PicMonkey
 | |
 | |
| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
Type of site | Image editing service |
| Available in | English |
| Founded | Seattle, Washington, USA (2012) |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington United States |
| Key people | Frits Habermann CEO,[1] Jonathan Sposato, Brian Terry, Justin Huff, Charlie Whiton, Lisa Conquergood |
| Industry | Internet, computer software |
| URL | www |
| Advertising | yes |
| Registration | yes |
| Launched | 2012-03-01 |
| Current status | active |
PicMonkey is an online photo editing and design service. It can be accessed from a web browser, or through the PicMonkey mobile app. PicMonkey's mission is to empower everyday creatives to communicate visually. It is headquartered in downtown Seattle, Washington.
PicMonkey uses a freemium business model, offering ad-supported free features as well as a set of premium features. "Premium" and "Supremium" are available for a subscription fee, on an annual or monthly basis. PicMonkey has basic photo editing features (Crop, Brightness, Contrast) in addition to more advanced features like Curves, Touch Up, Design, and Collage. PicMonkey also offers template designs for business cards, greeting cards, event invitations, posters, and more.
PicMonkey’s service is cloud-based, allowing users to upload photos from their computer and services like Facebook, Flickr, and Dropbox. Individuals can then save their images and designs in PicMonkey's cloud storage, called "Hub". Users can save images to desktop, and can also share to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr.
PicMonkey has an open API for developers to integrate them directly into a website. Some current API partners include Facebook[2] and SmugMug.[3] PicMonkey’s affiliate partner is ShareaSale.
PicMonkey was recognized as a Top 100 Website in 2013 by PC Magazine,[4] listed as hosting one of the Best April Fools’ Pranks of 2014 by TIME Magazine,[5] and recognized as one of the most affordable online services for startups.[6]
History
PicMonkey was founded in 2012 by former Picnik employees Brian Terry, Justin Huff, Jonathan Sposato, Charlie Whiton, Charlie Whiton, and Lisa Conquergood.[7] Google acquired the popular photo editor Picnik in 2010, but shut it down in April 2012 to focus on core products.[8] Because millions of users no longer had access to Picnik, Terry, Huff, Sposato and others saw an opportunity to create a new company, PicMonkey.[7] PicMonkey continued with the goal of creating a “fast and lightweight” photo editing experience.[9]
By February 2014 PicMonkey had become profitable, and had grown to over 13 million unique monthly user's.[10] Then, in July 2015, PicMonkey received an investment of $41 million from the growth equity firm Spectrum Equity.[11]
On September 2, 2015, Frits Habermann joined PicMonkey as Chief Technology Officer. Habermann had formerly worked as vice president of core technologies at Adobe, and as the CTO of PopCap Games.[12] Brent Chudoba joined PicMonkey in April 2016, after working at Survey Monkey Chief Revenue Officer, where he helped the company grow from twelve employees to over 700.[13]
In 2017, Frits Habermann was appointed as the new PicMonkey CEO. Former CEO Jonathan Sposato continued on the PicMonkey board of directors as the chairman.
References
- ^ McGrane, Clare "Tech Moves: REI CIO named CTO at Lululemon; PicMonkey CEO hands reins to new leader; and more", GeekWire,15 May 2017.
- ^ "PicMonkey Facebook App"
- ^ "Eye-Gasmic Photo Editing with PicMonkey" 20 April 2012
- ^ "The Top 100 Websites of 2013" PC Magazine 2 January 2014.
- ^ "The Best April Fools' Pranks of 2014" TIME Magazine 1 April 2014.
- ^ "Affordable online services for startups" 1 April 2014.
- ^ a b "From Picnik to PicMonkey: How these entrepreneurs rebuilt one of Seattle's hottest startups". GeekWire. 2014-02-20. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
- ^ "The Picnik is over: Google plans to shutter popular photo editing service, other products". GeekWire. 2012-01-20. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
- ^ "With Picnik set to shut down, former Picnik engineers scratch itch with PicMonkey". GeekWire. 2012-04-17. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
- ^ "From Picnik to PicMonkey: How these entrepreneurs rebuilt one of Seattle's hottest startups". GeekWire. 2014-02-20. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
- ^ "Photo editing startup PicMonkey lands $41M from Bay Area-based Spectrum Equity". GeekWire. 2015-07-30. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
- ^ "PicMonkey appoints Adobe InDesign co-founder as VP and chief technical officer". GeekWire. 2015-09-17. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
- ^ "Why this SurveyMonkey exec left the Bay Area for a fast-growing Seattle startup". GeekWire. 2016-04-15. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
