AI Video Bootcamp Review: $9 Skool, A Moving $50 Cap, And The Co-Founder Who Is Not Matt Stark

The guy in the photo is not the guy who woke you up in Pompeii.

Daniel Riley used to be a gas engineer in the UK, per the official blog. Then he started posting as @timetravellerpov, the TikTok where you die of plague, and an audience of millions has never seen his face. News and Vibes said it. Communityhunter said it. Faceless on purpose.

The other founder has a face. You are looking at it. Mateo Starcevic Filipovic. Croatian. BrightDock. Forbes Technology Council, which is a paid membership, not a staff byline. The official homepage calls him Matt. “Daniel builds the spark. Matt builds the engine.”

Communityhunter decided Matt’s last name was Stark. MarksInsights copied “Matt.” No official page, no LinkedIn, no Forbes, no DesignRush, no BrightDock bio uses Stark. There are real Matt Starks in Portland who design motion graphics and have nothing to do with a $9 Skool. I am not flattening a reviewer typo into a co-founder.

Together they sell AI video on Skool for $9 a month. Or $55 a year. Public sticker. No sales call. Live Skool on August 15, 2026: 26.6k members. Still $9. Still “Only 11 spots left.” Still threatening $50 once they hit 26,700.

That $50 line has already been printed at 16,200, 16,300, 17,700, 19,100, and 23,100. The door never slammed. The sign just got a new number.

Now the pitch, in their mouth, before I start throwing receipts.

Go from “I’ve never made an AI image or video” to getting paid to create them. Join 25,000+ creators in the world’s largest paid AI image and video community. Learn to make stuff that actually looks real. Get feedback every single day. Start getting paid for a skill most people don’t even know exists yet. Learn. Practice. Earn.

Freelancing. UGC-style ads. Faceless YouTube. An agency model. Selling prompts and templates and workflows. An Opportunity Hub where “the work comes to you.” Brand deals, freelance gigs, contests that typically pay $100 plus lifetime membership, per the official blog.

Skool about, same day I fetched it: Top 1% community. Ranked #1 AI video/image course on Skool. Ranked #1 globally out of 250,000 communities. Only 11 spots left at $9. Once we hit 26,700 members, new members pay $50/month. Start today. Lock in $9/month for life. Cancel anytime.

I still call the landlord when a tap drips. You think I’m prompting Kling into a four-hour Pompeii clip that makes historians write the BBC?

Read on for my AI Video Bootcamp review.

Who they actually are (do not flatten)

Daniel Riley is “the spark.” BBC and Fast Company quote the TikTok as “Dan” / @timetravellerpov and do not always use the surname. News and Vibes had him at 27 in December 2025. Skool profile: United Kingdom. Official blog: former gas engineer on central heating who built social channels on the side. That job is self-reported. I am not in his van.

Follower trail, dated: Fast Company early 2025 had 329,000. Then 361k, 500k+, 586k (Communityhunter’s March 2026 snapshot), “nearly 600,000” in December 2025. Official site now says 650,000+ across platforms. That last one is theirs. TikTok 403’d me on August 15, 2026, so I am not pretending I counted. Instagram is @promptedbyriley. Skool is @oracle, joined October 6, 2025. He owns the group.

Views: official homepage and the editorial byline say 130 million views in a single month. One official blog, the “best generative AI course” piece, says 200 million in a single month. Same company. Two numbers. I am not picking.

BBC, February 23, 2025, put historians on those POV clips. Dan said they are “artistic interpretations,” labelled AI, about four hours each. Historians called the Pompeii and plague stuff cheap, lazy, or dangerous as history. His line: spark curiosity, don’t replace real education. Real interview. Also a man who later sold the method. Early 2025, Digital Voices said the account funneled to a $22.99 masterclass via Beacon. Not on the current site. Old door.

Mateo Starcevic Filipovic is “the engine.” Also Mateo Starčević Filipović. Croatian. Rijeka on LinkedIn, New York on Forbes Councils. He founded BrightDock in 2018. Homepage case studies: Huuk, El Rubius, Sky News, Freelancer, Airbus. DesignRush adds Vodafone and L’Oréal. Official AVB copy and his LinkedIn also name-drop Rita Ora and Mike Tyson. Those last two are self-reported. Do not hand any of that CV to Daniel. Affiliates keep doing it anyway. Deloitte Fast 50 and Freelancer.com “#1” are directory / self-report. Forbes Technology Council is a real paid membership with a real profile, not a staff job. Welcome post around March 2026: co-founder of ZeroTen Media Inc.

How they met, per Mateo’s LinkedIn around August 10, 2026: he approached Dan as an affiliate, then made him an equal partner. Met twice IRL. Austria / LAUNCHub. US / Skool. His story.

