Popup was founded in early 2025 with a simple but powerful premise: give creators a branded virtual space to connect with and monetize their audiences directly—no algorithm standing between them and their communities.
The idea emerged from a clear shift happening across the creator economy. For years, creators have depended on brand sponsorships and social platform algorithms to earn a living.
But that model is fragile.
"You hear stories where Instagram cuts your views by 50%," says Roee Tsur, technical co-founder and CTO of Popup. "That can be your career going into the trash."
Popup's answer is to help creators build a revenue stream that belongs entirely to them.
When a creator hosts a live event on Popup, they collect first-party audience data—emails, names, locations, interests—and can charge for access directly. A parenting coach, for example, might host a monthly paid event at $100 per ticket, keeping both the revenue and the relationship with their audience.
No middleman, no algorithm.
The Challenge
From the start, live streaming wasn't just a feature for Popup—it was the core of the product. But building it from scratch was another matter entirely. Tsur, Popup’s CTO, had extensive development experience and knew that building high-quality video was not easy.
"I tried building something just to learn the basics," he recalls. "It took me a day or two to understand this is too big and too complex to support the scale we want to be at."
With that settled, Tsur began evaluating third-party providers—Zoom Video SDK, Agora, and Vonage, among them.
He was looking for three things above all:
- The ability to scale
- Predictable pricing as the product grew
- An SDK that a small team could move fast with
"Not everyone actually gave us predictable pricing at scale," he notes.
After reviewing four or five options, the decision came quickly.
"It took a few minutes to make the decision," says Tsur. "Stream ticked all the boxes."
Implementation
Popup is built on a React/Next.js stack. Tsur integrated Stream's React Video SDK for the frontend and the Node.js SDK for backend operations—and rather than building a separate proof of concept, he went straight into the product itself.
"It was just a delight to hook up the SDK," he says. "It was incredibly easy to achieve a very high quality of video; we were impressed."
The first working live stream—with a host broadcasting to viewers who joined automatically—was in production within a few days.
Stream's documentation did most of the heavy lifting. For more complex features, Tsur developed a practical workflow using AI coding tools: he would copy the relevant Stream docs page directly into his AI chat session alongside his own code, then describe the feature or bug he was working on.
"I tell it: add a screen share button, use the documentation, here's the link—and then it does everything for me."
For trickier issues—a screen sharing bug, for instance—he reached out to Stream's support team directly.
The most complex feature was custom recording. Popup's live stage isn't built from Stream elements alone—it also includes video-on-demand elements, static images, and other components that together form the branded environment creators present to their audience.
To capture all of that in the final recording required Stream's custom web app recording feature, which Tsur describes as genuinely more advanced.
"There was a big tag next to the title saying you should talk to support before implementing this feature—and it's there for a reason." The example in the docs didn't map exactly to his stack, requiring real adaptation work, but the feature ultimately delivered what Popup needed.
Tsur says, "As a company, it makes sense that you focus on what most customers need. If I need a more specific use case, it makes sense that I'd need to customize it on my own. I understand that."
Impact
Since launch, Popup has hosted live events with viewers joining from all over the world. The video quality has been a recurring highlight in user feedback.
"People are surprised by how a bootstrapped startup gets such high quality. There are no feature requests around quality or reliability."
User feedback has instead focused on aesthetic customization, how elements are laid out on screen during a live stream, a strong signal that the underlying infrastructure has become invisible, which is exactly where it should be.
Looking ahead, Popup is exploring mobile development and expects Stream's multi-platform SDK support to make that transition easier.
"It was also helpful to see that you support all the different platforms that modern stacks are built with," Tsur notes.
Summary
For a bootstrapped startup, every technical decision carries outsized weight. When Tsur chose Stream to power Popup's live streaming infrastructure, he wasn't just picking an SDK; he was betting that a lean team could build a production-grade, globally reliable video product fast enough to matter. That bet paid off. Within days, Popup had a working live stream.
After hosting countless events with global reach, not a single complaint about quality or reliability.
What Stream gave Popup wasn't just a technology — it was the leverage to punch far above their weight, and the time to focus on what actually differentiates their product: helping creators own their audience, their data, and their revenue.
"Stream allowed us to achieve an extremely high level of product at minimal cost and, more importantly, minimal time to market, which was the biggest factor for us. I'm actively recommending Stream to other companies.”