Photosharing Archives - Serious Startups

Do we need more photo-sharing apps? Flipbook thinks so.

The photo-sharing market is pretty full. (And, yes, that’s the understatement of the year.)

But, with billion dollar valuations and acquisition offers on the table, we expect to see quite a few more before the frenzy dies down. The latest hails from Nashville, TN, and is founded by a couple of recent Vanderbilt graduates.

Will Schreiber and McArthur Gill founded Flipbook because they see a huge hole in the messaging/photosharing market. You can either chat with a group (WhatsApp/GroupMe) or post pictures (Instagram/Snapchat), but it’s hard to do both on any one platform. They created Flipbook with the ephemeral nature of Snapchat but the group chatting capabilities of the chat apps.

Does the market really need another photosharing app? Snapchat continues to grow, and Instagram doesn’t seem to be going away. But, who knows? More surprising things have happened.

Check out our Q&A with Flipbook below. Then download the app and let us know what you think.

What is your startup called?

Flipbook

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Will Schreiber and I, McArthur Gill, are the two co-founders. We are both developers and have worked together for years. During our last semester at Vanderbilt (Spring 2013), we were accepted into the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, where we created Stadium Stock Exchange presented by Nissan (www.stadiumse.com). Our other notable product is RageChill, a music discovery engine (http://www.ragechill.com).

Where are you based?

Nashville, TN.

What’s the startup scene like where you are based?

The startup scene in Nashville is budding. The Nashville Entrepreneur Center has really helped founders connect with mentors and investors, giving companies a strong foundation on which to grow.

What problem do you solve?

People love to express themselves and connect through the sharing of photos. As of now, Snapchat does not allow for group communication and Instagram publishes photos to all of your followers. Flipbook gives users a way to share photos to a group, while still maintaining the ephemeral nature of Snapchat. By allowing users to copy images posted to their group and overlay their own text and drawings, Flipbook gives users a photo-based conversation platform.

Why now?

Right now, the two biggest players in the photo-sharing space focus on either peer-to-peer sharing or public-sharing. The conversation about photos then happens on a different platform (people revert to texting in order discuss photos they see on these other platforms, sharing these opinions with a group of friends). We have created a communication platform allowing users to both post photos and discuss them within their circle of friends, all on the same platform.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

We have developed an iPhone app, which was released on Tuesday. In less than a week since our launch, we have created a very active user base and seen a huge growth in both number of users and number of photos shared.

What are your next milestones?

Continue to refine and iterate the product, grow the user base, and develop an Android app.

Photosharing apps are pretty prevalent. Why is Flipbook going to compete with the big SV-based apps?

Flipbook gives people a platform to share and discuss their photos within their groups of friends. As simple as that sounds, right now there is not a good platform on which to do that. WhatsApp and GroupMe are not photo-centric. Snapchat and Instragram do not provide cohesive groups. Flipbook provides both of these and also gives users the ability to capture a photo posted to their group, overlay their own text and drawings, and continue the conversation.

Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipbook-hidden-chapters/id778185758?mt=8

Picslinger Combines Photo Sharing And Gaming

Remember those scavenger hunt games you played as a kid? In college, my sorority pledge class played them with Polaroid cameras. (Remember those?!) We’d race around campus, taking ridiculously embarrassing pictures and the team that embarrassed themselves the most usually won.

Now, with the ubiquitous smartphone camera, these games can be even more fun. At Chicago TechWeek, Kyle caught up with Picslinger, an app that combines photo sharing with scavenger hunt games. You can even earn real life flair with your pictures.

Check out Kyle’s interview, and stay tuned for more great startups from Chicago TechWeek.

Interview With Atlanta Startup StoryMark, A Novel Idea For Photo Sharing

I was just telling StoryMark founder Dana McIntyre the story about when my mom turned 60 five years ago how all the kids got her one of those groovy digital photo frames that allowed 30 second narration on each photo. It was a cute idea and we were able to get photos from each couple in our family and the grandkids. We were then able to narrate what the photo was about.

Well, the reason we are writing about another photo sharing app is because StoryMark does virtually the same thing, but now instead of a clunky novelty digital photo frame, it’s on your iPhone or Android device where it will be way better utilized. In fact this year in September we are getting my mom an iPhone (yes she’s ready) and StoryMark will definitely have a place on her phone.

StoryMark allows you to take photos and then add up to 30 seconds of audio to send with the photo. It’s great for pictures that tell a story. Say you go on vacation you can send those loved ones back home a great photo and an audible description. Maybe your son or daughter is just laughing away, now with StoryMark you can audibly annotate the photo for years to come.

StoryMark has so many use cases it’s absolutely ridiculous (in a good way) McIntyre tells us in the interview below you can use it for those family moments, doctors can use it to get advice and collaborate with other doctors, even the know it all leader of your neighborhood organization can use it to audibly talk about how your grass is a smidgeon too high. Teenagers could use it to pitch their parents on that must have shirt, sweater, or video game at the mall. Again this is one of those ideas so good you think, “why didn’t I think of that” well that’s because McIntyre did.

Check out the interview below

We Catch Up With Social Photo Sharing Startup StreamZoo At TechCrunch Disrupt VIDEO INTERVIEW

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2011 in New York City, our Managing Editor, Cameron Wright caught wind of Phonezoo’s latest startup project StreamZoo. StreamZoo is a multi platform photosharing application for Android and iPhone that has unique elements that make it one of the most popular photo sharing experiences outside of Instagram.

For starters StreamZoo allows users to follow users and streams that are created by hashtags. For example, co-founder Manish Vaidya talks in part three of this interview about how international users in Indonesia and Brazil make streams for their countries which draw more photos from other users in their country.

Wright also talks to Vaidya about the impact that Instagram has had on StreamZoo. Vaidya says that StreamZoo wasn’t really affected by the adoption of Instagram. Users were steadfast in their ways with their photosharing apps. What did happen however, was when Lightbox was acquihired by Facebook and subsequently shutdown StreamZoo found a lot of users migrated to their service. Those users used a stream #lightbox to find each other on StreamZoo.

StreamZoo also offers a badging element reminiscent of GoWalla which was also acquihired by Facebook. StreamZoo has the ability to create badges centered around locations, businesses, fun places to go and events. In fact Vaidya created a special badge unique to just Disrupt.

In Part I of the interview Wright talks with Vaidya about the progress that StreamZoo has made since they met the previous year. They also talk about how the StreamZoo community influences changes in the 8 person Sunnyvale based team. StreamZoo had gone a little notification crazy but quickly reacted to the community adding a more effective way to manage notifications in messages within the UI. Check out part I below:

In Part II of the interview Vaidya talks about the impact of Instagram, Facebook and Lightbox on the StreamZoo application. Check out part II after the break