The Imagen Origin Story

[00:00:00] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Welcome to workflows presented by ImagenAI. Workflows is a podcast about saving you time and money in your photography business here from people just like you put down that camera for little connect the headphones and get to work with workflows. Welcome to episode one of workflow is presented by ImagenAI. [00:00:24] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: My name is Scott Wyden Kivowitz and I am the content and community manager here at ImagenAI, I'm very excited about this podcast and this is episode one, but we thought we'd do something special before we dive into very workflow specific topics for future episodes. And that is share the origin story for how this company, this service, this product came to be. [00:00:49] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I think that when you hear this story, not only will you relate as a photographer, but I think even more so you'll understand what your clients are going through and how it all ties in together. So with that, I'd like to introduce you to three guys, my bosses and friends Ron, Yotam, and Yoav, the founders of ImagenAI. [00:01:12] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And they're going to share the origin story of how this company came in. So without further ado, let's dive in to the story. So this is episode one of our new podcast. So this is very exciting and we're going to just dive into sort of introduction of imagination to everybody who has never heard of us or those who have heard of us, whoever using us, using the software, trying the software and give them a backstory about. [00:01:44] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Why this exists and, you know, just, just the whole origin story, because it really is a fascinating story that I feel like, yes, it's been told before, but I feel like we need to reintroduce this origin story to everybody because of how real it's such a real scenario. Like it really is a real, a real thing. [00:02:08] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So I think it's a very exciting thing to share. So, Once upon a time. How long ago? How long ago was it a Yoav that that, that you got married and what started this whole process? [00:02:21] Yoav Chai: Yeah, it was like July a bit more than a few years ago. [00:02:25] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Three years ago. Wow. Okay, so, so three years ago, you. And your wife are getting married and you hired a photographer who was the photographer? [00:02:37] Yoav Chai: His name is [00:02:39] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: and he's an Israeli photographer, wedding photographer does amazing work. And if you've been looking at the ImagenAI eye website, you've probably seen his work around. And if you've watched some of the videos that we've done, you've seen his work in some of those as well. [00:02:53] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Okay. So. So you get married and what happens next? What, what, what, what happened that that basically S you know, got this all rolling. [00:03:05] Yoav Chai: Yeah. Yeah. So, so you mainly waiting, like, we went to broad, we was like on a honeymoon, we were like a month abroad. We go out back and we were waiting. I guess two and a half, three months after then you finally get that, like the course said that it's ready [00:03:26] Yoav Chai: in the meantime, your wife saying like, why are we not getting it? Like, why does it take so long? [00:03:33] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. And this is such a, this is, this is such a common issue all around the world where. We're photographers are, are taking a while to get their work back to their clients. And so I'm in the United States and we celebrate Thanksgiving in November and I'm at the Thanksgiving table and our friends who joined us where we're saying that it's been three months since, since they got married, they got married during the. [00:04:06] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: They did a church, a small church wedding, which I actually photographed for them. That was a very, you know, basically it was immediate family and and the bridal party basically in in this giant church where everybody had to wear masks. And so I photographed that for them. And then they hired an actual wedding photographer to photograph their big wedding celebration, which, you know, with all their guests and. [00:04:29] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Three months following the big wedding celebration, they still have not received their wedding photos. And so this is this is a very common occurrence. So it's now two, three months after your wedding, you finally got your photos and then what. [00:04:48] Yoav Chai: So, so, my wife, girlfriend, my wife friend got married like a bit more than three months after our, our wedding with the same photographers. [00:04:58] Yoav Chai: So, so we go to our, even just some then like one or two weeks after I met the same photographer again. In another wedding. And I was start talking to him and his spending so much time on editing about 20 hours per wedding. It's like crazy these days. And I will start talking to them and ask him, why does it take so long? [00:05:25] Yoav Chai: Like, we know we have computers, we have AI, why we need 20 hours to edit the wedding. [00:05:32] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. And so you already had a background in AI at the time, correct? [00:05:36] Yoav Chai: Yeah, on the same time I did my master with computer vision and yeah. And exactly the same field. [00:05:44] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So, was it, was it at this point where you started building