Parent on the Forbes bio and the AVB editorial policy: ZeroTen Media Inc. US-based, “2-10” people, “currently raising.” Self-reported. Lider, March 16, 2026: CBAN angels put €400,000 into PromptWise. Mateo as CEO, Riley as CCO. Official blog writes the same raise as $400,000. Euros. Dollars. Pick a currency, boys.

Do not mash the products

AI Video Bootcamp is the consumer thing. Private paid Skool. Nine-phase course, feed, DMs, weekly live events, Opportunity Hub. Marketing site: aivideobootcamp.com. You join on Skool. You do not book a closer.

PromptWise is a SaaS from the same parent. Official blog, April 2026: not yet public, already “$1.35 million ARR.” Mateo’s LinkedIn, July 23, 2026: launched last week, 500 paying customers, $180k ARR. Pre-launch $1.35 million. Post-launch $180k. I am leaving both on the table.

BrightDock / BrightDock AI are Mateo’s agency and a later JV. Not the $9 login. Opportunity Hub lives inside the Skool. Official FAQ: no income share, no hidden upsells. This pass found no public $997 / book-a-call ladder. Tools (Midjourney, Kling, HeyGen) are extra. MarksInsights and an affiliate float $50 to $150 a month. Their estimate. Community revenue is a smoothie: $200k MRR, $2.4 million ARR, €1.3 million community ARR. All self-reported. They do not match.

Nine phases, their names

Public curriculum is a 9-phase path. Communityhunter’s “21 courses / 122 modules” is their Skool-page count, not repeated on the official site this pass. Official names only. Module counts stay unverified.

Official homepage / curriculum / FAQ / blog, August 15, 2026 pass. 3D is “on the roadmap,” official blog. A Medium member mentioned a points system and “Level 8 = lifetime free.” Not on the public FAQ. Unverified.

Also official: prompt libraries, weekly lives, 1-to-1 feedback. Trustpilot blurb: “10M+ subscribers and 5B+ views.” Community boast. Not an income audit.

The $9 door and the $50 that keeps walking

Homeboy will put a number on the porch. Official sites publish $9/month or $55/year (about $4.60 if you pay the year). Cancel anytime. Lock in $9/month for life. Then the cap. Watch it move.

Documented public caps: 16,200 → 16,300 → 17,700 → 19,100 → 23,100 → 26,700. The “Only 11 spots left” line is recycled. $9 was still the live sticker past every earlier threshold. Re-fetch Skool the day you publish if you need today’s number. Product: skool.com/aivideobootcamp/about.

That is the issue. Not a hidden $8,400 closer school. Urgency copy that does not fire. Documented, not alleged fraud. If they finally flip it the week you read this, congratulations. Until then, it is a sticker they reprint.

Trustpilot is tiny. YouTube is two guys with agendas. Kyle is a ghost.

Kyle Goldstein: no video found this pass. I am not inventing one. Reddit: no threads independently found. Official blog claims r/AISEOInsider, r/aivideos, r/KLING. Those URLs did not surface. Communityhunter also found zero. No usernames to cite.

Trustpilot: trustpilot.com/review/aivideobootcamp.com. Live fetch 503’d this pass. The profile exists. Communityhunter’s March 2026 snapshot: 4.8 / 65, zero 1-3 star. Official blog, May 4, 2026: 4.8 / 79, “94 percent five stars.” Sixty-five to seventy-nine reviews against 26,000 members is a Christmas card list. Distribution is suspiciously clean. Official blog is quoting its own review page. Likely solicited.

Named quotes I will actually use, from their compilation and CA snippets. J.D. Drayton: would have paid $10k, “only $9 a month is insane.” Chuka Okonkwo: Daniel explains things methodically. Sean: “price of a Starbucks.” Gayathra Perera: media buyer, “charge a premium.” Jose Antonio Gomes: “landed a client.” Untitled snippets thank “Dan, Matt and team.” Even the reviews call him Matt. Not Stark.

YouTube, not Kyle.

One: “I Paid $9 for the #1 AI Video Course.” Digital Marketing Maverick. Affiliate. Claims he bought the annual, about 18,000 members, “11 spots away from 18,100,” then $50. Walks a few phases. Pushes a 50% recurring affiliate. That split is his claim, not on the public FAQ. $9 plus a fat cut plus Meta ads (Mateo: public ad library, about 0.75 ROAS) is how you get a review-site weather system.

Two: “Can You Actually Make Money with AI Content?” Erica, “the in between.” Says she is not affiliated. Then house-pivots to local-service website rental. Hands Mateo’s BrightDock / Rita Ora / Tyson CV to Daniel and spells him “Daniel Reilly.” NoBSIMReviews did the same mash on LinkedIn, June 5, 2026, at a stale 12,000 members. Affiliates cannot keep the Croatian guy’s resume on the Croatian guy.

