The Content Creation Platform Made for Social Teams
Slate is like your favorite video editing app…but for brands.
Today’s newsletter is sponsored by Slate, the all-in-one editor for social media content.
A few days ago, I think we all had a wake up call about how and where we edit our brand videos.
In my time working in and reporting on social media, I’ve noticed that social teams often have sophisticated tools for scheduling, reporting, and listening—but they rely on buggy editing apps and clunky workflows for their short-form video strategy. Eric Stark was a part of one of those social teams. During his time working in social at the NFL and for teams like the Chiefs and 49ers, his process of creating social assets was admittedly all over the place. He quickly realized he needed a tool that could help with asset customization, enable fast editing, and encourage collaboration between social managers, video editors, and design teams. A few years later, he built Slate.
Today brands like Frida, HOKA, and, of course, the NFL use Slate. I talked to Eric about how his own experience working in social informed the tool, some of his favorite features (safe zones! brand font captioning! in-app approval process!), and why it’s time for social teams to get serious about their short-form video workflow.
Rachel Karten: First, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your background working in social media?
Eric Stark: I started my career at the NFL, supporting all 32 teams with digital and social strategy. Then I moved to the club side, working with the Chiefs and 49ers as a social and digital media manager, overseeing content across all social channels, websites, and mobile apps.
At the league level, my role was all about high-level strategy, but I was drawn to the club side because that’s where I could actually create. Managing content during the season is relentless. Anyone who works in sports knows it’s its own special beast. You’re attached to your phone 24/7, creating an incredible amount of content at a rapid pace. You learn fast in that environment. It’s so fun, but nonstop.
After that, I returned to the NFL to help lead international marketing, where social became my main focal point of fan development outside the U.S. Since the NFL isn’t nearly as popular abroad, it felt like running a startup within the league, which was a unique and exciting challenge. Five years after my team and I launched the NFL’s social presence in Germany from scratch and watched it grow, the league held its first game there which sold out in minutes. While it wasn’t all because of our work, it played a big part and shows just how much impact social media can have in driving business growth.
RK: I think every social media professional has dreams about either improving upon or building a tool that helps them do their job better. We know our needs best. Why did you start Slate in 2020?
ES: At every stop in my career, one thing was constant: as a social manager, I had to be a content creator. I learned pro tools, even though I wasn’t a designer or video editor. I hacked together IG Stories with native tools and had every editing app on my phone. I was producing as much content as anyone at the company, but with a patchwork of one-off or half solutions.
Meanwhile, my co-founder Michael, a video editor for the 49ers, was on the other side of it. He was an expert-level creator but didn’t have the bandwidth to make every social edit for me.
We realized social teams needed something better: a tool as intuitive as creator apps but built for brand teams. It had to handle brand customization, enable fast workflows, and foster collaboration between social managers, video editors, and design teams.
Essentially, a creation tool designed to meet the specific challenges of social content at a brand.
RK: What sort of features felt imperative for you to include as you built Slate? What was missing from the systems you were previously using?
ES: Two things were non-negotiable for us:
Social-First Creation Tools: We wanted the experience to feel more like IG Stories than a mini version of pro tool. Social teams work fast, so tools need to be quick and intuitive. Plus, content that looks native performs better, and native-style creation tools make that possible.
Complete Brand Control: Most tools are filled with stock assets meant for creators, not brands. Brands invest heavily in style guides, but those often go by the wayside on social. From day one, every Slate instance has been fully customized for the brand using it. It’s like having a white-label centralized content hub built just for your team.
RK: How would you compare the video editing features of Slate to some of the popular editing apps?
ES: Slate is designed specifically for social media teams, offering all the essential editing tools—timeline editing, trimming, splitting, captioning, audio, and more—on both web and mobile. If you’ve used traditional video editing apps, you’ll find Slate familiar in terms of core functionality.
What truly sets Slate apart is our brand-first approach. We go beyond basic editing with features like brand-controlled templates, customizable caption presets, intros and outros tailored to your brand, and our AI-powered video clipping tool that gives social teams more creative control. It’s not just about editing a clip, it’s about helping teams create consistently standout content at scale.
RK: Who are some customers that are nailing making and posting content using Slate?
ES: So many of our customers are crushing it, but a few standouts right now that are really approaching social content the right way are Vanity Fair, the Golden State Warriors, and Bleacher Report. Each is focused on creating content that feels authentic, on-brand, and perfectly tailored to their audiences
RK: I think a lot of the brands that I hear from have quite sophisticated software for more general social media management. Yet their short-form video workflow is still not quite solved for. We're in a moment where social teams are really investing in their video strategies and might be re-evaluating their processes. Can you talk to me about some of the workflow and collaboration features?