something with, basically for him on your own, or did you at that point partner up early that early. [00:05:58] Yoav Chai: So on that point, I, I started looking at the field. I, I checked online seeing that there's so many photographer having the same problem. I've joined some communities. And then I started to read some papers about that. There are some papers about it. And Adobe as a, as a day data set of examples of like 5,000 images, anything edited with the same photograph. [00:06:27] Yoav Chai: And I took the challenge academically. [00:06:31] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Nice, nice. So, so then you, you started building this out and you got to a point where there was like a working prototype basically at this point. So how did. Yo Tom and Ron come into this, into the play. How, how did it, how did this, where this relationship, you know, where did it come from and how did it all come together? [00:06:55] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: To build. You know, what, what we now know as ImagenAI, [00:06:59] Yoav Chai: Like I had like five photographers, so where we're using the very, very basic of the app that looks like it was created in, in the eighties and, and then time join and I let them take it from, from there. [00:07:18] Yotam Gil: So, I actually met you off at university with. [00:07:22] Yotam Gil: Done our research under the same supervisor at university. I was, I was also researching deep learning and computer vision, but on a different field, I was actually trying to understand how you can create a depth map, understand the depth of each object with only one camera while the, you usually do it today with two cameras. [00:07:46] Yotam Gil: So that was a different field. And I really wanted to you know, to build my own startup at this point. And I was going towards the end of my master degree. So it was starting to, you know, to think about ideas or to talk with friends about different ideas. And I actually wanted, I asked you to join me for a different ID. [00:08:12] Yotam Gil: And then he told me, listen, I already started that. It looks really promising. Why don't you join me? So. And I think it was around around February of 2020, and both you and I had kids born like two months later. So for me it was, you know, right at the same time, I mean, My baby was born. It was born in Canada. [00:08:40] Yotam Gil: So I had to travel to Canada. The pandemic started, so we had to, you know, flew to Canada while COVID is happening. We were waiting for the delayed. And while we were waiting I actually had my laptop, but I never ever screen. So we went out to Walmart, we bought screen and I started working on the, on the application. [00:09:01] Yotam Gil: And as you mentioned, it looked very entrant. So we initially started to build a gooey to look better, the graphical user interface and. And I think that dates, it took us about a few months more to get to something that looks a little bit better. And to start speaking, I think that at this point we were only speaking to Israeli photographers and all along the way, they kept saying how much time it saves. [00:09:34] Yotam Gil: So, you know, the user interface was not perfect at this point. But. The value of the product was showing right from the start. [00:09:44] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. The, the, the value outweighed the, the look and feel of it at the time. Yeah. Yeah. And, and sometimes, sometimes that's, you know, especially coming out of the gate, that's a, it's a better for it. [00:09:59] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Do you know, do what it does well then for it to look amazing. So this seems like there's a trend going on with, ImagenAI, where you travel somewhere and then you buy a screen. Definitely. [00:10:13] Yotam Gil: Definitely. I just like buying screen all over the world. [00:10:20] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That's so [00:10:21] Yotam Gil: funny. So what they did with the screener, I didn't give it a like, like out. [00:10:30] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, just leave it at the hotel for something to use. So, so now you guys have a product that's been thoroughly tested by a good amount of photographers. Do you know it's working well? You know, it's saving them a ton of time and you know, you're starting to make it look more beautiful and, and things like that. [00:10:57] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, [00:10:59] Ron Oren: I guess my, my angle is, is, is different than the technical angle. In that time I like, speaking with your thumb he's in Canada. You're telling me, I know each other forms by age six. So like we basically, you know, he is my best friend and now I'm used and, and my perspective is that you know, Yeah. [00:11:19] Ron Oren: Tommy's cherry gives me that he started something new and it's quite exciting. And he's keep telling me about this, you know? Product that, you know, using AI is sharing with me, that's, you know, top notch. And they're like it's really impressive and amazing. And, and he's starting to share more and more, you know, details and information and just, you know, doing a virtual beers. [00:11:43] Ron Oren: And then later on, when he came back to Israel, it was like a physical beers together. And we just like, you know, chill together and just talk about business. What is it what's going on here? I mean, what, what, what's the value? What the, you know, what is the product market fit and who are the users? [00:12:01] Ron Oren: And I'm coming, I'm coming from the product field I'm coming from design and product. And that's, for me, it was like, you know, I'm showing with him, that's, you know, you have something white to rare here going on. Devalue is key. Yeah, the