Finding our DNA šŖ
At Pops weāve made a long long road before knowing who we truly areā¦ But we know it now! We are a technology and printing company.
From mobile app to technology and printing
We are three founders coming from the world of mobile apps. This is what we were good at. āFirst letās make a great mobile app and thenā¦ā. This is not the best thing to do but as long as youāre going forward this is not the worst š.
March 2016 : we raise $1M with Kima Ventures (š Jean de La Rochebrochard) and great Business Angels to create an iconic photography product for our generation. Our vision is clear: the future of photography is in motion. Letās be the future of photography.
March 2016 ā September 2016 : we hire iOS Software Engineers to develop a breathtaking digital format. After 3 months of hard work, Pops camera captures high-resolution animated photos at 60 frames per second with an interactive preview.
Summer 2016 : we get in touch with lenticular printing labs in the United States and in Europe to start working on the very first Live Print prototype.
September 2016 : we hold the first Live Print prototype in our handsā¦ Oh my god this is huge. I can see on paper and in motion my cofounder Paul-Antoine Campos hiding behind his newspaper. Whatās the cost of this print? $500ā¦ We are still very far away from industrializing the process but at least we know the direction to the moon š.
August 2016 ā March 2017 : we hire Back-end Software Engineers to automatize the image treatment for our lenticular partners. Very very long jobā¦ Before us it took hours to have a proper lenticular file to print. Thanks to our software, you can turn any short video into a ready-to-print lenticular file in less thanā¦ 15 seconds! The moon gets closer and closer!
We come to a point where you have:
- on one side booming digital animated formats (Live Photos, Boomerang, etc.). Meaning a gigantic amount of short videos locked inside usersā smartphonesā¦
- on the other side, us (Pops) the only company able to turn any of these files into animated prints
March 22nd, 2017 : we are about to release the iconic photography product we have been dreaming of for monthsā¦ But we get a warning from our advisors : our software has to be protected. We reschedule the release of the app to file a patent for our software, a major asset for the future of photography industry.
April 2017 : we release our iOS app with a camera and a shop (beta) to order the very first Live Prints. Our users are able to print their Instagramās Boomerangs and the animated photos taken from our high-resolution camera. Our early adopters community loves Pops. We are highly rated on the App Storeā¦ and people start comparing Live Prints to Harry Potterās pictures. The magic works!
May 2017 : I receive a call from a huge global brand asking me if we are able to make Instant Live Prints of their guests during events. āHumā¦ It could be done if you have enough room for a Boeing 747 at your party šā. Indeed lenticular technology requires very high accuracy and therefore the machines used to print on lenticular paper are at least 16-feet longā¦ Impossible to use for an event! The day after, I receive another call from a brand with the same requestā¦ For days and days I receive the same requests, each time from different companies.
Sounds like we have a requested product here! Good news but what can we do about it? Thanks to our software we are the only one able to make Instant Live Prints but we still have a āsizeā issue when it comes to the printerā¦
July 2017 : We update the app. Our users can now print their Apple Live Photos on Pops. We print the two most popular formats of animated photos!
Summer 2017 : With our beloved COO Xavier Waquet and a team of lenticular experts we find a way to miniaturize lenticular printing šŖ Bingo! We start prototyping Pops Live, the very first photo booth for eventsā¦
Within 18 months, we moved from a mobile app to a technology and printing company. We finally found our DNA!
During 18 months we hired a team of 10 brilliant people and dug more than no one before into lenticular printing technologies and motion. This was just made to fuel our app but one day we realized how bigger it could be. Our true value relied on Live Prints. We figured it out very late: we became a technology and printing company without wanting it, without even knowing it.
A Magician never reveals his tricks š©
We spent so much time thinking about our product and trying to find the best wow effect that we forgot how we should talk about it. I realized that telling people youāre filing patents on lenticular printing is not the best way to catch their attentionā¦ š“
Itās another story when you show directly a Live Print to someone. Youāll see him/her smiling at once. I observe carefully the look of people seeing a Live Print for the first time. They all have this childish look trying to understand the magic behind. This makes me understand we created something bigā¦ with a true emotional impact. This is what we do, we create new ways to keep memories.
Today you can print Boomerang and Live Photos on Pops. Soon youāll print your Snapchat morphing videos. Before the end of the year, youāll go to events where youāll find Pops Live to make your first Instant Live Prints! We have so much more in mind š Stay tuned.
