TL;DR - check out @lens/vpmstudio (full launch next week) 17 months ago I walked into @lens/ethglobal determi…

TL;DR - check out @lens/vpmstudio (full launch next week) 17 months ago I walked into @lens/ethglobal determined to build a new visual AI tool from scratch, no matter how long it would take. I couldn't write a line of Typescript or Solidity when I walked into Eth Lisbon and spent half the hackathon asking ChatGPT the most basic of questions. It was a struggle bus but I fought through. 14 months ago I had a working POC with a crappy frontend, but it was something. Most importantly, I could start showing it to people and they seemed to understand where I was headed. 10 months ago I tested the first idea of co-created visuals at a live concert with six musicians in two different gigs. It worked and my coding was getting better. 8 months ago I had a layover in Warsaw (Poland is an incredible flight hack if you need to get completely across Europe and direct flights are at crazy prices). I met up with @lens/admoc , who I had met at my first ETHCC in 2022 when he was strategically handing out t-shirts in front of Vitalik's speech. By this point I had a solid MVP with image and video and enough conviction that the challenges with visual production were not just a personal pain point, but a creative industry-wide pain point. Adam was convinced he could crush the frontend and also help bring in technical expertise to the team with 9 years across the industry. We bootstrapped all of 2024 with the exception of an amazing opportunity from @lens/livepeer to keep developing and also test a larger-scale event in Stockholm (unofficial/offical music capital of the world) and quickie intensive build week in Australia (where I built my first telegram bots and deployed my first mainnnet smart contract). It has been exhausting to say the least, so many no's (and we haven't even started our raise yet), but every time we get a yes it is usually from our target demographic (honestly couldn't ask for more). In some ways, we are late as the AI bubble has been expanding for some years, but we are building tools that also will produce untrapped value. And after a Spring /Summer of incrediblE R\&D including events collaborating across fashion, music, and gaming - we are excited (and relieved) to finally enter the market. While many are building grocery stores, we're focused on curated meal kits. Our initial focus is on two core products - one designed for single player mode ( @lens/vpmstudio) and the other a series of custom solutions to empower co-creation. And there are some killer features which we are already planning to expand upon asap. The roadmap is clear including how we can provide vertical AI services across a range of customer segments. 2 days ago we finished our V1. We are live! We will present this in full next week during a demo day for Livepeer, but as this is where it kind of all started (also posting this here on @lens/hey bc of it). I wanted to share here and also say a thank you to the entire community for being early testers, dreamers ... believers. I also want to thank some of the OG @lens/lens team for their early support. To @lens/paris for walking me over to @lens/christina at one of the first Lens meetups in London. For @lens/stani for thinking the concept of AI lens was cool enough to try it out and @lens/bradorbradley championing us along the way. Also all the devs in the background who we never see making sure things break as little as possible When you think about it, @lens/raave Bogota was actually the first co-created experience as the visuals showcased creations from across the Lens ecosystem. I'm also grateful for the time it took and the learnings I had to do to be able to post this today. A creative becoming a builder to create solutions for problems that matter (not for everyone but that's ok the TAM is high and as we know, not everyone's problems as the same). And thanks to all the people who hyped and kept this going, including early patron collectors @lens/seanb @lens/kipto @lens/carlosbeltran Here's to the next chapter ⚡️