product is solid. It's walking. The Fitbit are amazing. Like people raging and say, you know, this is saves a lot of time writing about it saves a lot of time. [00:12:28] Ron Oren: This is actually changing my life. And I'm, and I'm telling you, you know, as a friend that's coming from product and, and, and growth, basically, that's that. Like, you know, like, like, magic, that sounds like something that you should do, you know, develop evolve. And we, you know, discussion becoming more and more, I would say intense, and we are both getting more and more excited about it. [00:12:54] Ron Oren: And then, and then basically I met with you all your Tom and the story began, this is, this is as simple as that in a way. [00:13:02] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. What you were just describing with like that, that feeling of like, there's something, there's something here. That, especially in the photography industry where, you know, although photography has been around for, you know, a very long time it's not too often when there's something that's, as I said, such a big game changer in the photography industry. [00:13:24] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I mean, obviously going from film to digital, that was a big one where AI starts making its way into cameras, where with eye detection, that's a big one, you know, making portraits even sharper. You know, now we're talking about literally saving people time and money. With making very accurate edits like they do. [00:13:45] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: It's like, you know, it's, it's, it's brilliant. I mean, that's the best way to describe it. I would, [00:13:51] Ron Oren: I would also add to that, that it's, it's a great utilization of AI. That's something that is, that is not obvious at all. We are very proud that finally there is an AI that actually, you know, free up time and let you focus on things that you love and make you better. [00:14:08] Ron Oren: Basically life, you know, make your life better in many, many, many experts aspects and [00:14:15] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: perspectives. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a lot of the feedback we've seen at least, you know, actually today is one month that the day we're recording this, I've been with ImagenAI eye for a month. So that's a pretty cool so, so, you know, in my time, so far here, I've, I've noticed people saying time, saving money, saving money making as well, which that caught me off guard, but I totally makes sense. [00:14:40] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And then also the big, big one that comes up a lot is the mental health. And I feel like as much as the other three things are important. I feel like there's nothing better than being able to say us as a team are helping people's mental health. That's cool. That's real cool. Yeah. [00:15:00] Yotam Gil: Yeah. I agree. I agree. I mean, we, [00:15:03] Ron Oren: we are being like tons of like, like just emotional stories about, you know, how, how in this very stressful. [00:15:10] Ron Oren: I would say very busy year for everyone semi post COVID right here we are. We are still in the middle of COVID, but it's feels like that this summit was, was spatial in many ways in terms of business and growth and so on. And, and imagine the idea that. Was kind of a cue to all the care around in terms of time and productivity. [00:15:34] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Yeah. What, what might we expect soon or in the near future, maybe coming to ImagenAI that we can share today, like on the podcast, what, what can we share that's coming soon? [00:15:51] Yotam Gil: So we have a really Ambitious roadmap. I can say a lot of things and, you know, we, we really happy about the feedback that we get and about the requests that we get, because really point us points us in the right direction. [00:16:09] Yotam Gil: I mean, when we just started, as a said, so we had, I mean, you have any time to consider. They would have, you know, thousands of photographers that help us choose the right direction and the path that would save us the most time and to save them the most time. So, I can say that we got too many requests for, for things like local adjustments. [00:16:33] Yotam Gil: Things like supporting also capture one which, you know, larger is by far the, you know, the. Useful doing the in the industry, but a capture one is the second one, I guess. And many people are asking for capital one support. And we also have many things that we can't discuss right now, but you know, stay to. [00:16:58] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, can we, we can mention that there, that there's a redesigned coming, right? [00:17:02] Yotam Gil: Yeah, that's right. In terms of user experience. So we had, as you all mentioned, the first application was actually, it looked really bad, then we designed it to look better, but still very functional. So, you know, just seeing the different functions, we still have many things that are missing. [00:17:22] Yotam Gil: And now we're designing it from scratch with, you know, experts in the field, top experts, I would say. And they're actually helping us, you know, make it more intuitive and making it ready for the next step that. And hopefully everything is we want to including it will be there. [00:17:44] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I think now's a good time to invite everybody who's listening or watching this to the ImagenAI community. [00:17:51] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: We've just launched it a few weeks ago and we're ready at. Just shy of 1300 people photographers and the community. And thank you [00:18:03] Ron Oren: everyone. Thank you