David Zitoun
Co-Founder @Submagic | Edit shorts 10x faster with AI
Today I turned 29. I'm self-taught and I built my first company at 18. Before Submagic I sold two companies. And I crashed one. The one that probably taught me the most is a menstrual underwear e-commerce brand I built in Egypt. I thought I had found a goldmine. Untapped market. Growing demand. Perfect timing. I was wrong. I lost over €100,000 of my own money and a year and a half of my life. But that failure taught me more than both successes combined. Here are the 5 lessons I wish I had known when I started 10 years ago: 1. A business partner is like a spouse. Choose wrong and you'll pay. In Egypt, my co-founder and I had different visions, different convictions. We weren't complementary enough. At the start you think it's not a big deal. You tell yourself you'll figure it out. You won't. It cost me 18 months and six figures. Choose your co-founder like your life depends on it. Because your business does. 2. Be ruthless with your numbers. Profitability isn't optional. I was obsessed with the brand, the packaging, the process. But I wasn't looking at my margins. When I finally sat down and looked at the real numbers, the truth was clear: this business had no future. Not the way we were running it. If you're not profitable, you're just burning time. And if you've never raised money like me, you're burning your own cash. 3. Business is simple. Stop overcomplicating it. Build something people need. Sell it. That's it. Too many founders obsess over the logo, the company name, the brand identity before they've even sold anything. If it doesn't sell, ask your customers why. The answer is in their mouth, not in your head. 4. Do one thing better than anyone else. Video editing is complex. There are a million ways to build a video product. With Submagic, we didn't try to do everything. We focused on one specific pain point and we did it better than anyone. That's what made us stand out. You don't need more features. You need one offer that works, for one audience, at the right time. 5. Product-market fit builds a business. Founder-market fit builds endurance. In Egypt, I was a man selling menstrual underwear in a culture I didn't fully understand. I didn't care about the space. When things got hard, I had no fuel left. With Submagic, it's the opposite. I love this space. And that's my unfair advantage. If you don't genuinely care about what you're building, someone who does will outlast you. Every time. When people see Submagic's success, they think it happened in 1 year. In reality, it's 10 years of work, mistakes, experiments, and lessons stacked on top of each other. If you're about to start something, I hope this saves you some time and some money Happy birthday to everyone born on February 13th 🎂
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Who is Submagic
Submagic is an AI-powered video editing tool that turns raw footage into viral shorts in seconds. Launched in May 2023 by David Zitoun and his co-founder Tsi-fei from Paris and Seoul, the startup hit $1M ARR in 90 days—with no funding and no sales team—relying solely on a TikTok affiliate program and the power of short-form content.
Three years later, Submagic has surpassed $8M ARR with a team of just 15 people, fully distributed across 10 time zones. The startup has also launched Thumbmagic, a new SaaS tool dedicated to YouTube video thumbnails, expanding from editing into full-service short-form content distribution.
David Zitoun, co-founder and CEO—a self-taught entrepreneur who started his first business at 18—partnered with Linker for LinkedIn coaching for 2 months to structure and amplify his voice.
The goal of the coaching
David’s LinkedIn presence was underutilized given his exceptional profile as a founder: an unconventional entrepreneurial journey, a bold vision for the future of SaaS and video, and a product reaching millions of creators worldwide. The challenge: helping him build a clear editorial strategy, develop his writing style in English, and gain the skills to produce his posts entirely on his own.
The objectives:
- Improve his LinkedIn presence and writing skills
- Develop an authentic editorial voice centered on his journey, Submagic, and his vision for entrepreneurship
- Reach a level of autonomy that allows for consistent and effective self-publishing
- Generate qualified engagement with founders, investors, creators, and tech decision-makers
The 3-pillar Linker playbook
1. Audit and editorial strategy definition
- Positioning workshop to structure David’s voice: bootstrapped founder, short-form & AI expert, unconventional and opinionated entrepreneur
- Defining an editorial strategy based on 4 pillars: Submagic milestones and product, SaaS and AI vision, entrepreneurial journey (successes, failures, lessons), and reflections on life and purpose—outside the corporate box
- Targeting priority audiences: startup founders, content creators, tech & product profiles, and investors
2. Active LinkedIn coaching with Nolwenn
- One-on-one coaching sessions to refine David’s writing style in English: post structure, hooks, rhythm, and storytelling
- Coached writing of 10 posts over the period, with iterative feedback to build progressive autonomy
- Ambitious editorial mix: product announcements (B-Roll 2.0, Submagic Publishing, Thumbmagic launch), strong takes on SaaS ("everyone's panicking about the SaaSPocalypse"), entrepreneurial storytelling (turning 29, failing his philosophy exam, 5 entrepreneurial lessons), recruitment and team culture (welcoming Rodolphe, ex-Pennylane), and in-depth reflections on video distribution and the future of marketing
3. Building autonomy and skill transfer
- Post-by-post feedback to help David understand LinkedIn algorithm mechanics and engagement drivers
- Progressive development of a unique, confident, and recognizable style—unconventional, direct, and grounded in reality
- Goal achieved: in 2 months, David felt capable of producing his posts independently and chose to test a fully autonomous workflow
The results
In 2 months of coaching, David made significant progress on LinkedIn, with posts that resonated with the international SaaS, tech, and founder community:
- The counter-narrative post on the Submagic model ("You need to raise a pre-seed, then a seed...") reached 124+ reactions and 19 comments: the highest engagement of the period
- Product announcements (B-Roll 2.0, Submagic Publishing, Thumbmagic launch) generated between 100 reactions and 26 comments, with up to 5 reposts for the Publishing post
- The birthday post "Today I turned 29," blending personal journey and entrepreneurial lessons, garnered 42 comments, the period's record for generated conversations
- Storytelling and thought-leadership posts (philosophical musings, insights on video distribution) maintained a consistent engagement of 40 to 57 reactions, a sign of a loyal and qualified audience being built week after week.
Beyond the numbers, the most significant result is qualitative: in 2 months, David gained enough autonomy to publish on his own—the ultimate goal of successful LinkedIn coaching.
What David has to say:
Honestly, I’m very happy with what we’ve achieved together. The initial goal two months ago was to improve on LinkedIn and refine my writing style, and I think that’s been a success. I’ve leveled up significantly and I now feel capable of producing posts independently.
I’d like to test things out solo for a month to see if I can effectively apply everything I’ve learned. Even with the coaching, it’s still quite time-consuming on my end, so I want to try a more autonomous workflow.
We can touch base in a month to see if we resume our collaboration or if I continue on my own.
In any case, thank you both—it was a truly great experience. I really enjoyed working with you and I’ll recommend you to others without hesitation.
