Twilio Startup Labs Founder Spotlight: Sára Volom, Gábor Böheim, and Dániel Csala, Photon

Twilio Startup Labs Founder Spotlight: Sára Volom, Gábor Böheim, and Dániel Csala, Photon

Company Name: Photon
Founder Name(s): Sára Volom, Gábor Böheim, and Dániel Csala
LinkedIn: Photon Company Page
Industry: Photography
Stage / Funding: Seed-Stage (€488,000)
Location: Hungary (+Austria +Germany)

This is a post in a series of interviews with startup founders who have worked with Twilio Startup Labs, a program for developers at early-stage startups to learn how to build, prototype, and demo on Twilio. We had the pleasure of working with Sára Volom, Gábor Böheim & Dániel Csala, Photon. 

Describe your company (Startup) journey in 160 characters or less (the original length of a text message)

Photon: Fully managed delivery of on-demand visuals at scale.

Journey: Founded in 2017, Photon helps photographers to find clients. After a pivot last autumn, rapid growth ensued. Now managing workflows, including AI post-processing, and expanding to multiple countries.

Why did you start your company?

[Sára Volom] Since I started freelancing as a photographer at the age of 16, I've seen firsthand the struggles both clients and photographers go through. That's when I got this idea for a platform that would make it super easy for anyone to find visual professionals.

How are you building on Twilio? E.g., How do you use email, SMS, WhatsApp, Verify, etc. to communicate with your customers?

We use Twilio SendGrid to send system notifications via email to our users.

What has the benefit or commercial impact been for your business since using Twilio?

This service enables us to communicate efficiently important updates, alerts, and other relevant information to enhance the user experience. Implementing this solution significantly reduced the workload for account managers.

By building on Twilio, what has the impact been for your customers?

Twilio SendGrid has greatly improved our customer communication. Our clients now feel well-informed, and our streamlined processes have significantly reduced their inquiries compared to before.

Are there any future Twilio Products that you plan to integrate into your startup and if so why?

Considering our user behaviour, we are contemplating the adoption of Twilio SMS or WhatsApp solution as many of our users prefer checking phone messages over emails.

Have you enjoyed Twilio Startup Labs? And if so, why?

We had a highly enjoyable and productive experience with Twilio Startup Labs, which proved instrumental in optimizing our use of SendGrid. The valuable insights and guidance received during the program allowed us to harness the full potential of SendGrid, leading to enhanced efficiency and effectiveness in our communication strategies. We are immensely grateful for the support and knowledge gained through this enriching journey with Twilio Startup Labs.

What is the best piece of advice you would give to founders who are looking to build on Twilio?

Explore the vast world of Twilio, offering solutions for numerous use cases. Unlock its full potential by gaining a deep understanding of its capabilities.

What excites you most about being a founder?

Every day feels like landing on the moon, venturing into uncharted territory, exploring, and creating. With Photon, we illuminate businesses in ways never seen before!

Thank you for reading. If you would like to read more Twilio Startup Labs Founder Spotlight interviews and learn how others build, prototype, and demo on Twilio, please check out the series of articles here.

For questions about Twilio Startup Labs or to learn how to get involved, please contact Frank Y. Owusu at fyawowusu@twilio.com. 

To find out more about how Twilio supports Startups, check out Grow with Twilio.