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How many events in your life are photo worthy? If you really think about it, probably a lot. Most of those moments can be taken care of with an iPhone, but what about those events that aren’t really big enough to warrant hiring a professional photographer, but are special enough that you’d like some high-quality photos? That’s exactly the niche the Austin-based startup Kandid.ly is looking to fill.
“We empower photography enthusiasts to earn $500 to $1000 of supplemental monthly income,” Kandid.ly Founder and CEO Sam Ulu said. “Meanwhile customers can get quality photos of those little moments that matter a lot.”
Think of the company a little bit like Airbnb, only for photographs. If you’re a photographer you can sign up for account and the site will help match you with somebody in the market for a photographer. Like Airbnb, these arrangements cut out the professionals – meaning customers can have (and probably afford) a photographer for all sorts of events not otherwise possible. Meanwhile, amateur photographers earn a couple of bucks doing what they love.
Not only is the company interesting, so too is how it found its way to Austin. To begin with, Ulu is originally from Nigeria, and came to the United States to study aerospace engineering.
“I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart even though I grew up in a culture where your parents advised you to either be a doctor, lawyer or an engineer,” Ulu said. “I knew I wanted to be a tech entrepreneur when I watched an interview between Mike Arrington & Soledad O’Brien where she asked him if he knew any “wildly” successful black entrepreneurs. He hesitated for a bit and said no.”
Upon graduating, Ulu had the opportunity to help build jet engines, but decided instead to build a tech company.
“I choose to do Kandid.ly because I saw an opportunity to build something that provided tangible value while transforming the way we did something as fundamental as how our special moments get captured,” Ulu said.
The company itself was actually founded in Cincinnati last August, but Ulu found the city wasn’t the fertile startup breeding ground he needed. Instead he moved to Austin, where he says there are more resources, talent and mentorship opportunities.
“I came to Austin to build the dream team. Simple,” Ulu said.
The move appears to have paid off, and Ulu says the company is growing by 35 percent month-to-month. The service is currently available in five markets (Austin, Denver, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Detroit), but there plans for large-scale expansion in the near term.
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