Photography Marketplace
Advertising, Marketing & PR, Internet Software & Services
Santa Barbera, CA
Snapwire is a marketplace for photographs. It leverages its community of 285,000 photographers in over 180 countries to deliver authentic, original photos to brands and businesses that need images to help illustrate a concept or tell a story.
Commercial photography is a big business: according to a 2015 report from North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), it’s a $10 billion market.
Photos are used online on websites and blogs, on Facebook and Twitter posts, and in ads. It’s been estimated that 200,000 online publishers need 20 photos a month.
Photos are used offline, too, on print brochures and posters, and in magazines.
But instead of hiring pricey photographers, millions of businesses use relatively inexpensive “stock” photos that already exist.
This is a sector where investors have done well:
Getty, a stock photography pioneer, was acquired a few years ago by a private equity firm for $3.3 billion, and a relatively young company called Shutterstock (NYSE: SSTK) has a market cap of $2 billion.
Snapwire is a new upstart in this sector.
A stock photography executive named Chad Newell realized that, thanks to the high-quality camera phones many of us have in our pocket, a new generation of photographers had emerged, and they were taking a lot of pictures.
In fact, one photo-sharing site called Instagram receives 70 million new photos every day.
Chad recognized that some of those photographers were very talented—and that they’d probably enjoy earning some extra income.
So he decided to create a photography marketplace called Snapwire.
Here’s how it works:
Businesses create a “challenge,” where they post a description of the images they’re looking for (e.g., “authentic travel experiences,” “summer-themed cocktails,” “active families,” etc.) and they set a price and a deadline.
Then, photographers who’ve signed up on Snapwire receive notice of these challenges—and if they choose to, they can compete for the job by submitting shots.
The new “marketplace” paradigm being fostered by Snapwire is now being recognized by large incumbents such as Getty Images, Adobe, and Corbis, with whom Snapwire has signed partnership agreements.
Paul is an expert in web development, mobile development, computer vision, embedded systems, and robotics.
Prior to founding Snapchat, he worked at Toyon Research Corporation, which creates solutions to problems involving advanced sensor and weapon systems.
He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Oregon State University, and his Master from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
With over 17 years in the stock photo licensing space, Chad is a domain expert.
Chad has worked for The Image Bank (acquired by Getty Images), ImageState, Adventure Photo & Film, and he co-founded Media Bakery, which had 10 million images under contract from supply lines like Getty Images and Corbis.
He attended University of California, Santa Barbara.
An experience designer and creative strategist with a passion for projects that empower people to do good.
Founder of social impact startup Generously, a curated marketplace for well-designed goods that create a positive impact.
Angel Investor in successfully-exited companies such as Jotspot, Slide, Pluck and Varsity Group.
Founder of Shoedazzle, Co-founder of LegalZoom, Co-founder & CEO of Honest Co.
Former CEO of Linden Lab. Angel investor in consumer internet companies such as Twitter, Fab.com, appstore and Rally.com.
Former CEO of Thomson Reuters and Reuters. Angel investor in CommonBond.