My title is Director of Communications, but I do quite a bit more than PR. With our team, everyone wears multiple hats, so to speak. My day-to-day role is more closely tied to brand work, marketing, community engagement, and of course, PR. Then, there\u2019s Snap<\/strong> magazine, of which I\u2019m Editor in Chief. So yeah, kind of a full plate, but I love how I\u2019m able to touch so many different parts of the business.<\/p>\n What\u2019s also super cool about\u00a0Hipstamatic<\/strong>\u00a0and my role here is that we are truly supported by such an incredibly awesome community. So many creative, talented people have embraced\u00a0Hipstamatic<\/strong>\u00a0in ways we never thought possible, and I get to work with them quite a bit.<\/p>\n Before Hipstamatic<\/strong>, I was working at big PR agencies, Edelman and Ogilvy. I\u2019d always known that I wanted to work with a start-up and it kind of happened serendipitously. I basically got pulled into a new business meeting of which Lucas was a part. We had some prior interaction because of an old client of mine, but we never met in person.<\/p>\n Once we met, we ended up hitting it off. We grabbed coffee one day, and he ended up asking if I would come and join their team. I was already a huge fan of Hipstamatic<\/strong> and was using it in my own life \u2014 I really loved the product. So I was more than happy to come and join \"my boys\" \u2014 that\u2019s what I call the five of them. It\u2019s been an awesome ride ever since. I join the team a little under 2 years ago. Time flies!<\/p>\n ngg_shortcode_1_placeholder<\/p>\n When challenges like that happen, it\u2019s always important to ask the question \u2014 what we can do to make sure this never happens again; and how can we make sure that people understand that we heard their grievances? How do we acknowledge the frustration and help them understand that we will do better next time? I\u2019d like to think we did a pretty good job in how we handled that situation, and the following month we released free gear. We also put a system in place to make sure we don\u2019t have any timing issues in the future.<\/p>\n So yeah, it\u2019s always difficult when we feel that our community has been disappointed, but then through that challenge, I often get to forge new relationships with the community. Which in the end, is a total positive. And, as a company, we get to learn how to improve.<\/p>\n ngg_shortcode_2_placeholder<\/p>\n We submitted it to Apple as we normally do, with the same amount of time allotted for approval. The Paks are usually approved very quickly, but for some reason, Apple did not approve it in time.<\/p>\n In the meantime, we\u2019d been working on another Hipstamatic Classic<\/strong> update, and submitted that a short time later. Apple ended up approving both the Brighton and the new update at the same time, which was very odd to us since the Brighton Pak had already been submitted long before.\u00a0We\u2019re still not entirely clear on what happened on Apple\u2019s end. That\u2019s never happened to us before, so we were just as perplexed as the community!<\/p>\n ngg_shortcode_3_placeholderIn general, most people were really patient, but there was definitely some confusion as to why it was released on Oggl<\/strong> before it was released on Hipstamatic<\/strong>. Once you\u2019ve subscribed to Oggl<\/strong>, that transaction has already happened in the App Store. And once it\u2019s done, it\u2019s over and paid for, so we\u2019re able to release Paks immediately to those people. With Hipstamatic Classic<\/strong>, it\u2019s a little bit different because those are all one-off, in-app purchases in the App Store. Anytime there\u2019s an in-app purchase, Apple is involved and has to approve that. So, that was the big hold-up. With Oggl<\/strong>, the purchase \u2014 the subscription \u2014 already happened, so the gear becomes a download that we can immediately release in the app.<\/p>\n That being said, we knew that our community was very frustrated, so we figured out a creative solution to make sure that that doesn\u2019t happen again. Then we gave away a FreePak this past month, to thank people for their patience, because, at the risk of repeating myself, we are a community-based product. We\u2019re very grateful to have such a supportive community that sticks with us. Few companies, especially startups, can say that.<\/p>\n Right now we\u2019re on a pretty good schedule. However, for example, what you\u2019re referring to, is if a film or a lens is released only on Oggl<\/strong> one month, and then it becomes a HipstaPak in Hipstamatic Classic<\/strong> at a later date.