
_Segue abaixo a versão escrita em português._

I’ve recently had the honor to be in contact with a local community of creators in Brazil. These
creators produce content for at least one of the following platforms: YouTube, Instagram, and
TikTok. They have together on average an audience of more than 1M followers. Most of them produce
entertainment videos.

In my pursuit of better understand content creators, I’ve decided recently to interview them through
video calls. During these calls, I was able to ask them about their goals and problems they
encounter as content creators. Learn about their history, and how do they run and grow their
business.

Throughout these interviews, it was made clear to me that the biggest struggle these creators
encounter is to constantly find originality through their content. With the democratization of video
editing tools by TikTok and Instagram, it’s now easier than ever to copy the style and format of
existing creators and take credit for it. Existent creators many times struggle to keep their
content original because they are often being copied. Ideally, they would like to be widely
recognized for some video style they’ve invented. For instance, a style of comedy sketches that even
if copied, viewers would remember that she invented it.

Another repeating challenge that they encounter is originated from being solo entrepreneurs. As a
solo entrepreneur, a creator has to design and maintain her work routine. She doesn’t have the
structure provided by a company that many employees do. She has to motivate herself every day to
produce new content. She needs to learn how to deal with distractions and how to get back on track
when she fails to meet her goals. This is often an overlooked difficulty as a solo entrepreneur.

As consumers, we don’t see and realize all the effort that exists behind being a content creator. We
only see the final output of their work. But behind every video, there are many hours spent
scripting, recording, and editing. There are countless nights thinking about what they do, what
their content represents, and what identity they communicate to their audience. There’s uncertainty
about what the future holds, what will be the next trends, what platform changes will happen, and
how that will impact them.

Being a content creator isn’t just playing recording and publishing a video, it’s often years of
hard work while having no support from friends and family. Most of the creators I’ve interviewed
have been producing content from a very young age and have been doing it for more than five years. A
content creator is not only an artist, he’s a committed entrepreneur. They probably deserve a lot
more respect for their work than people are willing to give them.

_Thanks to [Monisy](https://www.instagram.com/mmonisy/), [Diêgo
Alan](https://www.instagram.com/diegoalan_/),
[Iconic Duncan](https://www.instagram.com/iconicduncan/),
[Jessica Leopoldina](https://www.instagram.com/oxeejessica/),
[Biel Figueirôa](https://www.instagram.com/bielfiigueiroa/),
[Luís Augusto Brito](https://www.instagram.com/luisaugustobrito/),
[Mateus Fernandes](https://www.instagram.com/mateusfernanded/), and
[Luelves](https://www.instagram.com/luelvesfelix/) for accepting being interviewed and for sharing
details about their life as creator.\_

---

Recentemente, tive a honra de estar em contato com uma comunidade local de criadores de conteúdo no
Brasil. Esses criadores produzem conteúdo para pelo menos uma das seguintes plataformas: YouTube,
Instagram e TikTok. Juntos, eles têm em média um público de mais de 1 milhão de seguidores. A
maioria produz vídeos de entretenimento.

Em minha busca por entender melhor os criadores de conteúdo, decidi recentemente entrevistá-los por
chamadas de vídeo. Durante essas ligações, pude perguntar a eles, sobre seus objetivos e problemas
que eles encontram como criadores de conteúdo. Aprender sobre a história deles e como eles
administram e crescem seu negócio.

Ao longo dessas entrevistas, ficou claro para mim que a maior dificuldade que esses criadores
encontram é constantemente manter originalidade através de seu conteúdo. Com a democratização das
ferramentas de edição de vídeo da TikTok e do Instagram, agora é mais fácil do que nunca copiar o
estilo e o formato de criadores existentes e receber créditos por isso. Os criadores existentes
muitas vezes têm dificuldade em manter seu conteúdo original porque eles estão sendo copiados de
forma regular. Idealmente, eles gostariam de serem reconhecidos por algum estilo de vídeo que eles
inventaram. Por exemplo, um estilo de vídeo de comédia que, mesmo se copiado, os espectadores
reconheceriam quem o inventou.

Outro desafio que eles enfrentam regularmente origina-se por serem empreendedores. Como
empreendedor, um criador deve criar e manter sua rotina de trabalho. Ele não tem a estrutura
fornecida por uma empresa que muitos funcionários têm. Ele tem que se motivar todos os dias para
produzir novo conteúdo. Ele precisa aprender a lidar com distrações e saber voltar a focalizar
quando não consegue cumprir com seus objetivos pessoais. Isso é muitas vezes uma dificuldade
ignorada por um empreendedor.

Como espectadores, não vemos todo o esforço que existe por trás de ser um criador de conteúdo. Vemos
apenas o resultado de seu trabalho. Mas, por trás de cada vídeo, muitas horas são gastas criando
roteiros, gravando e editando. São inúmeras noites pensando no trabalho dele, o que seu conteúdo
representa e que imagem eles comunicam ao seu público. Há incertezas sobre o que o futuro reserva,
quais serão as próximas tendências, quais mudanças de plataforma acontecerão e como isso os afetará.

