Bob Armour, Photogram: iPhone app for sharing multiple photos placed in handcrafted themes

We at YourStory.in recently caught up with Bob Armour of Photogram to know more about the business idea behind Photogram. Please find below the edited excerpts from the conversation:

What is Photogram all about? How did the idea for Photogram come about?

Timelines, Inc. was started in 2007 and is based in Chicago, IL. We are funded by Apex Venture Partners and Trident Capital. Our company has created a number of web and mobile services. One of these services is a website called Lifesnapz, and Photogram’s inspiration came from that. LifeSnapz helps families share and record events(such as birthdays, sports games, graduation and other family milestones) and explore them using timelines and maps. With Photogram, users can capture the moments from similar types of events and share them with family and friends while they are on go with their iPhone. It’s simple, fast and convenient.

How is Photogram different from other photo sharing apps?

Photogram is a unique iPhone app that provides special delivery of multiple photos via email, Facebook and Twitter - all in one step. It is this unique combination of simple and efficient functionality that also enables the delivery of something handcrafted and memorable, which makes Photogram stand apart.

We have two goals with our app. Our first is to solve a problem - namely to make it simple for time-pressed people to capture and share photo memories quickly with people important to them. To achieve this goal, we created Photogram with a highly intuitive user interface and included functionality like our “Groups” feature that lets you reach multiple people such as family and friends with one-click. With our app, you can send a Photogram directly to dozens of individuals and share it on your social networks in as little as 30 seconds. And your recipients don’t have to have the app or register to receive a Photogram. All they have to do is click and view. Our second goal is to improve and enhance the photo sharing and delivery experience. Oftentimes, the photo delivery experience is lacking, and typically in email it’s just plain awful. Let’s face it, JPEG attachments are no way to package your memories and special moments. With Photogram, we want the delivery experience and packaging around your photos to enhance and support the specialness of the moments they reflect. So we created two functions in Photogram to achieve our special delivery experience. First, you can send up to four photos in a Photogram. This lets you tell a story, and your recipients can enjoy different elements of the memory or the event. Second, you can select among dozens of themes created by talented independent artists to wrap your photos in. You can choose themes based on your personal tastes or to showcase a special event, like a vacation, birthday party or holiday. The result is a Photogram, a photo sharing experience that’s personalized and thoughtfully customized by you.

Tell us about the background of the founding team at Photogram.

There are five people at Timelines, Inc. (Geoff Buesing, Brian Hand, Scott McMillin, Zach Zolton and me), and the creation of Photogram was truly a team effort. Geoff, Brian and Scott are the three co-founders of the company. All five of us worked at various times at ShopLocal, a company that Brian Hand founded in 1999 and sold to Tribune Company; Gannett, Inc.; and Knight-Ridder in 2003. Brian has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from the JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University; Geoff and Scott graduated from Kenyon College; Zach graduated from Western Michigan University; and I have my undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the JL Kellogg School.What are your views on the photo sharing space? Where do you see the domain and Photogram five years from now? Also, will Photogram remain an iOS app or are versions for other platforms being planned?

We believe that the photo sharing space is exploding with innovation and has room for many more applications and technologies. Five years from now is a tough one to answer - even predicting five months from now would be hard! Personally, I think that you’ll see photos, videos and audio coming together in interesting ways to record and share experiences. We are planning for an Android version sometime in the next 6 months.

What is the revenue model for an app like Photogram?

Photogram is a free app. We make money by selling themes created from independent artists’ works in our in-app theme Store. Upon download of Photogram, you get a starter set of themes that you can use unlimited number of times. Within the app, you can browse the theme store by what’s new and featured, by category(such as holiday, kid-related, pet-related, type of art, etc.) and by artist to find other themes. These themes cost $0.99 each. Once purchased, you own that theme and can use it to create and share as many Photograms as you want. At some point we will offer theme packs.

What are the efforts being taken to boost app discovery?

We plan on driving Photogram discovery and downloads a number of different ways. First, we believe that the app’s usefulness, design and customized nature will drive strong word of mouth referrals. Second, recipients of Photogram are one-click away from downloading the app; we hope that they enjoy the experience and decide to spread the joy themselves. Third, we will be working with our artist partners to promote Photogram to their fans and supporters, online and at their shows and studios.

Speaking of our artist partners, we doing something very interesting with one of them. Patrick Skoff(and his business partner Sam Brown) are Chicago-based artists who run art scavenger hunts locally. They are taking this concept national using a converted bus as a mobile art studio in September. Photogram will be the primary sponsor. Patrick will be using Photogram to document and share their awesome adventure.

Finally, we will continue to promote Photogram throughout the calendar as the best way to capture and share all of your special moments – simply and with style.

Check out their website http://photogram.me/ for more details! Share your thoughts on this story by writing to us at [email protected]