# Motionfly

Aiolum story: https://aiolum.com/story/motionfly/ · added 2026-10-25 · updated 2026-10-25

**In short.** Motionfly (AI generator of product launch videos, USA): US$2.04K verified revenue in one month, August 2026. Evidence grade A: disclosed by a company or a filing, or verified by a payment processor. Team: 1 named founder, Natnael Girma (NATE G on TrustMRR); no other staff named. Launched April 2026; still running, revenue falling.

AI generator of product launch videos · USA · AI-native · solo founder · still running, revenue falling · group: Video generation

- Outcome: US$2.04K verified revenue in one month, August 2026 (evidence grade of the headline number: A; headline in US dollars: 2037)
- Launch: April 2026; months from launch to the outcome: 4
- Team: 1 named founder, Natnael Girma (NATE G on TrustMRR); no other staff named
- Outside funding: None found; listed for sale on TrustMRR since June 2026
- Main factor: Niche
- Meters, 1 to 4: evidence strength 3, copyable pattern 2, capital needed 1
- Tags: AI-native, Solo founder, Bootstrapped, Running, B2B, Video

**The product.** A web editor and a Mac app that turn a written description of a product into a short launch video: 3D phone and laptop mockups of the product's screens, animated text and logos, background music, sound effects and a synthetic voiceover. On the Premium and Studio plans, the user can also ask Claude or ChatGPT for the video, and the AI app builds it through the Motionfly desktop app.

**Why it worked.** It serves one narrow need: a founder who is about to launch a product and has no launch video. The About page says a motion design studio costs US$3,000 to US$10,000 for such a video; Motionfly sells plans from US$29 a month. Stripe data shows three months at or just above US$2,000 of revenue from June to August 2026, then a fall.

Evidence grades: A = disclosed by a public company, a filing or a payment processor, or verified by one; B = two or more independent reports agree, or a journalist confirmed it; C = a founder claim that no one else verified; D = reported, not verified: one founder claim or a third-party estimate with no second source; calc = computed on this page from graded facts.

## Summary

Motionfly makes product launch videos, the 30 to 90 second clips that a company posts when it releases a product, for example on Product Hunt, on X or on its own landing page. Such clips are usually made by a motion designer, a person who animates text, logos and screen images with tools such as After Effects. Motionfly replaces that work with software: the user writes a description of the product, and the program writes a script, places the product's screenshots in 3D mockups (computer-drawn phones and laptops that show the screenshots on their screens), animates the text and adds music, sound effects and an AI voiceover. Since October 2026 a Mac app also connects to Claude and ChatGPT through MCP, the Model Context Protocol, a standard way for an AI chat app to call tools in another program, so the user can ask for the video in the chat.

The About page says Motionfly was created by Natnael Girma, a software engineer; the terms and the privacy policy give only his address natnael@motionfly.co and name no company. An archived copy shows a waitlist page on 22 March 2026. Revenue started in April 2026. TrustMRR, a site that reads revenue directly from a company's payment provider, shows Stripe revenue of US$2,338 in June 2026, US$2,147 in July and US$2,037 in August, then US$1,904 in September. On 25 October 2026 it showed US$2,004 in the last 30 days and MRR (monthly recurring revenue, the subscription revenue of one month) of US$2,005 from 47 active subscriptions.

The headline number is grade A, but it is small and not growing: only three months reached US$2,000, and September was 18.6% below June. The founder has listed the business for sale on TrustMRR since 24 June 2026 at US$20,000. From 2024 to 2025 the same domain showed a different business, a video editing service with a team of editors; no source this page read says who owned it. The page also shows four failed companies that tried to make animation or marketing video cheap before AI could generate it.

