The founders of the Chilling horror app know they can't compete with Hollywood studios. Chris Graham and Dane Petrali thi...
* Click here for important information regarding Financial Projections which are not guaranteed.
Problem
Hollywood and the entertainment industry have been creating content the same way for decades, resulting in mass-produced, unoriginal, low quality productions. Independent creators with original perspectives can’t gain the exposure or following they deserve.
Meanwhile, horror enthusiasts are actively searching for a place where their desire for innovative entertainment is being acknowledged and served. But until Chilling arrived on the scene, there was no central hub for all things horror…
Solution
Chilling gives independent creators a platform to share content and compete against studios that create generic material just to hit metrics and sell tickets.
Our agile production process puts control back in the hands of the diverse and loyal horror community by allowing them to give and receive feedback. Content is then co-created based on shared ideas and the wants of diehard horror fans.
As this content gains engagement, Chilling will professionally produce it. With audience previews and feedback mechanisms looped into every step, we have the potential to make wasteful entertainment industry practices virtually obsolete.
Product
The horror community demanded better content, and Chilling is delivering. Artists publish their terrifying original content directly on the app, while users customize their own spine-chilling playlists and layered, volume-controlled ambient sounds.
With top-talent narration, shiver-inducing ASMR, horror classics brought back to life, and hundreds of new stories added each month, Chilling makes even the most tenured horror lover’s blood run cold.
Traction
The idea for Chilling was sparked by comments and discussions on founder Dane Petrali’s “Being Scared” YouTube channel. As graduates of Newchip’s Pre-Seed Accelerator, we’ve learned how to convert that viewership into 13,000+ monthly paid subscribers, 160,000 user accounts and nearly $500,000 in annual recurring revenue—all in our first year of business.
Customers
We’ve quickly become the home for all things horror—and our customers are loving the Chilling experience. With an average rating of 4.8 on the Apple Store and 4.8 on the Google Play Store (as of August 1st, 2022), our social proof speaks for itself.
Business model
By prioritizing low-waste, cost-efficient production practices, we were able to break even on monthly operating expenses in our second month. We’ve worked hard to drive early revenues while keeping subscription costs low to attract even the most cost-conscious horror lovers.
And all this early success is before adding in-the-works revenue streams—including video content, ad revenue, partnerships with publishers, film festivals, Chilling-produced original content, and more.
Market
Chilling sits at the juncture of two massive and fast-growing markets: video streaming and vertical social media. By 2026, the global social media market is expected to be worth $833.5B at a CAGR of 39%. And by 2029? Global on-demand video streaming is projected at $1.69 TRILLION.
In 2022, there are an estimated 4.65B social media and 1.8B video on demand users worldwide, making streaming services with social networking capabilities—like Chilling—more scalable than ever before.
Competition
Though our users have compared us to meditation giant Calm (which made $155M in revenue in 2019), our capabilities are much broader than that.
We’re not the only niche entertainment app on the market—but we are the first to focus on the horror genre and combine the highest-quality audio and video content with social media, all on one platform. This positions Chilling to profit from a highly involved and hungry community of horror fanatics ready to share their ideas and meaningfully connect.
Vision and strategy
The streaming capabilities of Chilling Version 2.0 will take us to a terrifying new level of market saturation. We hit 13,000+ monthly subscribers with only audio content and social networking—now imagine what we can do with the addition of video.
And after solidifying Chilling’s place in the horror market, we look forward to offering the all-inclusive Chilling experience to lovers of other genres—including fantasy, sci-fi, and more.
We’re looking to raise $1M in 2022 to focus on developing our tech stack, filling key positions, and growing Chilling to be the premier platform for all things horror.
* Click here for important information regarding Financial Projections which are not guaranteed.
Funding
Chilling launched and maintained our growth using only a $25,000 cash influx from our founders. We made it through the “valley of death”—a startup’s growth period where it operates without revenue—while maintaining our commitment to high-quality terror.
Today, our growth has attracted a frightening amount of attention:
Backed and advised by Hollywood veteran Jamie Kennedy from the Scream and Tremors franchises
Attracting more users and creators than ever, and producing more of the same superior content
On the cusp of even more tremendous growth—all without being accountable to any outside VC or angel investments
Founders
After noticing the enthusiasm of followers from his 350K+ YouTube subscribers, co-founder and horror aficionado Dane Petrali enlisted the help of Christopher Graham to create Chilling. With Dane’s horror industry connections and Chris’s expertise in tech and scaling startups—including 2 unicorns (Docker & GitLab)—they were able to grow and scale Chilling from scratch.
But the entire Chilling team is uniquely experienced in the entertainment industry:
16 top narrators from diverse professional backgrounds, including Disney and YouTube
YouTube creators with 100K-1M+ subscribers
Hundreds of world-class horror writers including published authors
2 award-winning directors
6 tech developers