When Mikael Cho started Unsplash from its small beginning as a Tumblr blog and side project, he had no idea it would have such a huge impact and ultimately disrupt the photography industry. In this episode, Mikael shares the backstory of Unsplash, how it got started, keeping things focused, levers of growth, flipping the marketing funnel, turning free into a business, raising $7.25 million to build a new economy for photography, and the impact of an API.

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Featuring:

Mikael Cho – Website, X
Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

unsplash.com
crew.co (a Dribbble thing)
We just sold Crew to Dribbble
How side projects saved our startup
We just raised $7.25 million for Unsplash to build a new economy around photography.
OST Invests in Unsplash — to Create the new Currency for Photography — $OST @Unsplash
The future of photography and Unsplash
The Unsplash API is now open & free
The official Unsplash API
Mikael’s Twitter thread on ‘Flipping the funnel’
Ben Chestnut (CEO and Co-founder of MailChimp) — ‘Why I hate funnels’
Zack Arias’s thoughts on Unsplash
Zack Arias’s interview with Mikael Cho on Unsplash
Mikael’s profile on Unsplash
Tag stuff on Unsplash
Unsplash Store

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

From side project to $7.25M for Unsplash 01:20:46 Share

Founders Talk: Startups, CEOs, Leadership

Shownotes Transcript

From side project to $7.25M for Unsplash