## Pricing

Motionfly plans in October 2026, read from the script that draws the pricing page of the web editor (grade C)

| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 | editor only, 0 AI tokens a month |
| Pro | 24.17 | 29 | 60-second videos, 10 exports in 4K and 20 in 1080p a month, 5,000 AI tokens |
| Premium | 32.17 | 59 | 90-second videos, unlimited exports, 40,000 AI tokens, video built by your own Claude Code or Codex |
| Studio | 124.17 | 149 | unlimited length, 4K, voiceover and sound effects, 100,000 AI tokens, video built by Motionfly's agents |

The pricing page at editor.motionfly.co is drawn by a script, so the plans were read from that script. Plan names in the script differ from the names shown: the plan shown as Premium is stored as "studio" and the plan shown as Studio is stored as "enterprise". The yearly prices are 290, 386 and 1,490 US dollars a year; the table divides them by 12. The free plan gives no AI tokens: an error message in the script reads "0/month on free tier". AI voiceover and sound effects are listed only in the Studio plan. Connecting Claude or ChatGPT needs the Premium or Studio plan, and the user's own Claude or ChatGPT subscription pays for that model.

## How much revenue does Motionfly make? The numbers, graded

Three months at or just above US$2,000 of Stripe revenue in the first five months, then a slow fall, for a one-person video generator

| Fact | Value | Grade | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verified revenue, August 2026 | US$2,037 | A | TrustMRR monthly revenue timeline, from the Stripe account through an API key. Stripe is not the merchant of record. The latest full month at or above US$2,000. | [1] |
| Verified revenue, June 2026 (best month) | US$2,338 | A | TrustMRR monthly revenue timeline. | [1] |
| Verified revenue, July 2026 | US$2,147 | A | TrustMRR monthly revenue timeline. | [1] |
| Verified revenue, April and May 2026 | US$200 and US$1,208 | A | The first two months with revenue. | [1] |
| Verified revenue, September 2026 | US$1,904 | A | Below the US$2,000 floor of this site. | [1] |
| Verified revenue, 1 to 25 October 2026 | US$1,697 | A | A partial month; the profile was synced on 25 October 2026 at 16:16 UTC. | [1] |
| Fall from June to September 2026 | 18.6% | calc | Calculated: (1,904 minus 2,338) divided by 2,338. August was 12.9% below June. | [1] |
| Verified revenue, last 30 days to 25 October 2026 | US$2,004 | A | TrustMRR shows growth of 3.0% against the 30 days before. This figure is 14.3% below June 2026 (calculated). | [1] |
| MRR, 25 October 2026 | US$2,005 from 47 active subscriptions | A | TrustMRR metric snapshot from Stripe. | [1] |
| Average MRR per active subscription | about US$42.66 | calc | Calculated: 2,005 divided by 47. Between the Pro price of US$29 and the Premium price of US$59. | [1, 4] |
| Payments by day, 26 September to 25 October 2026 | largest day US$277; 6 of 30 days with no revenue | A | TrustMRR daily revenue table. Most days show amounts such as US$29, US$49, US$50, US$58 or US$79, which match single plan payments, so the last 30 days came from many small payments, not one contract. TrustMRR does not publish customer counts for June to August. | [1] |
| Verified revenue, all time to 25 October 2026 | US$11,531 | A | Equals the sum of the seven monthly figures (calculated). | [1] |
| Run rate from the August 2026 figure | about US$24,444 a year | calc | Calculated: 2,037 times 12. Revenue has been lower since then. | [1] |
| Profit margin, last 30 days | 75% | C | TrustMRR snapshot. Revenue comes from Stripe, but the costs behind the margin are not shown as verified. | [1] |
| Founded date | 20 April 2026 | C | Typed by the founder into the TrustMRR profile. The first Stripe revenue is in April 2026. | [1] |
| Time from launch to the headline figure | 4 months | calc | Calculated: April 2026 to August 2026. | [1] |
| Founder | Natnael Girma, software engineer | C | Named on the company's About page. The terms and privacy policy name no company and give the address natnael@motionfly.co. TrustMRR lists the founder as NATE G with the handle natnaelgirma27. | [3, 5, 6, 1] |
| Asking price on TrustMRR | US$20,000, listed on 24 June 2026 | C | The profile shows 17 offers received and a multiple of 0.8. Calculated: 20,000 divided by (2,004 times 12) is 0.83. An asking price is not a sale. | [1] |
| Outside funding | none found | C | No source mentions investors. | [1, 3] |

How to read this table: a grade A value comes from Stripe, the payment processor, through TrustMRR's connection to the company's Stripe account. A grade B value is visible in the public code of the company's web editor. A grade C value is a statement by the company on its own pages or a value the founder typed into his TrustMRR profile. A "calc" value was computed on this page from the rows above it.

