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Aircam: Capturing Moments in Time, The Smart Way!

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A picture speaks a thousand words. No one knows this better than Evan and Ryan Rifkin, two brothers fascinated with the power of capturing the most memorable moments on camera.

Be it a wedding, a black-tie event, a party, or a birthday celebration, Evan and Ryan made it their mission to help photographers and their fans take or gather physical memorabilia all through one dedicated platform - Aircam!

When Aircam was first born, the world of photography seemed oversaturated with platforms that were all alike. Yet, Evan and Ryan took it upon themselves to distinguish the platform from others of its kind.

Aiming to spark up the user's creativity and individuality in taking photos, Aircam offers a high-tech solution to photographers for editing photos on the spot and safely storing them in an online gallery.

Although initially met with suspicion, Evan and Ryan's Aircam provides a whole new direction in accessing, managing, and organizing photos. As a result, their platform has landed among the most successful and distinguishable yet!

Read the full story of two brothers sharing one groundbreaking photographic dream here:

The Two Brothers

When people ask what it takes to build a successful business, a plethora of advice is bound to pop up. For some, it is all about finding the right idea and putting in the blood, sweat, and tears until the fruits of labor are ready to harvest. For others, however, the essence of great business-ing is having faith in oneself, never giving up on your dreams, and making peace with the fact that the race to the top is a marathon - not a sprint.

For brothers Ryan and Evan Rifkin, building something worthwhile was all about the experience, and not just the academic kind.

They did not feel the need to immerse themselves in endless studies or waste time building the experience for the job. Instead, the brothers felt confident enough to dive into entrepreneurial waters and come back stronger on the other side of the shore.

In fact, Evan and Ryan wasted no time in launching their first start-up company. Their entrepreneurial hats were on soon after finishing their studies at the University of Southern California.

With a Bachelor's degree in science and entrepreneurship, Evan felt born-ready to put his skills into practice, while Ryan's Bachelor of Arts degree became a complimentary enhancement in setting the foundations of their joint mission.

Entering the Start-Up World

2005 was a time when people massively relied on Blogger, Flickr, and Del.icio.us to discover new sites, dig up new blog content, and share both among their peers.

As Evan was largely using these sites, he birthed an idea to create an integrated offering similar to MySpace's social networking concept.

But, what did the market need that existing sites didn't yet offer? Blogging at the time, for instance, did not allow photo uploads without previously logging in to Flickr or any related site. As people couldn't discover new sites to blog about and share, Flickr became less than an ideal sharing option, so everyone turned to use del.icio.us instead.

Keeping an eye on website offerings that users valued the most, Evan Rifkin, alongside Fred Krueger collaborated together to develop the initial platform idea. In 2005, they got busy working on their first project called Tagworld.

It all began with a blogging platform that enabled its users to form interactive communities on their affiliations. To stand out, Tagworld began allowing easy drag-and-drop posts, pictures, maps, and every other visual available - all through using a technique for creating faster and more interactive web applications called Ajax interface. As a result, the platform allowed users to modify their own blogs while obtaining total control over their HTML.

By the end of 2006, Tagworld had gathered three million registered users.

Even so, Tagworld soon began facing an array of problems. For reasons unknown, or assumed technical, the Tagworld management page was removed. Other speculations indicated the company had been also experiencing a financial crisis and witnessed a significant drop in Comscore numbers, which cornered the founders to ultimately give it up to Viacom.

Once Evan realized he could only do business with his brother, he and Ryan held no grudges against each other regarding Tagworld and instead gathered up the courage to start over and come back to the market stronger.

The Birth of Burstly

Back in 2008, Apple was booming and it got the attention of young entrepreneurs globally, most of whom were left impressed by the arrival of iPhones, as well as Apple's smart apps.

For Evan and Ryan, however, Apple's growth set the basis for smart entrepreneurship done even more intricately than their greatest competitor.