Ser um criador de conteúdo não é apenas gravar e publicar um vídeo, muitas vezes são anos de
trabalho árduo sem ter o apoio de amigos e familiares. A maioria dos criadores que entrevistei, vem
produzindo conteúdo desde muito jovens e o fazem há mais de cinco anos. Um criador de conteúdo não é
apenas um artista, ele é um empresário que leva o seu trabalho muito a sério. Eles provavelmente
merecem muito mais respeito por seu trabalho do que as pessoas estão dispostas a lhes dar.

_Obrigado a [Monisy](https://www.instagram.com/mmonisy/), [Diêgo
Alan](https://www.instagram.com/diegoalan_/),
[Iconic Duncan](https://www.instagram.com/iconicduncan/),
[Jessica Leopoldina](https://www.instagram.com/oxeejessica/),
[Biel Figueirôa](https://www.instagram.com/bielfiigueiroa/),
[Luís Augusto Brito](https://www.instagram.com/luisaugustobrito/),
[Mateus Fernandes](https://www.instagram.com/mateusfernanded/) e
[Luelves](https://www.instagram.com/luelvesfelix/) por aceitarem ser entrevistados e por
compartilharem detalhes sobre sua vida como criador.\_


Lessons I got from interviewing 8 brazilian content creators.

I’ve Interviewed 8 Influential Content Creators


From where should one start developing an application?

- Frontend First?
- API Design-First?
- Database First?
- Model First?


The different approaches for starting a development project.

From Where Should I Start?


This is the stack I would use if I would build a new MVP at this moment.

The MVP in mind is any web and mobile application. The idea is to have tools that don’t have a steep
learning curve and let you focus on the essential: **releasing your MVP**.

The choices have been influenced by my experience of building a startup in a remote environment
during the past two years.

Let me know on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/i_gassmann) what would be your preferred MVP stack for
an application or what you would change on my.

## Tech Stack

- Programming Language: [TypeScript](https://www.typescriptlang.org/)
- Frontend Framework: [Next.js](https://nextjs.org/)
- Mobile Framework: [React Native](https://reactnative.dev/)
- CSS Framework: [Tailwind UI](https://tailwindui.com/)
- Hosting: [Vercel](https://vercel.com/)
- API Framework: [NestJS](https://nestjs.com/)
- Headless CMS: [Contentful](https://www.contentful.com/)
- Database: [MongoDB Atlas](https://www.mongodb.com/cloud/atlas)
- Authentication: [Firebase Authentication](https://firebase.google.com/docs/auth)
- Notification API: [OneSignal](https://onesignal.com/)
- Email API: [SendGrid](https://sendgrid.com/)
- Image API: [Uploadcare](https://uploadcare.com/)
- Video API: [Mux](https://mux.com/)
- Payments: [Stripe](https://stripe.com/)
- VCS Hosting: [GitHub](https://github.com/)

## Development Techniques

- [API Design-First](https://www.apisyouwonthate.com/blog/api-design-first-vs-code-first)
- [Test-Driven Development](https://www.jamesshore.com/Agile-Book/test_driven_development.html)
- [Trunk Based Development](https://trunkbaseddevelopment.com/)
- [Continuous Delivery](https://continuousdelivery.com/)

## Business Tools

- User Management: [G Suite](https://gsuite.google.com/)
- Messaging: [Slack](https://slack.com/)
- Email Marketing: [SendGrid](https://sendgrid.com/)
- Collaborative Email: [Front](https://frontapp.com/)
- Internal Tool Builder: [Retool](https://retool.com/)
- Documents: [Notion](https://www.notion.so/)
- File Storage: [Google Drive](https://www.google.com/drive/)
- Project Management: [Linear](https://linear.app/)
- Designs: [Figma](https://www.figma.com/)

## Runner-Ups

Tools I’ve been hesitating to add to this stack:

- Full-Stack Framework: [Blitz.js](https://blitzjs.com/) or [RedwoodJS](https://redwoodjs.com/)
- Documents: [Coda](https://coda.io/)


The 2020 MVP Stack


I’ve been studying the past weeks the OpenAPI specification and the tools around it. I'm using it as
a solution for bringing a REST API closer to continuous delivery.

The mentioned API lacks automated testing. Contract testing is the first sane step towards achieving
continuous delivery. Thanks to OpenAPI and its tool ecosystem, it can generate contract tests.

The strategy consists of first having contract testing to have more confidence when changing the
code and to prepare the ground for a large-scale refactoring.

The following step would be to figure out the new architecture and continuously refactor it starting
from the domain layer while applying TDD. It’s important that this is an incremental and continuous
effort in order to not stop our ability to add features to our product.

The idea is to gradually increase the testing coverage with fast unit tests to turn our
[ice-cream cone into a pyramid.](https://watirmelon.blog/melon-of-knowledge/testing-pyramids/)


I’ve Interviewed 8 Influential Content Creators

From Where Should I Start?

The 2020 MVP Stack

Towards Continuous Delivery