If you own a blog or any other web-based business that produces content than you may want to pay attention to what Chilean startup Imatag is doing. Imatag is making it as simple as it is to tag photos on social networks like Facebook on your WordPress, blogger, or other blogging website,
You may want to tag people from your company, celebrities, dignitaries or others and now you can with the ease and simplicity of Imatag.
The second part of the Imatag platform is a robust analytics set that allows you to track tags and see directly how people are interacting with your web content. This startup based in Santiago Chile and was founded by Nicolas Valenzuela, and Magdalena Maino.
We got a chance to interview Valenzuela. Check out the interview below:
What is Imatag?
It´s a tool that allows publishers, bloggers and brands to incorporate beautiful tags with links and text over their images in 3 simple steps. These interactive images can be embedded in the main content management systems like WordPress, Blogspot and Tumblr and shared in Facebook and Twitter. The best of Imatag is that you will have access to views and clicks statistics of the tags that you have incorporated. This way, you will know how readers interact with your Imatags and what contents are more popular.
In Layman’s terms, how does it work?
Load an image, click on the zone you’d like to tag, and type the information you want to share. Finally, choose a color for your tags and presto! Copy the embed code and insert it on your site or share it in social networks.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
Nicolas Valenzuela (29), co-founder and CEO, is an architect and has a life-long passion for entrepreneurship. Magdalena Maino (27), co-founder and COO has adegree in Social Communication. We know each other since 2006 and we get married on 2010. This is our second start-up together. The first one is Depto51 (www.depto51.cl), the first Chilean design blog and online store, which quickly became a reference for deco and design lovers. The blog is very popular in our country and we have contributors in several Latin American countries.
Where are you based?
In Santiago de Chile
What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?
The government is doing a great job promoting entrepreneurship nowadays. There are initiatives like Start-up Chile that are attracting entrepreneurs from around the world to start their business in our country. This is making the startup scene grow fast but it’s still difficult to make a good team because people don’t dare to take the leap to entrepeneurship.
How did you come up with the idea for Imatag?
Once we posted on our blog a really nice house from some friends. Quickly people began commenting on the post and asking where they could find the rug, the lamp, the chairs, etc … We list them out of the picture but we thought to ourselves “what great it would be if we could add that information in the images and not outside them”. That’s how Imatag was born.
How did you come up with the name?
It’s the fusion between images + tags = imatag
What problem does Imatag solve?
We think that Imatag solves two problems: the first one is that online reading is changing (people wanted to see images and read short texts) and, what everybody knows, brands don’t believe in the efficiency of banners.
We thought that mixing images and information would allow us to solve these two problems: we could deliver more punctual messages in the images and make advertising in context.
What’s your secret sauce?
Love what you do, read and study a lot and keep it simple!
What’s one dilemma you’ve encountered in the startup process?
Sometimes we are tempted by all the features and markets that would be nice to have on Imatag. In those moments we remember our “secret sauce” and we focus in one thing. We believe in growing fast but organically. It is important to have control over what you are doing because a growth that is uncontrolled can lead you to make bad decisions and burn your start up.
What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the startup process?
Although this process has challenges everyday, the first of all was daring not to have a “normal” life with a secure income and an eight-hour workday. The second one has been to reconcile the startup process with the birth of our first child (which is like having another startup!).
Some days you feel like you are changing the world and the next day you wake up depressed thinking that it’s all bad. In those moments we check our inbox to comfort us with cool mails sent by people telling us that they love what we do :)
What’s the first thing you would do with a one million dollar investment?
First of all, hire our team and then, accelerate the steps that we have considered but not developed yet
What’s next for Imatag?
We are launching in two weeks so we are very excited and anxious about what is going to happen and curious about the imatags that people will create.
Linkage
Check out Imatag here at imat.ag
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