Communityhunter recommended the community and also wrote “Matt Stark,” said “no LLC” while ZeroTen sits on Forbes, and said “zero YouTube reviews” before these two videos existed. Useful lead. Do not copy the errors. MarksInsights uses “Matt,” no Stark, then house-pivots. Skoolmakers quoted Trustpilot and disagreed with itself on member count.

FTC, BBB, class action, lawsuit: none found this pass. No 1-star pile-on. No Reddit dungeon. That is a serious sentence. It is also not proof of heaven. A $9 Skool does not generate the same scream stack as a $25k closer school. Quiet is not a halo.

Cancel anytime. Refund is a maybe.

Homepage, FAQ, Skool about: “Cancel anytime. No long-term contracts.” No money-back window stated. aivideobootcamp.com/terms, February 19, 2026, section 6: refunds “governed by Skool’s terms.” No AVB-specific promise. Section 7: no guarantees. Governing law: “the jurisdiction in which AI Video Bootcamp operates.” Not named. Cute.

Skool: auto-renew. Cancel anytime, access through the end of the period. No automatic refund. Creator discretion. Communityhunter’s footer “7-Day Refund on Skool” is platform chrome, not a Daniel-signed hug. Support: support@aivideobootcamp.com.

Who this is for (and who should skip)

This is for you if:

• Nine dollars is a coffee, and you want a map through Midjourney / Kling / HeyGen instead of 400 YouTube tabs
• You understand the tools cost extra, and “lock in $9 for life” is a slogan, not a court order
• You can live with a giant Skool feed, weekly lives, and an Opportunity Hub that is not a job offer
• You wanted a public price and a join button, not a Zoom with a closer

Skip if:

• You thought “Matt Stark” was a third founder, or that Daniel built Airbus a website
• You need a published money-back window that is not “ask Skool, maybe”
• You believed the $50 countdown, the 130-versus-200-million month, or a single ARR number
• You wanted passive income. This is prompting, editing, posting, and hoping a brand deal walks into a Hub

Verdict?

AI Video Bootcamp is a real $9 Skool run by a faceless UK TikTok kid with a self-reported boiler past and a Croatian agency operator who actually has a face. Nine official phases. A tool list that will eat your card after the membership does not. 26.6k on August 15, 2026. Trustpilot 4.8 on a few dozen reviews. The $50 cap is a moving scarecrow. “11 spots left” is a photocopy.

Not a scam per se. Not a hidden high-ticket ladder I could find. Not a student-income audit. Useful if you were going to learn this stack anyway and you want a cheap room with other people doing it. Expensive theater only if you treat the countdown like news.

I might give these two nine dollars. I will not clap for a price hike that has already died five deaths.

I’m good.

Q&A

Q: Is AI Video Bootcamp legit?
A: Real Skool. Real join button. Real public $9 / $55. Real founders with real names, if you use the ones on the official site. Self-reported views, ARR, and “#1 globally” energy. Legit classroom. Spicy sticker. Those can both be true.

Q: Who is Daniel Riley?
A: UK. Faceless. @timetravellerpov. Official blog: former gas engineer. BBC’s “Dan.” About 27 as of a December 2025 News and Vibes piece. Official site: 650,000+ followers across platforms, 130 million views in a month. One official blog says 200 million. I did not count his TikTok on August 15 because TikTok said 403. He is not the BrightDock guy. He is not Rita Ora’s web guy. Affiliates keep getting this wrong and I am tired.

Q: Who is Mateo? Is he Matt? Is he Matt Stark?
A: Mateo Starcevic Filipovic. Official legal / public name. Official homepage nickname: Matt. “Matt builds the engine.” Trustpilot reviewers thank “Dan, Matt and team.” Communityhunter wrote “Matt Stark.” No official page uses that surname. Best reading: Matt = Mateo. Stark = a reviewer invention, or at least unverified. Do not treat Matt Stark as a second co-founder. Do not treat Portland motion-designer Matt Stark as this man. I already have a headache.

Q: How much does AI Video Bootcamp cost?
A: $9/month or $55/year on the official site and on Skool, fetched August 15, 2026. Public. No call. They also say the price goes to $50/month for new members at 26,700, and that early members keep $9 for life. That $50 threshold has already been published at 16,200, 16,300, 17,700, 19,100, and 23,100. Still $9 at 26.6k. Re-fetch if you are the kind of person who needs today’s weather.

Q: So is the $50 thing a lie?
A: It is real copy that has not executed through at least five published thresholds. That is the precise sentence. I am not calling it a crime. I am calling it a countdown with extra lives.

Q: Only 11 spots left. For real?
A: The line is recycled. Communityhunter saw it. The 23k cache saw it. Live Skool on August 15, 2026 still saw it, at a cap 10,000 members later. If 11 spots have been left since March, those spots have a frequent-flyer account.