## When did Motionfly launch, and how did it grow? Timeline

From a waitlist page in March 2026 to US$2,037 of verified revenue in August 2026, in four months. Each entry carries its grade.

- **March 2024 to April 2025** (grade C [12, 13]): Archived copies of motionfly.co show a different business named MotionFly: first flat-rate motion graphics services, then on-demand video editing by a team of editors. No source names its owner, and no source links it to the current product.
- **22 March 2026** (grade C [11]): An archived copy shows a waitlist page: motion design videos for product launches and SaaS explainers from prompts, with AI voiceover and 3D mockups.
- **April 2026** (grade A [1]): First Stripe revenue, US$200. The founder gives 20 April 2026 as the founding date.
- **May 2026** (grade A [1, 5]): Revenue rises to US$1,208. The terms of service, dated 7 May 2026, call the product a beta.
- **June 2026** (grade A [1]): Best month so far: US$2,338. On 24 June the founder lists the business for sale on TrustMRR at US$20,000.
- **11 July 2026** (grade C [14]): An archived copy shows the current title, AI Product Launch Video Generator, and a new web app.
- **July and August 2026** (grade A [1]): US$2,147 and US$2,037 of verified revenue.
- **September 2026** (grade A [1]): Revenue falls to US$1,904.
- **22 October 2026** (grade C [7, 8]): Version 0.2.1 of the Mac app, with a screen recorder, local rendering and a connection to Claude and ChatGPT.
- **25 October 2026** (grade A [1]): US$2,004 in the last 30 days and MRR of US$2,005 from 47 active subscriptions.

## Why did Motionfly work?

### One narrow use case

Motionfly does not sell general AI video. Every page is about one moment: the launch of a software product or app. The use-case pages name the places where such a video is posted (Product Hunt, the App Store, a landing page), and the About page names the cost it replaces, US$3,000 to US$10,000 for a studio. A narrow product lets one person build templates, 3D devices and animations that fit that one kind of video.

### The AI writes code for a video, not pixels

The editor's public script shows that a video is a set of animated layers drawn with Remotion, a library that renders video from React code, and with Three.js for the 3D devices. The AI fills in the scenes, the text and the timing. The result is sharp text and real screenshots, which image-generating video models still draw badly.

### The customer's AI subscription does part of the work

On the Premium plan the video is built by the customer's own Claude Code or Codex over MCP. The company's MCP page says the user's own Claude or ChatGPT subscription pays for the model, so it does not use the Motionfly budget. This moves model cost from the seller to the buyer.

### Small, frequent subscriptions

The Stripe data on TrustMRR shows 47 active subscriptions and daily payments of a few tens of dollars, not a few large contracts. Revenue is therefore spread over many customers, but each one pays little, and a launch video is a need that ends after the launch.

## How it was built

These details come from the public script of the web editor (grade B), the company's pages and the founder-written part of the TrustMRR profile (grade C).

- React for the front end and Node.js for the back end, according to the tech stack on the TrustMRR profile.
- Remotion, a library that renders video frames from React components, draws the videos; the editor's script contains its code and error messages.
- Three.js release 170, a 3D graphics library for the browser, draws the phone, laptop, tablet and watch mockups.
- Supabase, a hosted Postgres database with login and file storage, holds the accounts and the uploaded logos and screenshots.
- The voiceover uses ElevenLabs: the editor shows a picker titled ElevenLabs voice with a list of stock voices. The script has no voice-cloning, face or avatar feature.
- The Mac app runs a local MCP server on the user's computer. A small bridge inside the app writes a motionfly entry into the configuration of Claude Code, Codex and the Claude desktop app each time it starts.
- Stripe takes the subscription payments, and TrustMRR reads them through an API key.