ES: Yup, you’re spot on. Social teams have some of the most sophisticated tools for scheduling and analytics, but content creation? That’s where things fall apart. Editing in free apps, getting approvals via messaging tools or email. It’s fragmented, slow, and not built for the kind of collaboration social teams need.
Slate changes that by acting as the central creation hub. Designers upload branded templates and assets, social teams use them to create content in seconds, and everything stays on-brand. Approvals happen right in the app, whether it’s from your boss, legal, or even external partners.
It’s also where social and video teams collaborate. With tools like AI-powered video clipping, video teams can enable social managers to handle quick edits themselves, freeing up time for bigger projects.
When we think about collaboration, we always say we’re building the Frame.io for social teams.
RK: I know you have a lot of sports teams as users of Slate. I can see how having brand designs and templates would be important for them. Can you talk to me about how other industries use Slate? For example, a lot of brands prefer to not have heavily branded short-form videos. Would Slate still be a good solution for them?
ES: 2025 feels like the year brands take back creative control on social media. Over the past few years, brand accounts have leaned into the "lo-fi aesthetic," chasing trends and trying to look as native as possible. But it’s created way too much sameness. The social teams I talk to want to bring their brands to life in fresh, creative ways on social media.
That doesn’t mean overly branding your short-form video. It’s about balance: weaving your brand into social content so it feels authentic to both the platform and your identity.
Frida is a great example of a non-sports brand using Slate to strike this balance. If you’re a new parent, you probably know them. They create short-form videos that feel perfectly “Frida”, driving brand recall without feeling like ads or being overly branded. It’s seamless, authentic, and performs great.
The same idea applies beyond sports teams. Native social already gives you tools like fonts, stickers, and overlays. If you integrate your brand into those in a smart way, you can create standout content that feels native and unmistakably on-brand.
Slate is a great fit for brands in any industry that want to create standout, authentic content without sacrificing their identity.
RK: How do your captioning features work for videos? Can you use custom brand fonts?
ES: Yes, you can! Everything in Slate is based on your brand. On both mobile and web, you can auto-caption videos in a single tap. The AI transcription is super accurate, and all captions are automatically styled in your brand fonts. You can customize everything—animations, colors, highlights, positioning—and save those as branded presets.
Plus, our safe zones feature ensures captions don’t get cut off from the TikTok, Reels, or Shorts L-bars.
RK: I have to ask about your LinkedIn presence. How have you used the platform to market Slate? Anything you've seen work particularly well? A lot of "founder-led content" comes off as cringe, but you seem to find a nice balance.
ES: I started posting on LinkedIn consistently just over a year ago, and it’s been great not just for Slate, but for me personally. I actually enjoy taking time to just write and share my thoughts and insights on the space, and the response has been awesome. I’m not posting to sell Slate, but to share value and build trust. If people find my content helpful, I know they’ll be open to checking out what we’re building too.
I try to just write like I speak so it’s conversational in nature. I also have a rule that the post needs to be about the audience, not about me.
I also try to check myself by asking: does this post provide real value or insights, or is it just a play for likes? The easiest way to get engagement with the social media manager community on LinkedIn is to talk about how hard the job is and how no one outside of social really understands what we do. I’ve posted about that before, and while it’s great to feel heard, I always aim to go beyond that. I want to share solutions, advice, and insights not just fuel for complaints about how hard the job is (and let’s be real, it is hard, and we don’t get paid enough).
RK: You worked in social media for a long time, now you're building tools for social media teams. As you think about the future, what's on your mind? Can you tease anything that's coming soon?
ES: AI is a big focus for us, but not in the 'let AI run your social' kind of way. Social teams don’t want AI taking over their creative decisions; they want it to take care of the repetitive, time-consuming tasks so they can focus on what they do best: being creative and producing authentic content.
Social teams are overworked and under-resourced, even at the biggest brands. Content demand is only increasing, and no one is magically getting double the headcount. It’s exciting to think what the right AI tools can do to help social managers work smarter and do more with less. Because we’ve been in their shoes, we’re building AI tools that empower social media managers, not replace them.
We’re about to launch a full AI editing platform that enables social teams to cut longform content into any format for any channel, all while maintaining full editorial control. We’re focused on building tools that amplify the creativity and expertise of social teams.
If your social team wants to see Slate in action, you can request a demo here.
This is so cool! Hearing Eric’s story, I would totally want to adopt this tool! Love seeing social managers creating solutions.