After a big year, the company party is coming up — but no one knows a decent photographer. That’s where Shotzy comes in. Shotzy combines convenience for both photographers and businesses into one app: in just seven taps, a company can find reliable photographers in the area and set an appointment for a flat fee.
Shotzy aims to not only provide gigs for talented photographers in their free time, but help them hone their skills and build relationships along the way. “We just onboarded a woman in Denver that’s pulling a double today, but her work is fantastic. Shotzy is there to help her make the transition from a two career to a single career, passionate photographer,” says co-founder Frederick Marx.
Hype had a chance to sit down with Marx, along with Shotzy’s VP of Business Development Taylor Lupton, and talk about Shotzy’s recent pivot from B2C to B2B and how they’re dissolving friction points in the photographer booking process for businesses.
How did you guys get the idea for Shotzy?
The genesis of Shotzy was actually more in the B2C arena than B2B, which is where we are now. But, it was born out of a passion that I have for traveling and wanting to be able to easily access professional photographers wherever I am. I had the vision that it would be great within a couple taps of your mobile device to access a professional photographer, whether that be on a beach in Costa Rica, or at the Eiffel Tower, or down the road from your house.
But since then, we’ve 8-balled into a B2B business because we believe there’s a huge problem in the B2B world regarding capturing engaging visual content easily. Being able to access it easily and affordably, and begin to build a library of authentic images, and ultimately video, we think that’s huge problem that Shotzy can go a long way in solving.
At what point did you guys decide to pivot from B2C to B2B?
It’s been about 30 days! We’ve only been in existence as an app since July 2016. From July through the end of December, I was doing a lot of things. One, I hired this guy who’s a professional photographer and has a BFA from SCAD. He’s responsible for onboarding every photographer that comes onto the platform because he has a keen eye as a professional photographer himself, he’s uniquely qualified to do that. We were interviewing branding agencies and finally landed on one. In December, we launched as a B2C company.
When you’re a tech startup, you have to be willing to constantly evolve and constantly get feedback from customers, and I just felt that based on my research and conversations that the B2B space was a bigger problem that needed solving. So that’s how we evolved to B2B.
Where are you guys with funding?
I raised seed capital and we are running lean right now. I intend to make that seed capital last two years, but I am looking to raise capital by the end of 2017. I think that we have a strong, compelling case to raise capital now — our tech stack is fully built, the technology works, we are signing up photographers as fast as we possibly can.
Tell me about the photographers that you’re recruiting.
When they sign up on Shotzy we ask them a handful of questions that really dive into what they’re all about, what their passions are, and what their skills are.
Photojournalistic background is something that I look for simply because that tells me that you can go into a studio and get a nice portrait, but then I can send you into a corporate cocktail party and you can not only get the details of the party, the details of the environment, but still capture the essence of the mood and the people there. We’re constantly looking for photographers that spread themselves over many areas of photography, rather than just portraiture or just newborns.
What’s your revenue model?
How it works right now is we charge a flat rate of $99 an hour of which Shotzy earns 20 percent. There are some interesting channels for verticals in our revenue stream. For example, we’re constantly capturing a huge library of visual assets. To what degree could we leverage those with companies that are on the platform?
Tell me about what problem you’re solving, and how do you stand out against your competitors?
There are tons of friction points along the way associated with hiring professional photographers. Even with technology platforms that are out there, it’s still a request-and-quote business model where you have to invest time and money and energy and ultimately landing on someone. Shotzy removes all of those friction points and we’re the only one that’s completely mobile, which makes us very unique. I think that’s step one in an on-demand world is to have something that in your pocket within 30 seconds you can access a professional photographer.
Featured image by Haute Couture Media/Shotzy, screenshots via Shotzy
Interview by Muriel Vega. Development by Jasmyne Moody.