Sources: [1, 4, 7, 8]

## Who tried this before Motionfly, and why did they fail?

Four companies in the Loot Drop database tried to make animation or marketing video cheaper for small teams before AI could generate it. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.

The failed startups come from Loot Drop (https://www.loot-drop.io/), a free database of dead startups, retold here in our own words; Loot Drop describes its entries as AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so they carry no evidence grade.

### ClearMix (2020 to 2023; funding US$2M; cause: Competition)

- Promise: Professional marketing videos for businesses, made quickly and cheaply by a network of freelance videographers and editors.
- Why it died: Canva and Adobe added video tools, AI editing tools automated the manual steps, and a network of freelancers was hard and costly to scale.
- Record: https://www.loot-drop.io/startup/1336-clearmix

### Fuzzwich (2007 to 2010; funding US$20K; cause: Competition)

- Promise: Animated videos for casual users and small businesses, made by drag and drop with ready-made characters and scenes.
- Why it died: It could not grow beyond early users, stayed on the desktop while viewing moved to phones and social media, and had no follow-on funding.
- Record: https://www.loot-drop.io/startup/1655-fuzzwich

### Real Artists (2016 to 2019; funding US$3M; cause: Competition)

- Promise: A cloud animation studio that let small studios and independent artists produce animation without expensive software.
- Why it died: Large software makers added collaboration features to tools that customers already used, and small customers could not pay enough to fund growth.
- Record: https://www.loot-drop.io/startup/1073-real-artists

### Haiku (2018 to 2021; funding US$1.2M; cause: Competition)

- Promise: High-quality interface animations made by designers and exported directly as code.
- Why it died: Figma and Adobe XD added prototyping and animation features, and the 2020 downturn ended its search for more funding.
- Record: https://www.loot-drop.io/startup/1013-haiku

## What changed

The four predecessors made the animator's tools easier or cheaper, but a person still had to design every scene: ClearMix paid freelancers, Fuzzwich and Real Artists gave users characters and timelines to arrange, and Haiku gave designers a better editor. Each one competed with Adobe on Adobe's own ground, a tool for people who animate, and each one lost to Adobe, Canva or Figma.

Language models can now write the scene description and the code that animates it. Motionfly uses this to remove the designer from the simplest kind of marketing video, a product launch clip with screenshots, text and a voice. The founder did not need a studio or a team of editors, which the business on the same domain in 2025 still advertised. The limit is also visible: the same technology lets any founder ask a general AI agent for such a video, and Stripe data shows Motionfly's revenue stopped growing after three months.

## Can one person copy Motionfly now?

**Verdict: The method, yes. This exact product, with care.**

Building a narrow AI tool for one kind of video, with a free editor and monthly plans, needs only one engineer and almost no capital. But the market is crowded, launch videos are bought once per launch, and general AI agents can already write the same kind of animation code. The founder's own sale listing asks US$20,000, which TrustMRR shows as 0.8 times yearly revenue: the last 30 days times 12 is US$24,048 (calculated).

1. Pick one video format that businesses need and that follows rules: launch clips, App Store previews, feature announcements.
2. Let the AI write the scene and animation code, and render it with a video library, so text and screenshots stay sharp.
3. Offer a free editor and charge for AI generation, exports and audio.
4. Connect to the AI chat apps that customers already pay for, so they carry part of the model cost.

**What is still open.** Formats where the rules are strict and the need repeats: App Store preview videos in many languages, release-note videos for every product update, and onboarding clips that must change whenever the interface changes.

