downloaded copy, because the number loads by script. The home page shows six testimonials by named video creators and marketers, the same six as in December 2023; this page did not check them one by one.
Pages that contradict themselves
The pricing switch says "Save up to 21%", but the yearly prices are 40% to 42% below the monthly ones (calculated). The plans list "Support for Resolve/Premiere Pro/AE", while the answers on the same page say "Currently Adobe Premiere, and After Effects in the near future". The English page says the main difference from competitors is "Transcription quality in Polish", text that seems to come from the Polish version.
The founders' own marketing tactics
Startup Spells describes how the business grew: influencer deals negotiated by the virtual assistant for a bonus of US$10 to US$25 for each deal (the founder's post speaks of US$5,000 in "influencer collabs"); contact details of influencers collected by the assistant, including phone numbers from job directories; a test of the assistant's honesty in which the founder paid slightly wrong amounts to see whether he reported them; and new assistants who wrote after a Reddit post accused the founders of underpaying. No source says whether the influencers marked their posts as paid advertising.
Two platforms the company does not control
The product depends on Adobe Premiere Pro, whose maker can add the missing languages to its own transcription, and on OpenAI's Whisper model. Every predecessor on this page lost to a larger company that added the same feature.
Sources
The grade next to each source is the best grade that the source can support. "Read in full" means that the text of the page was downloaded and the numbers were checked in it.
- D Startup Spells, issue 151, 4 September 2024: OpenAI's Whisper Transcription SaaS for Adobe Premier Pro: $23,000 MRR in 4.5 monthsRead in full (downloaded 27 October 2026). Source for every money figure, the team roles, the influencer and contractor method, the Whisper model and the founder's post of 21 December 2023, which is shown as text. The MRR figures are captions under pictures that could not be opened, because the picture host blocks access.
- D PartnerKin, 16 November 2024: How Two Entrepreneurs Turned a Simple Idea into $23,000 Per Month Online Business with Help of AI, The Story of KapsRead in full. A rewritten version of the Startup Spells issue on a site about affiliate marketing, with the same figures and captions and a referral link to Startup Spells, so it is not an independent second source.
- C Kaps home page, read 27 October 2026Read in full, with the page source. Source for the product description, the testimonials, the support channel, the company name and the tracking code. Purpose gate: nothing about detector evasion, income promises, fake accounts or link schemes.
- C Kaps pricing page, read 27 October 2026Read in full. Source for the three Kaps plans, their minutes, seats and prices.
- C Kitcut page, read 27 October 2026Read in full. Source for the Kitcut plugin, its plans, the "Rated 4.9/5" claim and the counter.
- C PodKaps page, read 27 October 2026Read in full. Source for the PodKaps plugin and its price.
- C Wayback Machine copy of getkaps.com, 22 December 2023Read in full. The earliest copy in the Wayback Machine. Source for the December 2023 prices, the headline about DaVinci Resolve and the customer-service representative.
- C The Kaps Installation Guide, read 27 October 2026Read in full. Source for the installation steps, the Premiere Pro version, the claim of more than 50,000 editors and the name Kaps LLC.
- C Database of failed startups, local exportLocal export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.