Our Startup Story
(The journey of a couple that started a tech company)
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If it werenโt for us trying to get rid of our professional camera, picurphoto.com would never have started.
It hadnโt been touched in over a year. Of course, when we bought it, we had dreams of getting the best family photos, the best photos for our blog and social media, and of course, making some money from it.
The problem is that it was big, clunky, and fragile. It made the worst traveling companion, and at least one of us was always out of the picture.
It sat on eBay for a month, and we had more or less come to terms with selling it. That is, until someone made an offer. I thought sheโd be happy, but in that moment, Deborahโs heart sank like a rock in the ocean. Her little girl dream began to fade away and her tone went from conversation to dread.
“No, I donโt want to sell it!” *thinking of a solution* “Iโll sell photos for ยฃ5 instead.”
“What are you going to do? Walk around the street and shout โยฃ5 photos for sale!โ”
“Yes!”
“No!”
But her gut feeling is hardly ever wrongโฆso Iโve learned.
About a month later, Deborah and I went to Portugal with 3 more of my family members. We packed more than half of our luggage full of camera equipment with the hope of capturing our best momentsโฆwe had several point and shoot cameras, the DSLR, a GoPro, tripod + monopod, lights, etc..and we STILL couldnโt get the right picture.
(This might be the best family photo we got in Portugal)
Just finding the right spot was a battle.
The extended family was hardly ever together.
Our 1 year old wouldnโt stay still long enough for a tripod shot.
And at one point, the wind blew the tripod over, bringing our (very expensive) camera crashing to the groundโฆ
โฆso Deborah set out to hire a photographer.
Boy, was that fun.
None of the photographers she found were that…extraordinary. Itโs hard to justify spending ยฃ300+ when you donโt know what the results are going to be.
And they kept discussing their fees like some abstract thought: U base + V package price + W edited photos + X kilometers traveled + 1 Yucca plant + 2 Zebras = 1 Arm + 1 Leg.
Several of them had this attitude, as if to say, โyouโre not really worth my time, but I suppose I can inconvenience myself.โ Itโs a sales tactic, I know, but it really puts you off the whole idea if youโre not already committed. Itโs almost like these photographers forgot that taking photos is actually a fun thing to do, and not just their job.
All of them asked her to pick the spot weโd eventually take pictures..as if she was supposed to know this area that weโd obviously never been to.
Deborah searched high and low (on Instagram) for the perfect photo hotspot, and she noticed that all the top photos in the area were concentrated in just a few spots.
She explained to me, โif one of those photographers just sat in those spotsโฆthere are thousands of tourists that come through there. How many of them wouldnโt be willing to pay ยฃ5 for a professional photo with their whole family?โ
“When I’ve gotten photoshoots in the past, I usually only pick out about 5 or 6 photos, and the rest go to waste.”
Deborah pulled out her phone, “Buy this domain name for me: picurphoto.com”.
Yeah, I’llย just add that one to theย 30 others we’re not using.
Remember when Deborah said sheโd walk around yelling โยฃ5 photos for sale!โ?
Well, thatโs exactly what we did.
We left Portugal without the โperfectโ family photo, but we immediately got home and built our prototype. In less than two weeks, we started Pic ur Photo by going to University graduations and looking for families who were struggling to fit everyone into their photos.
On shoot day one, we did 20 photoshoots and made ยฃ350 (2 hours on site), which is the same amount an average professional UK photographer makes in a week. Except, we did it without creating a portfolio, negotiating price, or struggling to find customers, and we repeated that 3 days in a row.
It was only a matter of days before Deborah replaced the money that the camera would have sold for, and in the process of doing so, she created a system where anyone with that same passion can turn it into tangible work.
Deborah and Christian ๐โed..and then they ๐โed, because only friends high five without kissing. #couplesinbusiness #couplecreates #seethejourney #picurphoto
We’ve since transitioned into the location-based hotspot minishoots that we envisioned in Portugal. We place photographers in high volume areas for 3-6 hours at a time and book them out for 30 minutes.
And as of today (April 6th), we’ve been booked for over 700 shoots in 4 countries, with 500 of those concentrated in the first 3 months of this year. Here’s a photo from the first one we ever did:
