Crowdsource Your Photos With FocalPop

Just before the turn of the New Year, an Austin up-and-comer, FocalPop, announced the launch of their site focalpop.com – a new online marketplace where photo seekers can solicit the shots they want, and photographers answer by offering up their best interpretation.

The company serves to unite photographers and photo buyers on their admittingly easy to navigate site. The business model is even rather simple – image seekers create a request describing the photo they need, photographers then upload shots that meet that request, and then the seeker selects the winning photo and pays them accordingly. Simple supply and demand.

Right out of beta, the site had over 2,000 visitors from 63 countries and helped fulfill user’s requests for photos like “Lonely Guitar,” “Greasy Plate of Food,” and “Happy Dog.”

The photo industry has seen rapid change over the past few years and this is yet another fresh approach to crowdsourcing and reverse-auctioning the photo commissioning process.

Photographers interested in using the site can receive “a minimum of 70% commissions on photo sales.” Although, the site seems very enterprise oriented, any photographer with any style could potentially drop their name in the hat.

Brian Romanko and Becky Parker conceived FocalPop during their MBA program at the McCombs School of Business.

For more information check out focalpop.com or follow them on Twitter.

Posted by John Robert Reed "John Robert" Reed writes the Dis-Cord column for Austin Startup covering everything from emerging mobile trends to on-the-go consumer-oriented technologies. He has special interests in the rapid evolution of the world around us as heavily influenced by augmented reality, mobile technologies, artificial intelligence, and the pursuit of the perfect UI/UX. When not perusing the Web, John Robert enjoys absorbing the live music scene, playing beach volleyball, swimming at Barton Springs, and exploring Austin’s wonderful cache of most excellent record stores. John Robert is a PR hacker by day and works with a highly skilled team to bring early-stage technology companies to market. To read more posts click here.