Hemlock — founder interview.

Julian Olschwang, Hemlock's founder, describes the launch shoot from the client side: how the scope was set on the first call and how the two-camera shoot wrapped within four days.

The full transcript is below, taken from the reviewed captions.

This is a descriptive summary for accessibility and search discovery, not a verbatim dialogue transcript.

So my name is Julian, I'm building Hemlock and we're a physical AI data collection company and we use EMG wearables that we equip workers with to quantify how they apply force with their fingers. So we can basically compute how workers use their hands to do their jobs and then transfer that skill over to physical AI models for robots. With regard to my launch video, I was really just trying to keep it very simple, nothing too flashy and just kind of convey the idea of what it is we're focusing on. Here's how we use this new EMG technology to create this new type of data that basically captures all the motion and all the things they're doing with their hands through video, but also captures everything that video can't see, which is like the forces applied with their fingers. I mean, with regard to like a creative standpoint, I was looking at a bunch of other launch videos and I just felt like a lot of them were doing too much. I wanted it to be clear. I wanted people to be able to understand it well. It didn't have to have all these flashy elements that sort of dilute the substance in a lot of other launch videos that I see. And I felt like you understood that very well and were like, OK, like there are a few key things we're trying to convey and we're just going to focus on that. All the other stuff is fluff and we can kind of throw it away. And the second thing was just like speed, you know, like I'm in the batch right now. So every day counts. And I think like I called you for the scope and call on Thursday and like by Monday afternoon, we had already finished shooting. So I mean, that was phenomenal. I went with WERZ because of a few reasons. Firstly, I liked all the previous work that they had done. I had seen a few of their other launches. And secondly, I felt like the fact that Sebastian, who's the head of WERZ, the fact that he had been through YC would help with just the overall experience. Like he would know what my priorities are with regard to the launch because he had kind of been in my shoes a few years ago. It was extremely smooth to work together. Edits and like review feedback, that whole like iteration cycle was extremely fast, extremely quick. The WERZ team was super responsive. And actually on set, it was a phenomenal experience. We had a few wrenches thrown into the works through no fault of our own, just the venue and things like that. And the WERZ team just rolled with the punches and we got everything running and it was a super smooth experience. I would recommend WERZ to any small startup team that is just looking for a very focused, creative vision for their launch. You know, a lot of these bigger agencies are not going to understand the priorities of just like a quick but clear launch. Everything's about like all the flashy elements and making production a whole like meaty process, if that makes sense. But that's not really what small teams are looking for. Small teams are looking for just like a lean and mean system that can just like align with their vision and roll with it. And that's kind of what you get with WERZ. I'm very happy with it. I'm very happy with it. I'm excited to put it out there. And I think it conveys the central message of my company very well. Yeah, no, WERZ: I'm very happy with it.