So you want to build a real-time start up?

The text discusses various options available for building a real-time video application, highlighting the complexity involved in developing such an infrastructure from scratch. It mentions the possibility of using open-source projects like Livekit, Jitsi, or Mediasoup to reduce development time but emphasizes that deploying and scaling these solutions can still be challenging. The text then introduces real-time video APIs provided by companies like Twilio and Daily.co as a quicker and more cost-effective way to build such applications without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure. It concludes with an example of how using an API helped in building a successful prototype that secured significant funding for the project.