... the History Of
June 10-12, 2019
(updated Jun 2021)
(updated Jun 2021)
Jaime & John
... together since 2003 :-)
2008 - John on a Plane
The 4 Stages of Our Growth
Phase I (2007 - 2011):
Bootstrapped & the Rise of the Social Network
Phase II (2011 - 2014):
PicCollage & The Mobile Rush
Phase III (2014-2018):
Refinement & Monetization
Phase IV( 2019 - ?):
Subscriptions & Exploration
Phase I (2007-2011): Bootstrapped
... building Facebook Apps
Friend Stock
Travel Balloon => Tribute Balloon
Phase II (2011 - 2014):
The Mobile Rush & PicCollage
Pairs of Pair-Programming
Summer 2011
Batch 01
Our "Silicon Valley"
Lean Startup Machine SF
Snapb.it
The Birth of PicCollage
July 2011
Carrito (circa 2010)
PicCollage Version 1
The Growth Of PicCollage
2012 - PicCollage Android
KDDI (Japanese telecom company) requested an Android version of PicCollage.
First version was outsourced (to Cogini) in 2012.
Brought PicCollage Android in-house (including Yenting!) a year later.
Venture Funding
Raised $2.3M from Silicon Valley investors.
Our Pitch: Social Community, Visual Communication
PicCollage Social
(first amateur sticker pack)
Steal Like an Artist
(first "accidental" artist sticker pack)
Phase III (2014 - 2018):
Refinement & Monetization
Brand Campaigns & Hollywood
PicCollage Windows 10
Outsourced to CIC (Vietnamese software co) in 2015
"Revenue" boost for our monetization efforts
Ads & IAPs
2014 - The Watermark
(the more annoying, the better.)
End of 2018:
Subscriptions!!!
New Apps
Phase IV (2019 - ?):
Subscriptions &
Beyond PicCollage...
Beyond PicCollage
The Mission
Running a Startup is like...
Surfing!
the surfer = your team
the surfboard = product
the wave = market
At the start,
it will feel like this:
And then, this:
But all of that, in the hope of achieving this:
