Firecut, the AI tool for video editors built by Ali's friend Sahil (2023)
project history · status: running · last event: milestone (2025-11-28)
Origin known from later mentions
2023 in the title is when this began; it first appears in the videos read here in 2024, so the earlier part is known only from what is said later.
Told alongside: Ali recommends The Millionaire Fastlane to his friend Sahil, who after reading it says he can never get a job again
About: Sahil, Firecut
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-06-21 | milestone | Ali's friend Sahil taught himself to code and built Firecut, an AI tool for video editors, which Ali partnered on and drove traffic to; about nine months after quitting his job, Sahil was earning $35,000 a month from it. | 5 High Income Skills for Students to Learn in 2026 00:28:08 |
| 2025-06-13 | milestone | After quitting his consulting job, Ali's friend Suhail made his first online dollar in month two, $10,000 a month by month four, $30,000 by month eight, and now $90,000 a month. | He Built a $1M Business in 12 Months - Every Step Explained (Case Study) 00:00:00 |
| 2025-06-13 (happened 2023-05) | proposed | About two years earlier, at a WeWork in London Paddington where Ali's team was working, Suhail chatted over lunch with Saf, then one of Ali's video editors, about the problems in his work. | He Built a $1M Business in 12 Months - Every Step Explained (Case Study) 00:55:06 |
| 2025-06-13 (happened 2023-07) | launched | Two weeks after Firecut's launch, when the first free trials converted, Suhail made $300 on the first day, with the Pro plan at $24 a month. | He Built a $1M Business in 12 Months - Every Step Explained (Case Study) 01:49:49 |
| 2025-06-13 | announced | Suhail plans more products for Firecut's creators and editors, starting with Firecut Shorts for short-form editing in the web browser without Premiere. | He Built a $1M Business in 12 Months - Every Step Explained (Case Study) 02:29:16 |
| 2025-09-30 | milestone | Ali's friend learned to code through side projects and hackathons at university, then after five years in consulting built the video-editing app Firecut: $10,000 a month within about two months, about $1.2 million a year two years later. | If I was a student again, I’d do this 00:17:30 |
| 2025-11-28 | milestone | Within two years of quitting his job, Ali says, Sahil has a business doing $1.3 million a year in annual recurring revenue with software that saves video editors time. | I've Read 417 books. These 4 will make you financially free 00:02:48 |
What is said about it
13 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2024-11-22 · How I Built a New $1m Business in 12 Months — Ali: In February 2024 Ali spent a Saturday co-working in Paddington, London, with university friends Sahil, who builds Firecut, and Sam, who runs The Stoic Teacher. — 00:56:19
- 2024-11-26 · 13 Brutally Honest Lessons to Grow on YouTube in 2026 — Ali says Firecut, an AI app for Premiere Pro made by his friend Sahil, saves two hours of editing. — 00:19:19
- 2025-06-13 · He Built a $1M Business in 12 Months - Every Step Explained (Case Study) — Ali agreed to partner with Suhail, acting as his distribution engine to spread the word and recruit the first round of beta users for his video-editing tool. — 00:59:39
- 2025-06-13 · He Built a $1M Business in 12 Months - Every Step Explained (Case Study) — Suhail Idrees: The name Firecut was coined in a Slack chat with Ali and Saf, replacing a codename like Edit AI, when a creator posting about the tool asked what it was called. — 01:47:19
- 2025-06-13 · He Built a $1M Business in 12 Months - Every Step Explained (Case Study) — Suhail Idrees: Firecut's free-trial conversion was 30 to 40% in the first weeks, above the roughly 25% long-term rate, because early users came warm from the beta and an affiliate. (hedged) — 01:50:38
- 2025-06-13 · He Built a $1M Business in 12 Months - Every Step Explained (Case Study) — Suhail Idrees: Suhail reached his initial target of $10,000 a month two months after Firecut's launch, and announced it at a dinner with Ali, Nate and Sam. — 02:05:36
- 2025-06-13 · He Built a $1M Business in 12 Months - Every Step Explained (Case Study) — Ali says he had basically nothing to do with Firecut reaching $10,000 a month, beyond a tweet and an Instagram story recruiting the first 20 or 30 beta users. — 02:06:25
- 2025-06-13 · He Built a $1M Business in 12 Months - Every Step Explained (Case Study) — Suhail Idrees: Firecut has a team of five including Suhail: two people on development and two on growth. — 02:16:33
- 2025-08-22 · How to Get Rich — Ali tells how a friend of his, a management consultant of five years who was going to quit his job to start a business, collected 54 business ideas on a Notion page by asking people to complain, and used the book $100M Offers to narrow them to six. — 00:00:00
- 2025-08-22 · How to Get Rich — Ali's friend planned a year-long sabbatical from work on 12 months of savings, working on a new one of his six business ideas every two months. — 00:00:00
- 2025-08-22 · How to Get Rich — Ali says his friend's Premiere Pro plugin for video editors, used by editors around the world, makes $19,000 a month. (doubtful: 19,000 US dollars a month) — 00:01:04
- 2025-08-28 · Get rich with these 2 skills — Ali: The app Ali's friend decided to build is now making $1.2 million a year in annual recurring revenue, Ali says, or $90,000 a month. — 00:00:50
- 2025-10-16 · How I use AI as an Entrepreneur (My complete workflow) — Ali has partnered with his friend Sahil on Firecut, a Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve plugin that saves video editors time. — 00:05:46