Short-form video demand continues to surge across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok — and creators are feeling the pressure. With more content needed to stay relevant and an increasing volume of low-quality AI videos cluttering feeds, many creators are struggling to keep up.
Jay Neo, a creator and former short-form content strategist for MrBeast, believes AI can help. Together with former Palantir engineer Shivam Kumar and creator Harry Jones, he is building Palo, a new platform designed to help creators analyze their content, generate new ideas, and plan videos more effectively.
A Background In Retention And High-Volume Content
Neo joined MrBeast at just 18 to work on audience retention. He became fixated on understanding exactly where viewers dropped off and why. Over time, his responsibilities expanded into editing and ideation.
One of his most successful formats was the viral “fly-to-Paris-for-a-baguette” concept, which generated more than 1.8 billion views across channels and was repeated multiple times by the MrBeast team.
After leaving in 2023, Neo co-created several “Creaky”-branded channels, scaling them to more than a billion monthly views. The team tracked everything using spreadsheets, which eventually inspired the idea for Palo.
How Palo Works
Palo consists of three main components:
1. AI-powered ideation and planning
2. Analytics
3. Community
Creators connect their accounts, and Palo analyzes all their short videos to identify what’s working and what isn’t.
CTO Kumar says Palo uses multiple models to build a “data tree” of insights covering hooks, audience sentiment, topic interest, originality, and related search demand. These are combined into a creator-specific persona that understands their style and preferences.
Creators can then use Palo’s conversational planner to ask questions, generate scripts, or produce storyboard-style visual ideas.
Early Users And Pricing
Palo tested with about 40 creators who collectively have more than one million followers. Today, the company is opening access to creators with at least 100,000 followers, at $250 per month for the base tier, with higher-priced plans for heavier usage.
Funding And Investor View
Palo has raised $3.8 million from Peak XV’s Surge program, NFX, and individual investors.
Peak XV managing director Rajan Anandan said the team’s mix of creator experience and technical depth drove their investment.
Former TechCrunch editor Josh Constine, also an investor, noted that Palo could help creators avoid burnout by reducing the need to constantly consume content to track trends.
AI Tension Within The Creator Economy
Palo is launching during a period of friction between AI companies and creators. Platforms like TikTok, Meta, and YouTube are rolling out more AI features, and some creators — including MrBeast — have voiced concerns about AI’s impact on creativity and originality.
Neo says Palo is not meant to force creators into formulaic patterns but to guide them with data while leaving room for intuition. He likens the process to comedians refining their sets based on audience reaction.
Creators like Sam Beres (Sambucha) say that AI companies must involve creators early to avoid overwhelming them with irrelevant features that distract rather than help.
Palo’s founders say their goal is to provide clarity, not replace creativity.
Featured image credits: Freepik
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