Q: What’s inside?
A: Nine official phases: Initiate, AI Images, AI Videos, Sound Effects & Editing, Character Consistency, AI Video Ads, Social Media AI Content, AI Filmmaking, Cloning & Automation. Plus a feed, DMs, weekly lives, 1-to-1 feedback, prompt libraries, and an Opportunity Hub. Communityhunter’s 21 courses / 122 modules is their count, not an official homepage number this pass.

Q: Can I cancel? Can I get a refund?
A: Cancel anytime is their line. Access through the end of the period, per Skool. A refund is not promised on the AVB terms. Skool says refunds are creator discretion and canceling does not automatically spit money back. Communityhunter’s “7-Day Refund on Skool” is the platform’s chrome, not an AVB-written hug. Email support@aivideobootcamp.com and use your words.

Q: Is there a high-ticket upsell?
A: Official FAQ/blog says no income share, no hidden upsells. This pass found no public $997 / $2k / book-a-call ladder. MarksInsights said the same. Software tools are extra. Opportunity Hub is inside the membership. If a closer appears later, that is a new fact. It is not one I have today.

Q: What about PromptWise?
A: Same parent, ZeroTen Media Inc. Official blog: $1.35 million ARR before public launch. Mateo LinkedIn after launch: 500 paying customers, $180k ARR. Lider talked about a €400k angel check and a community ARR over €1.3 million. I am not doing their bookkeeping. I am pointing at the clash and sitting down.

Q: Did they really do 130 million views in a month? Or 200?
A: Official homepage says 130 million. An official blog says 200 million. Trustpilot blurb says 10 million+ subscribers and 5 billion+ views for the community. Self-reported. Internally inconsistent. I pick none of them. I pick a lie-down.

Q: Trustpilot?
A: 4.8 stars on 65 to 79 reviews depending on the snapshot. Zero 1-stars found. That is a fact about the page, not proof of perfection. n is tiny versus 26k. The 5-stars read like people who just joined and still have the receipt glow. Kill me.

Q: Reddit? Kyle? BBB? FTC? Lawsuit?
A: None found. No Kyle video. No Reddit threads I could independently surface. No BBB listing for AI Video Bootcamp / aivideobootcamp.com / ZeroTen Media Inc. No FTC file. No class action. Nearby regulator stories are other companies. Do not invent a courtroom so this feels like a Netflix category.

Q: What do the YouTube reviews say?
A: One affiliate walks the phases and sells a 50% recurring cut. One woman says she is not affiliated, then tries to rent you a local-service website and gives Mateo’s agency credits to Daniel. Both are useful as “a human clicked around.” Neither is a census. Kyle did not show up.

Q: Is Forbes Technology Council a big deal?
A: It is a real paid membership with a real profile and real bylines. It is not a Forbes staff job. Serious “I have a badge” energy. File it next to LinkedIn Premium, not next to a Pulitzer.

Q: How did a gas engineer and a Croatian agency guy even meet?
A: Mateo says he DMed Dan to be an affiliate off the viral channel, then made him an equal partner. Two IRL meetups: Austria and the US. LinkedIn, around August 10, 2026. Self-reported. Romantic if you like conversion-rate meet-cutes.

Q: Can I see Daniel’s face?
A: Not from me. He is a faceless creator. News and Vibes: audience of millions has never seen it. I am not generating a jawline. I am not stealing an AI blog hero. Their own editorial policy admits many AVB blog heroes are AI-generated. The photo at the top is Mateo, from DesignRush, on purpose.

Q: Will I make money?
A: They name paths. Freelancing, UGC ads, faceless YouTube, agency, selling prompts. Opportunity Hub: “the work comes to you.” Named Trustpilot outcomes are anecdotes (landed a client, charge a premium, get noticed). There is no public student-income audit. Section 7 of the terms: no guarantees. If someone promised you a number on a Reel, that was a Reel.

Q: What does this actually cost after the $9?
A: Official pages do not itemize Midjourney / Kling / HeyGen / ElevenLabs. Affiliates and MarksInsights say $50 to $150 a month in software. Their estimate. Budget like an adult or enjoy watching the free tiers gag.

Q: Okay but I still wanna make money online without renting a 26,000-person Skool and a Kling invoice.
A: Wild concept: build little local websites, rank them in Google, and rent the leads to real businesses. No “11 spots left.” No $50 scarecrow. No four-hour plague video.

It’s about as sexy as organizing the junk drawer… which is why filthy SEO goblins like me keep doing it.

If that quieter path sounds less insane than paying nine dollars to a faceless boiler guy and a Croatian “Matt” who is not named Stark, start at unemployable.org.