After hours of brainstorming, the brothers concluded that app developers couldn't take advantage of their own inventory. Furthermore, they also noted the importance of using a single product to promote a second one, a chain tactic used by owners to sell their apps more productivity. Among all findings, the brothers took special note of the fact that many companies needed to track their own cross-promotions - from clicks to downloads - thus assessing their debts to other marketers.

Contemplating the idea was one thing, but even with it, something was missing in the picture. Once Ryan and Evan noticed the market was short on a platform that could help developers manage their inventory and track in-app purchases, their new mission commenced.

In early 2009, the brothers made it their primary focus to aid app developers in making the most of their used ads, a project that soon led to the launch of a designated platform, called Burstly.

To get on the right track, Burstly raised its first $1.8 million by Rincon Venture Partners. A year later, the company welcomed another $5.5 million in funding, mainly intended for in-app ad management.

As Burstly took off, Evan and Ryan decided to acquire yet another company for beta testing of apps. In 2011, they acquired TestFlight, a free-to-use platform dependent on Bustry's profitable tactics that helped apps monetize their actions. Even with a solid platform at hand, the brothers felt there was something bigger to achieve.

Interestingly, Burstly was acquired by Apple in 2014, which only testified the brother's proper and fruitful course of action thus far.

Before they launched their final venture, Ryan and Evan decided to first take some time to learn from the best, and therefore, joined the Apple team!

The Latest Venture

Selling a company to Apple is a privilege unattributed to many entrepreneurs worldwide.

While working for the greatest of all time felt like a privilege for many, for Ryan and Evan, it simply meant still working for someone else's benefit.

Hungry for the right kind of vision, the brothers left nothing to chance and soon began brainstorming promising venture ideas.

Can you send me that photo?

Although a simple question to ask, for the brothers it turned out to be crucial and detrimental. Inspired by the power of photos and their smart management, the brothers created Aircam, a platform specializing, above everything else, in photo sharing.

Ever since its inception, Aircam has enabled guests at different events to access high-quality photos as soon as they were taken.

The platform, as intended, allowed guests and photographers to automatically edit their photos. They are also able to share them with others at that very go.

As veteran start-up founders, Evan and Ryan knew that finding the proper investors was crucial. This would help build the perfect business team to help place the platform on the market.

In November, 2019, and many sleepless nights later, their idea was finally conceptualized with $6.5 million in funding, led by Upfront Ventures.

As Aircam began spreading virally, it became clear to the founders that a tech evolution was inevitable to happen. With thousands of events taking place daily and even more photos taken at these events, users could now access, edit, and store them in any way they chose.

As the demand for high-quality photographers grew, so did the brothers' realization that Aircam simply had no choice but to evolve into an on-demand photographer platform.

Once the practice was implemented, Aircam witnessed both more users and far greater revenue. This was all thanks to the groundbreaking 85% presence of photographers on the platform. In terms of finding new work, Evan Rifkin noted that the company has allowed photographers to offer Aircam as a package service in their customer offer, with the company charging $50 per event. Not just that, but Aircam has launched its marketplace as well, down in Southern California, and offers clients to book a photographer for $99 per hour and enjoy Aircam's service as part of the deal.

Photographers love Aircam for a variety of obvious reasons. Its practicality of use, smart design, and superb efficiency are some of them. But above all, photographers have fallen head over heels with the platform due to its facilitated ways, especially in editing, managing and storing photos online.

Aircam, Today

Aircam's headquarters are based in Santa Monica, whilst their events take place all over the US. The company also expanded to other main cities in the country, including San Francisco and Las Vegas. As of late, the company initiated a plan to collaborate with a variety of influencer campaigns, as well as sporting events, parties, public happenings and wedding celebrations. Today, Aircam has become a $10 billion worth service platform, and this number only continues to grow.

Through enhancing the visual quality and photo accessibility online, Ryan and Evan's mission in creating Aircam combines the nuts and bolts of online sharing, ultimately delivering outstanding photographic experiences for top-event attendees worldwide.