## What could go wrong for Motionfly?

- **Small and falling.** Only June, July and August 2026 reached US$2,000. September was 18.6% below June, and October was at US$1,697 on 25 October. The last 30 days rose 3.0%, so the fall may be slowing, but no month since June has been higher than the one before.
- **For sale.** The founder has listed the business on TrustMRR since 24 June 2026 at US$20,000, with 17 offers shown. A new owner could change the product, the prices or the team, and this page would then describe a different business.
- **Who owns the domain's past.** Archived copies from 2024 and 2025 show motionfly.co selling flat-rate motion graphics and on-demand video editing by a team of editors, with the address support@motionfly.com. No source this page read says whether that service had the same owner. Its revenue is not in the Stripe data, which starts in April 2026.
- **Founder identity rests on the company's own page.** The About page names Natnael Girma, and the contact address on the terms and privacy pages is natnael@motionfly.co. Both terms and privacy policy say they are summaries still being finalized, and no company name or registration appears on any page this page read.
- **Brand names in the showcase.** The showcase lists videos titled Gemini launch video, Google Drive launch video and GPT 5.5 Announcement video recreated. The site does not say that Google or OpenAI are customers, and only the GPT 5.5 video is labelled as recreated. A reader should treat these as demonstrations, not as customer references.
- **One-time need, many competitors.** A company needs a launch video once per launch, so subscriptions may end after the launch. General AI agents such as Claude Code can already write Remotion animation code without a separate product, which Motionfly itself relies on in its Premium plan.

## Sources

1. TrustMRR markdown profile: Motionfly (Stripe API key, synced 25 October 2026) — https://trustmrr.com/startup/motionfly.md (grade A). Read the markdown profile on 25 October 2026. The revenue tables, the MRR and the subscription count are grade A; the founded date, tech stack, channels, profit margin and sale listing are founder-entered or listing data, grade C.
2. Motionfly home page, read 25 October 2026 — https://motionfly.co/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the product description, the plans that include the desktop app and the connection to Claude and ChatGPT.
3. About Motionfly, read 25 October 2026 — https://motionfly.co/about (grade C). Read in full. Names Natnael Girma as the creator. Source for the studio cost that the product replaces.
4. Motionfly web editor and its pricing script, read 25 October 2026 — https://editor.motionfly.co/ (grade C). The pricing page is drawn by a script; the plan names, prices and limits were read from that script. The same public script shows the libraries used (Remotion, Three.js, Supabase) and the ElevenLabs voice picker, graded B for the stack.
5. Motionfly terms of service, last updated 7 May 2026 — https://motionfly.co/terms (grade C). Read in full. A short beta summary with the contact address; no company name.
6. Motionfly privacy policy, read 25 October 2026 — https://motionfly.co/privacy (grade C). Read in full. A summary being finalized, with the same contact address; no company name.
7. Motionfly for desktop, read 25 October 2026 — https://motionfly.co/desktop (grade C). Read in full. Source for version 0.2.1 of 22 October 2026, local rendering and the screen recorder.
8. Motionfly MCP troubleshooting page, read 25 October 2026 — https://motionfly.co/mcp (grade C). Read in full. Source for how the desktop app connects to Claude Code, Codex and Claude, and for who pays for the model.
9. Motionfly showcase, read 25 October 2026 — https://motionfly.co/showcase (grade C). Read the list of video titles. Cited for the brand names in the showcase.
10. Motionfly use case: AI product launch video generator, read 25 October 2026 — https://motionfly.co/use-cases/product-launch-video (grade C). Read in full. Source for the launch-video use case and the stated cost of a studio video.
11. Wayback Machine copy of motionfly.co, 22 March 2026 — https://web.archive.org/web/20260322075630/https://www.motionfly.co/ (grade C). Read in full. Shows the waitlist page before revenue started.
12. Wayback Machine copy of motionfly.co, 28 March 2024 — https://web.archive.org/web/20240328010526/https://www.motionfly.co/ (grade C). Read in full. Shows the earlier flat-rate motion graphics service on the same domain.
13. Wayback Machine copy of motionfly.co, 9 April 2025 — https://web.archive.org/web/20250409125339/https://www.motionfly.co/ (grade C). Read in full. Shows the earlier on-demand video editing service with a team of editors.
14. Wayback Machine copy of motionfly.co, 11 July 2026 — https://web.archive.org/web/20260711013037/https://motionfly.co/ (grade C). Read the first part. Shows the AI product launch video generator and the new web app.
15. Loot Drop database export, 1,749 failed startups — https://www.loot-drop.io/ (grade C). Local export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.