Not long before software startup PhotoDay was born in 2018, future CEO Jonathan Dantes and Chief Product Officer Rainer Flor took a few field trips to school picture days.
Dantes and Flor previously built software for wedding photographers at their company Snapshots, but they became interested in volume photography, such as school pictures or sports team photos, when Dantes met photographer Lisa Mallis at an Orlando convention. Mallis told Dantes how busy her industry was and how many photographers still used outdated paper forms and barcodes.
To see it first hand, Dantes and Flor watched studios photograph students and keep track of information using barcodes or writing by hand, which Flor told Orlando Inno he found “mind-boggling.” At the end of one of the picture days, a student approached a photographer and told the photographer she needed her check back.
“The photographer had to go to a van and go through stacks of order forms in a bin,” Flor said. “I told Jonathan, ’Here’s our golden ticket.’ ”
Not long after, Dantes, Flor and Mallis co-founded Winter Park-based PhotoDay to build an easy-to-use online platform that makes it easier for volume photographers to store and organize their photos efficiently while marketing a variety of products to customers.
The product is catching on, as PhotoDay recorded 283% year-over-year revenue growth in 2021, and expects to nearly double its revenue this year as its busy season kicks into gear.
“We changed the business model of modern photography,” said Mallis, senior vice president of PhotoDay.
Though the business opportunity was obvious, there were obstacles that likely prevented companies from modernizing volume photography workflow before PhotoDay, said Chief Technology Officer Greg Prado.
For example, selling photos online after a shoot eliminates the ability for photographers to get paid in advance, meaning they potentially would go from leaving a shoot with money in their hands to empty-handed. PhotoDay developed a tool called AdvancePay to address that. With AdvancePay, customers buy credits before picture day, and they can use the credits to order the photos they like later.
That’s far from the extent of the technology powering the platform. PhotDay also uses computer vision — a form of artificial intelligence — to recognize faces in photos and organize photos of the same individuals together automatically. The ultimate result is no paper order forms for parents, no barcodes for photographers and a 165% year-over-year increase last year in new business for studios using PhotoDay.
Unsurprisingly, the fall is a peak season for PhotoDay, as students return to school and the fall sports season hits its stride. Business likely will peak in mid-October before it ramps back up around April, Flor said. Meanwhile, the firm projects 93% year-over-year revenue growth in 2022.
That success in revenue has translated to job creation. The company’s headcount doubled in the last year to nearly 40 people, and PhotoDay continues to hire.
The firm’s website lists two open positions: social media manager and senior software engineer. Plus, PhotoDay is open to unsolicited applications for positions not listed. The business always needs marketing professionals, developers and designers, Flor said.
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