About
We built Vyra because we were tired of editing at 3 a.m.
Vyra was founded by Sulan and Caleb, two students at Brown who made videos and hated how long editing took. They started building it together in winter 2025 and moved to San Francisco in summer 2026 to work on it full time.
Sulan began with posting her paintings at @sulansart. She loved storytelling and building her community, but she kept getting bogged down in the editing process. Scrubbing around timelines for hours at 3am after a full day of classes and work was not enjoyable!
Caleb was a video editor of seven years and he also was making his own videos on the same campus while he faced the same problem: video editing is incredibly time consuming. So we started building a tool where you upload your clips, say what you want, and get the edit back in minutes! The first vlog Sulan made with Vyra took three prompts.
We started working on it together in winter 2025 and kept going through early 2026, testing each version on our own footage and on friends who told us the truth. In summer 2026 we moved to San Francisco to do it full time.
How we got here
Winter 2025
We start building
Sulan was posting painting videos and vlogs. Caleb had been editing video for seven years and was making his own videos at Brown too. Editing was eating both of our nights. We started building something where you describe the edit and it gets made.
Early 2026
First edits by chat
The first version could take raw footage, transcribe it, look at every scene, and cut a first draft from a plain request. Friends on campus tried it on their own footage and told us what was wrong with it. A lot was. We kept fixing it.
May 2026
Bring your own AI
We shipped the MCP connector. If you already pay for Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor, you can use that to drive Vyra. Your assistant gets the same editing tools our built-in one has, and it can see your footage.
Summer 2026
San Francisco, full time
We moved out to San Francisco to work on Vyra full time. In July, Buffer tested 11 AI video editors on the same footage and put Vyra first.
Fall 2026
Y Combinator
We joined Y Combinator and Sulan took a leave from Brown. We still edit our own videos in Vyra every week. Most of the guides on this site come out of that.
A few things we hold to
- We don't generate video. Vyra edits the footage you shot. Nothing in your video comes from anywhere else.
- You describe the edit. The agent has the transcript and a description of every scene, so you can talk about your footage the way you'd talk to a person.
- The timeline is still there. Most people never open it. If you want to move one cut by a few frames, you can.
- Use the AI you already pay for. Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor can drive Vyra directly. You don't need a second subscription.
Who we are
Sulan Zhang, co-founder. Painter. On leave from Brown.
Caleb Pong, co-founder. Also at @calebjunep.
Questions go to our Discord or sulanzhangart@gmail.com.