Everyone is losing their minds over Sora. I get it. The videos are slick, the promise is huge, and the tech world loves a shiny new toy. But as someone who has been in the trenches of Silicon Valley for over a decade, with two exits and over 200 angel investments in companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Scale AI, I have to tell you: you’re missing the real story.
The public narrative around Sora is a classic case of seeing the sizzle and completely misunderstanding the steak. Marketers, in particular, are getting starry-eyed, dreaming of firing their video teams and just typing prompts to get Super Bowl-worthy commercials. That’s not just wrong, it’s a fundamental misreading of where the value is.
I’ve seen this movie before. When we were building MovieLaLa, a social network for movie fans, the big studios were obsessed with viral marketing. They thought a single clever video could make a blockbuster. What we learned was that community and data were the real assets. We were acquired by Gfycat because we understood the culture of visual communication, not just the tools. It’s the same thing all over again.
The Hype is a Distraction
Right now, the conversation is all about the quality of the output. “Can you see the hands?” “Is the physics right?” “It looks so real!” This is a distraction. Yes, the models will get better. The uncanny valley will be crossed. The technical benchmarks will be surpassed. That’s inevitable. It’s also the least interesting part of the story.
The real cost of these models is astronomical. The compute required to generate a few seconds of high-fidelity video is eye-watering. We’re not talking about a SaaS subscription here. We’re talking about a firehose of money pointed directly at NVIDIA. For most companies, using Sora for top-of-funnel marketing will be like using a Formula 1 car to get groceries. It’s impressive, but it makes no economic sense.
I was talking to a founder in my portfolio the other day. They run a successful e-commerce brand. He asked me, “Should I budget for Sora in my marketing spend next year?” I told him absolutely not. I told him to spend that money on understanding his customers better. The truth is, the companies that will win with this technology are not the ones who can make the prettiest videos. They are the ones who have a unique data advantage.
Where the Real Alpha Is
So if not for slick marketing videos, what’s the real opportunity? It’s not about replacing creatives; it’s about giving them superpowers and creating entirely new workflows that were impossible before.
1. Synthetic Data and Unbreakable Feedback Loops
This is the big one. The most sophisticated companies I’ve invested in are not just using AI to generate content. They are using it to generate data. Think about it. You can create a thousand variations of a product in a thousand different virtual environments and see how users react. You can test ad concepts with synthetic audiences before you spend a dime on media.
At RemoteTeam, which was acquired by Gusto, we had to create onboarding materials for employees in dozens of countries. It was a logistical nightmare. We had to account for different languages, cultural norms, and employment laws. With generative video, we could have created a personalized onboarding video for every single employee, in their native language, featuring a synthetic instructor who looks like them. That’s not just a nice-to-have; it’s a competitive advantage in a global talent market.
2. Hyper-Personalization That Actually Matters
For years, “personalization” in marketing has been a joke. It means inserting {{first_name}} into an email. It’s lame. Generative video changes the game entirely. Imagine a clothing brand that doesn’t just show you a picture of a jacket. It shows you a video of you—or a photorealistic avatar of you—wearing that jacket, walking down a street in your city, in the current weather.
This isn’t science fiction. The technology is closer than you think. The companies that can pull this off won’t just be selling clothes. They’ll be selling a personal styling service powered by AI. The moat isn’t the video model; it’s the customer data, the recommendation engine, and the trust you’ve built with your users.
3. The End of the Creative Bottleneck
The creative process in most organizations is broken. It’s slow, expensive, and full of bottlenecks. A marketer has an idea. They have to write a brief. The creative team has to interpret the brief. They go back and forth. A week later, you have a storyboard. Another week for a rough cut. It’s a process designed for a world that no longer exists.
With generative AI, that cycle can be compressed from weeks to minutes. A marketer can have an idea and immediately see a dozen visual interpretations of it. They can test those concepts with real users and get feedback in hours, not months. This isn’t about replacing human creativity. It’s about augmenting it. It’s about letting creatives focus on strategy and taste, while the machine handles the tedious rendering.
What You Should Do About It
So, how do you prepare for this new reality? It’s not about waiting for an invitation to the Sora beta.
Build Your Data Moat: The most valuable asset you have is your customer data. Start thinking about how you can ethically and transparently collect and structure that data. The more you know about your customers, the more powerful these generative models become.
Master the Tools of Today: Don’t wait for Sora. Get your hands dirty with Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and other tools that are available right now. Build your intuition for what works and what doesn’t. Learn how to write effective prompts. The teams that are fluent in the current generation of AI tools will be the first to master the next one.
Focus on Workflow, Not Just Content: The biggest wins will come from re-imagining your entire creative workflow. Where are the bottlenecks? Where does human judgment matter most? How can you use AI to automate the low-level tasks and free up your team to focus on high-level strategy? Don’t just think about making a video; think about building a content engine.
I’ve made over 200 angel investments, and the pattern is always the same. The winners are not the ones who chase the hype. They are the ones who understand the fundamental shift and build a durable advantage. Sora is not a magic wand. It’s a new type of engine. And the companies that learn how to build the best cars, not just admire the engine, are the ones who will win the race.
The future of marketing won’t be about who can type the best prompts. It will be about who has the best data, the most efficient workflow, and the deepest understanding of their customers. The tools will change, but that truth is timeless.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the most common pushback you get on this?
People often push back by citing exceptions or edge cases. And they're usually right that exceptions exist. But building a strategy around exceptions rather than patterns is a losing game for most founders.
What experience informs this perspective?
This perspective comes from over a decade of building companies in Silicon Valley, two successful exits (RemoteTeam to Gusto, MovieLaLa to Gfycat), and investing in 200+ startups including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI. I write about what I've lived.
How can I apply this thinking to my own situation?
Start by identifying the core principle behind the opinion, not the specific example. Then ask yourself: does this principle apply to my context? If yes, test it in a small, low-risk way before going all in.