Media & Entertainment | Product Design | B2C | AI Innovation
Building Laila : Pioneering AI-Powered Storytelling for Families
Client
Morfeu (Co-founded startup)
Timeline
16 months
Role
Chief Product Officer, Co-Founder
Overview & Challenge
Co-founded a generative AI startup and led product development of Laila - a platform that empowers parents and children to create personalized video stories with just a few prompts. Despite early-stage funding constraints and rapidly evolving AI technology, we set out to solve a meaningful problem: how could we use AI to enable creative storytelling for families without technical skills or production resources?
Key Challenges
- Creating a consumer product with early stage funding limitations
- Working with AI models that changed capabilities almost monthly
- Building with a part-time team spread across different time zones
- Finding the right product-market fit in an increasingly crowded AI space
- Balancing our ambitious vision with current technical limitations
The big question
Could we build a system that takes a simple prompt and transforms it into a complete video story with consistent characters, engaging narrative, and synchronized audio?
My Approach & Contribution
As CPO and co-founder, I wore multiple hats - from researcher to designer to prompt engineer. My unique systems thinking background helped me orchestrate complex technical components while staying focused on the family experience.
What I did
1. Led product vision, UX design, and prompt engineering across narration, imagery, and video
3. Designed wireframes and collaborated with an agency on UI/brand design
5. Managed our product manager who worked with developers through releases and testing
2. Researched with parents to understand storytelling needs and screen time concerns
4. Built and iteratively refined a complex prompt system that orchestrated multiple AI models
6. Navigated co-founder dynamics and strategic decisions as a startup leader
Along the way, we made several key decisions that shaped our product:
Focus on Kids' Content First
Children are more forgiving of AI-generated video quality, and they naturally love personalized stories
Build a Modular Engine
Rather than waiting for a single AI model that could do everything, I designed a system that orchestrated different specialized models
Safety First
Implemented an agent to monitor text inputs for inappropriate content before using expensive image and video credits
Explore Multiple Applications
Guided our exploration beyond entertainment into education, branded content, and emotional storytelling
Results & Impact
01
Built and launched Laila, enabling parents and kids to create personalized video stories
03
Secured acceptance into an accelerator program for mentorship and go-to-market strategy
05
Gained deep expertise in prompt engineering and AI model orchestration
02
Created a modular AI engine capable of producing coherent stories from simple prompts
04
Positioned our technology for potential applications in education and other sectors
Key Learnings
AI moves quickly, but human needs stay consistent. While we spent significant time adapting to rapidly changing AI models, the core needs of parents and children remained steady. Focusing on these fundamental needs provided stability amid technological flux.
Build flexible systems that can evolve with technology. Our modular approach allowed us to swap in new models as they emerged without rebuilding the entire system. This flexibility proved invaluable as AI capabilities advanced monthly during our development.
Direct observation beats theoretical planning. Some of our most valuable insights came from watching children engage with our stories firsthand, revealing patterns we wouldn't have discovered through planning alone.
If I were starting this project again, I would:
- Begin with a conversational interface from the start rather than traditional UI patterns
- Create a more robust testing programme/ feedback loop earlier and focus even more on the emotional connection between children and stories
- Establish clearer go-to-market strategies alongside product development
The biggest lesson was that early-stage ventures require equal attention to team dynamics and technical execution. While AI capabilities grew rapidly during our development, maintaining alignment between founders on vision and priorities proved equally challenging. Creating clear communication channels and decision-making frameworks early would have streamlined our progress even further.
Next Steps
We're now focused on several priorities:
-
Exploring educational applications where personalization adds clear value
-
Seeking B2B partnerships to supplement direct consumer approach
-
Continuing to adapt our technology as AI models improve
-
Leveraging accelerator support to refine go-to-market strategy
As AI generation technology becomes more affordable and capabilities improve, we're positioned to evolve Laila into a platform that truly democratizes personalized content creation.