Unwrapped

Teardown · heygen

HEYGEN

HEYGEN

CategoryAI Video GenerationValuation · $500M · 2024Site ↗
  • Benchmark
  • Sequoia Capital
  • Conviction
UX wrapper

Pre-trained voice + avatar models + video assembly workflow.

01

Public data / API layer

ElevenLabs TTS
ElevenLabs TTSAPI
Sora / Veo / Kling video models
Sora / Veo / Kling video modelsAPI
Customer-uploaded video/images
Customer-uploaded video/imagesYours
HeyGen stock avatar library
HeyGen stock avatar libraryLicensed

Internal replication score

Easy
0.69

Feasibility of a useful internal substitute built with Claude (or similar), the same data access, and light agent logic — not rebuilding the whole product.

IRS = 0.30·D + 0.25·L + 0.20·O + 0.15·R + 0.10·Sthis record · 69%
  • D

    Data accessibility

    weight 0.300.60
    • 1.0mostly customer-owned / public / standard third-party sources
    • 0.5mixed accessibility
    • 0.0hard-to-access or proprietary source layer
  • L

    LLM substitutability

    weight 0.250.85
    • 1.0mostly retrieve / prompt / cite / summarize / classify / compare
    • 0.5mixed standard + custom behavior
    • 0.0strongly custom model behavior (fine-tunes on proprietary data, etc.)
  • O

    Output simplicity

    weight 0.200.80
    • 1.0straightforward internal work product (memo, list, reply, SQL query)
    • 0.5moderately specialized
    • 0.0highly specialized (e.g. FDA-graded clinical text)
  • R

    Review / risk tolerance

    weight 0.150.70
    • 1.0internal use with human review is acceptable
    • 0.5moderate risk
    • 0.0very low tolerance for error (e.g. external legal filings)
  • S

    Surface complexity

    weight 0.10inverse — higher means less surface dependence0.30
    • 1.0a simple internal shell is enough
    • 0.5polished workflow matters somewhat
    • 0.0product surface / rollout / trust posture is central to value
LabelsEasy ≥ 0.67Medium ≥ 0.34Hard < 0.34

Missing factor rows use heuristics from wrapper scores. Editorial heuristic, not investment advice.

Build it yourself→

Recreate the workflow inside your org.

Internal build

Build it yourself

Same TTS API + avatar animation library + video assembly — requires integration work, not model training.

Internal use only. Replacing them in-market is a different bar than replaying the useful workflow inside your org.

01 · Connectors & flow

ElevenLabs TTS
ElevenLabs TTS
Sora / Veo / Kling video models
Sora / Veo / Kling video models
Customer-uploaded video/images
Customer-uploaded video/images
HeyGen stock avatar library
HeyGen stock avatar library

Internal build map

Data in

Connectors
Connectors

Agent layer

Planner
Tools + retrieval
Reasoning model

Logic

LLM API
TTS API
avatar animation
video assembly
lip-sync
not custom weights

Outputs

Internal search
Answer
Citations

02 · Claude / agent prompt

Paste as the system or developer message in Claude (or your agent runtime). Scroll to read; Copy grabs the full text.

Claude / agent prompt

// Internal video generation workflow controller You are a video production workflow manager inside [YOUR_COMPANY]. You help teams create avatar-narrated videos using ONLY third-party APIs and libraries the company has access to: TTS APIs (ElevenLabs, Azure TTS), avatar animation libraries (open-source lip-sync models), video assembly tools (FFmpeg, cloud rendering). ## What you must do 1. Script first: Accept user script or prompt, validate length and structure 2. Voice generation: Call TTS API to generate voiceover, verify output quality 3. Avatar sync: Use lip-sync model to animate avatar to match voice timing 4. Assemble: Combine voice, avatar, background, and optional B-roll into final video 5. Export: Render at requested resolution (720p/1080p/4K) ## What you are not Not a replacement for professional video production when custom branding, high-fidelity animation, or unique avatars are required. Human review and QA still needed for customer-facing content. ## Refusal Refuse if script contains unclear instructions, if avatar library lacks requested appearance, or if TTS API cannot support requested language/accent. Ask for clarification on branding requirements before rendering. ## Safety Internal use only. All generated videos require human review before external publication. Flag any content that could misrepresent real individuals.

03 · Result

Create a 2-minute training video with a professional avatar explaining our new HR policy.
TTS API + avatar library + FFmpeg assembly

Video generated: 2-minute avatar narration in English, 1080p export, uses stock professional avatar from library.