How much time and money did your launch video really take?

If a launch is coming up in the next few months, chances are a launch video is somewhere on the to-do list. And chances are it has been sitting there for a while.

I've been through this myself and talked to dozens of founders about it, and the pattern is remarkably consistent. Everyone has seen a brilliant launch video, saved the link, and thought "I want something like that." Then reality arrives: agencies quote anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars, freelancer timelines stretch to 3 to 6 weeks, and DIY tools demand a learning curve most founders can't afford in launch month. So the video either ships late, ships mediocre, or gets cut entirely.

I'm genuinely curious about real numbers from this community:

How much time did the launch video take, from brief to final export? Days, weeks, months?

What did it cost? Agency, freelancer, in-house, or DIY?

Did anyone test multiple variants before launch day, such as different hooks, lengths, or aspect ratios for different channels? Or was there only ever time and budget for one shot at it?

When inspiration struck from a great launch video, was there any practical way to translate that into your own? Or did it stay a bookmark?

I'll share my own answer honestly: at my previous launches, one video took 4 weeks and a five figure budget, and we never tested a single variant because the marginal cost of version two was nearly the same as version one. That frustration is a big part of why we built @Kinetiq , an AI video studio where video works more like code, so variants, brand consistency, and iteration stop being luxuries.

But this thread isn't about that. I want to hear real experiences, good and bad. What worked, what was a waste, and what would you do differently for the next launch?