“For the Little Guys”: PromoCut x Cafe Jœ Event Takeaways
A custom coffee cart. Cozy bean bags and ambient lighting. A way to find and build community.
All of these things and more defined the PromoCut x Cafe Jœ event that took place last Saturday, September 19. Centered on building community among Bay Area creators, the event was sponsored by PromoCut, an AI-powered editing tool that aims to empower and embolden small businesses and UGC creators as they tell their brand stories and build their social media presence. The event was staffed by interns Megan Lee, Stephany Casillas, and Toby Leeder; Product Managers Jubeen Park, Eli Stone, and Ogugua Nwaezeigwe; and Creative Marketing Specialist Stephanie Carroll.
At the event, PromoCut provided a custom coffee cart offering specialty drinks, from pumpkin spice lattes to the ever-popular matcha, and a relaxation area with cozy bean bags and lamps to facilitate conversation. There was also a workstation where creators could edit their original content, an activities table where they could paint mini masterpieces with coffee, and a demo table where they could try PromoCut for free and redeem a three-month free trial of PromoCut Pro.
“I’ve never been to an event like this before. Thank you so much for facilitating a space like this—I didn’t even know there were this many creators in the Bay!”
— Feedback from a creator
The Mission? Start With the Little Guys
The main mission of this collaboration was to unlock the full human potential for collaboration—to ask how an individual can create social impact through their own knowledge and personal passions. PromoCut made the answer simple: think of the little guys.
Stone started the event with a story. As a content creator himself, he had the opportunity in 2021 to help save a small business that was going under: a Vietnamese-Cajun fusion restaurant named Clawful. The restaurant had around three weeks before it would be forced to close, so Stone made a TikTok urging people to support it. And? It worked. Tremendously. The video went viral, and the restaurant was completely booked for weeks.
However, Stone later revealed that despite the support and traction the video generated, the restaurant closed just eight months later. But why? Stone attributes it to the restaurant’s inability to maintain its growing social media presence: it lacked the resources and time to grow what he had started.
This is where PromoCut comes in. Stone argued that if Clawful had an app like PromoCut—which can generate social-media-ready videos using AI in about 30 seconds—the business might have stood a chance against closure. As Stone concluded, PromoCut was made with the “little guys” in mind: small-business owners, people just starting their social media careers, and people with big, imaginative ideas who only need help refining them. Stone then asked the creators to try PromoCut at the demo table, welcoming feedback and additional commentary on the app itself.
As creators flocked to the demo table, staffed by Nwaezeigwe and Carroll, it was clear that Stone’s message held weight. Every creator revealed to the PromoCut staff that they had at least one person or business they knew, loved, or cared about that was their own personal Clawful. Everyone had someone or something they were rooting for, and they were hungry to find out whether PromoCut could help empower whoever or whatever they had in mind.
“It was amazing to see just how many people cared to try PromoCut, because they all had someone they were thinking of. It seemed bigger than the product itself, like they were discovering something that could have more impact than they could ever imagine.”
— Megan, Product & Events Intern
From the Demo Table: Creation to Export
This interactive opportunity allowed creators to try PromoCut using the footage Stone collected from Clawful back in 2021. The task was simple: generate a social-media-ready video that could be used if they were the ones responsible for marketing Clawful. Creators showed great interest in the product, giving the PromoCut team feedback on how the app could be improved and, most importantly, what worked.
- Speed is key: Creators commented on how quickly PromoCut generated videos, noting that its speed was unlike any other video editing software currently available.
- Having a vision: Coming into a video with a specific vision made working in PromoCut easier. Being as specific as possible helps PromoCut edit the video to your liking, aligning vision and execution seamlessly.
- It takes a few tries: While the first output was significantly more substantial than the original clips themselves, creators found that the best way to work in PromoCut was through multiple, specific iterations. This can be done by refining prompts—an easy solution to a complicated problem.
- From simple to complex: Depending on the user’s needs, creators noted that PromoCut could handle everything from simple prompts to more complex requests. This flexibility made the app more versatile and accessible to all demographics.
“The speed at which PromoCut can generate videos is really impressive. The fact that it pieced together these random clips into a cohesive storyline was something I would have never expected.”
— Feedback from a creator
Toward Success: Key Takeaways
PromoCut x Cafe Jœ was an event that facilitated community, but it was also an event where key lessons emerged. Here are a few we wanted to highlight.
- Purpose is key: While the product itself matters, we also learned that mission and purpose are equally important. Having a great app isn’t enough: people need to care about it and want to use it. A meaningful mission helps with that.
- Power to the people: When you gather a group of people who want to serve a higher purpose, their work becomes all the more powerful. By using their skills, knowledge, and passions, everyone can enact change. Whether the impact reaches one person or thousands, knowing you can make a difference in someone’s life is what matters.
- When there’s interest, there’s a need: From our barista to the creators themselves, everyone was impressed with PromoCut and the niche it was trying to fill. Many said they would continue to use the software on their own time, and some said they would recommend it to others. Following those lines of interest reveals a clear need—and that is where PromoCut comes in.
- In an ever-growing digital landscape, presence is power: As our world becomes more digitized, businesses and creators need to evolve alongside it. Maintaining an online presence—especially on social media—is now necessary for brand success.
- People want community, and people want to help their communities: The reason this event—and any event like it—was successful was people’s desire for community. Pair that with a mission to use the community to empower others, and you have the perfect combination for creating opportunities for social good.
It’s All for the Little Guys
As PromoCut’s first creator event, PromoCut x Cafe Jœ was an amazing opportunity to connect with Bay Area creators and spark something more in every individual who attended. These takeaways aren’t merely advice: they can become reality through the tools and people that embody them. With PromoCut, these findings become obvious—and even more achievable.
Let’s move forward with the little guys in mind: your mom, the small business you love, or the friend who wants to start their content journey. The little guys are the ones we are constantly rooting for in everything they do.