<\/p>\n That\u2019s definitely a possibility, so I don\u2019t want to rule that out. Currently, we\u2019re still figuring out the rhythm of what works best for the community. What we\u2019ve been doing has been working well so far, but there may be some experimenting along the way! We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n ngg_shortcode_4_placeholder<\/p>\n A HipstaPak<\/strong> is the general name for a lens and a film \u2014 and sometimes a flash \u2014 that can be used in any kind of setting. A FreePak<\/strong> is a Pak we give away because we love you guys\u2026 it\u2019s a thank you for being awesome! A GoodPak<\/strong> is for charity, a SnapPak<\/strong> is developed specifically for particular photography situations, for instance portraits or food shots. A RetroPak<\/strong> is when we bundle all of our retired gear together and make it available again. We release RetroPaks<\/strong> every so often, so people have to stay tuned to see when that happens!<\/p>\n ngg_shortcode_5_placeholderWe certainly do, but it\u2019s interesting to see how times are changing. It was definitely a more prevalent argument when iPhone photography was first becoming popular, when Hipstamatic<\/strong> first came out. But now, here we are, it\u2019s 2013 almost 2014, and the medium is maturing. We\u2019ve come a long from the time when, for example, we developed the Jimmy<\/strong>. The Jimmy<\/strong> lens was designed to make photos even blurrier so that it looked more artistic, of course, but also the quality was really poor. There has since been incredible leaps in the hardware world. So, now you have all this powerful, handheld hardware, and really talented photographers who shoot exclusively with an iPhone.<\/p>\n It really boils down to who is taking the picture. If Annie Leibovitz<\/strong> takes a picture with her iPhone, does that mean she\u2019s any less of photographer? Absolutely not, it\u2019s just her tool of choice for that moment. Now you have people like Ben Lowy<\/strong>, who\u2019s an amazing Hipstamatic<\/strong> photographer; his Hipstamatic photograph made the cover of Time Magazine, I mean, that is huge! When that happened, I was really proud of Ben and of our entire community. It made me proud to work for Hipstamatic<\/strong>, because these guys have created something that has completely changed the course of photography. And of course, I\u2019m biased, but I really think we have the most talented photography community in the world. So much creativity.<\/p>\n Snap<\/strong> magazine is definitely surpassing any expectations we could have had. Again, going back to how talented our community is, we wanted to give them a more beautiful, cohesive platform to showcase their work. Yes, we were posting on Facebook and Tumblr and Twitter, but the life of a tweet or a Facebook post is at most 24 hours and then it kind of disappears into the internet abyss. We wanted something to better commemorate and archive their work, because we know how much effort goes into nailing some of the shots we receive. Because Snap<\/strong> has done so well, it\u2019s become an even bigger part of what we do. And we usually hover around the number one spot of all photography magazines in the App Store, which is exciting for us. We\u2019re over 400,000 right now, and it\u2019s growing every month.<\/p>\n ngg_shortcode_6_placeholder<\/p>\n I actually like the G2<\/strong> with the Blackeys Extra Fine<\/strong> for Black and White. As far as colour goes, I really like Mabel<\/strong> and Dixie<\/strong> a lot. I love the feathering round the edges.<\/p>\n I\u2019m also a huge fan of the Pop Rox<\/strong> Flash with the Wonder<\/strong> lens. It works well in low-light situations. I use it a lot when I\u2019m at concerts and out with my girls!<\/p>\n On a daily basis, I shoot with Oggl<\/strong> now. Although, sometimes I still snap with Hipstamatic Classic<\/strong> because I still love the whole idea around the plastic toy camera experience.<\/p>\n ngg_shortcode_7_placeholder<\/p>\n Photos:\u00a0Molli Sullivan\u00a0<\/strong>[button color=\"black\" link=\"http:\/\/oggl.me\/molli\/\"]Oggl[\/button]<\/p>\n Previous meetings:\u00a0Lucas Buick<\/a><\/span>\u00a0-\u00a0Ryan Dorshorst<\/a><\/span>\u00a0-\u00a0\u00a0Aravind Kaimal<\/a><\/span>\u00a0- Mario Estrada<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nWhat is your professional background?<\/h4>\n
Some people get really upset when they have issues with Hipstamatic, like when the Brighton Pak (the Pak was released on Oggl and 2 weeks later on Hipstamatic Classic) came out\u2026 How do you deal with these kinds of reactions?<\/h4>\n
So what really happened with the Brighton Pak?<\/h4>\n
With Oggl, the plan is to release new gear every month. You haven\u2019t promised anything similar with Hipstamatic. In other words, is there the possibility of, for instance, a new filter for Oggl one month, and nothing for Hipstamatic that same month?<\/h4>\n
There are different Paks: Hipstapak, Freepak, Snappak... What are the differences between them?<\/h4>\n
Do you sometimes encounter negativity from the \"photography world\" with Hipstamatic, in that people think you\u2019re not a \"real photographer\" because you use an iPhone to take pictures?<\/h4>\n
Where do you see the place of Snap magazine?<\/h4>\n
What are your favorite lens, film, flash and combo?<\/h4>\n
Oggl or Hipstamatic?<\/h4>\n