everyone. Seriously, this is, this is amazing Fiddler class. Like we are blown away from that, like [00:18:11] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: sure. Yeah. And, and by joining the community which is completely free, it's on Facebook. [00:18:17] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: It's like any other Facebook group, but you know, we're all about workflows there. So we're, we're, we're trying to. Keep the conversation going about workflows in a variety of different scenarios. But by being in the Facebook community, you're basically giving us direct feedback about where we should go in the future. [00:18:37] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: You know, there's going to be discussions about, about Brandt the, you know, the design. There's gonna be discussions about branding. That's going to be discussions. This would be beta access eventually for different things. You know, so there's a lot of. Fantastic opportunities for you. The listeners of this podcast, the viewers to get more involved and, and really help us make the software. [00:19:03] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Even better for you. And like for example, the capture one topic comes up a lot in the community. So, it's just a really good example of of how you guys can be involved. So with that you'll tell him y'all off and run. This has been episode one of our new podcast, so big celebration there. Is there anything you'd like to share with the listeners? [00:19:24] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: As we roll out of this episode, [00:19:27] Ron Oren: I will, I will maybe add that, you know, this product is built based. First of all, this is, this is where our value first product, the main thing that we are giving in mind that first of all, and above all the impact on the business and your time is huge. So we, we are investing a lot in the technology aspect and, and, and in the weeks to make sure that everything is. [00:19:53] Ron Oren: Seamless low touch to no touch and, and just walking. Great. And beside that we are, you know, the feedback that we are receiving is what fuel us. This is really what fuels us. And we, we, we ask clearly asking, like, keep sharing your feedback. This is what we are reading every moment. Every morning, we are discussing this at lunch. [00:20:16] Ron Oren: We are going to bed. When we think about these types of feedback, we really care about each one, each one that use ImagenAI and we want to make it the best as. We have the ability to, to build the perfect solution. So why not? Why not try to build the best solution out there. So this is our goal. [00:20:36] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yo, Tom y'all have anything you want to wrap up with? [00:20:39] Yotam Gil: No, I think I really agree with one. We really liked the communication with photographers, with anyone, you know, as any question about, you know, why don't you do that? How did they find the results? What are you going to do next? So just to keep communicating, I realized, I mean, the fact that we, our community is already like 1300 people. [00:21:06] Yotam Gil: Eh, after like two weeks, I think that this is amazing for me because I mean, I feel like photographers are really engaged. They really care about the products that they like, that they like. And this is really unique. I mean, this is really something that's unique and like I've been to like different industries and this is the first time I see that people are so engaged. [00:21:29] Yotam Gil: Into the community. So this is really cool and this is really helpful for us. So continue with that. Yeah. [00:21:39] Ron Oren: I, I, I really should have one maybe final thing we have growing fast. Our team is growing fast. So this is also a shout out to the community. If you want to be, get involved with ImagenAI and feel free to contact them. [00:21:51] Ron Oren: Feel free to share your thoughts, feel free to show yourself and just, you know, get in touch. We have grown first and worldwide and this is there an opportunity to join the momentum, join the, join the revolution. Yep. [00:22:05] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Great. We'll actually going to have a post about that in fact, in the community very, very soon too about different opportunities here at ImagenAI for photographers in the community who want to get more involved. [00:22:15] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So stay on the line. Inside the ImagenAI community for that. So thank you guys for coming on. I hope that that everybody who's listening to this, understand that what we are offering this, the product, the service, it came from a real world scenario like WIC. It was, it was birth from. An actual story of their exact reason that we're solving the problem that we had basically that y'all have had, and that we've seen countless times, that's the problem with solving. [00:22:55] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And I think it's it's also a rare thing to see software and services come out that actually came from a personal place. Right. So, it's a beautiful thing. So thank you guys for for hopping on with me for this first episode. I can't wait to get this out there and to get out the next episodes. [00:23:17] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And that's it. So thank you guys, Scott. [00:23:20] Yotam Gil: Thank you so much. [00:23:25] Ron Oren: Bye-bye [00:23:29] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: thank you for tuning into workflows. We invite you to join the imagination community by going to Imagen-AI.com/community. And don't forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to. You've been listening to workflows presented by ImagenAI to see the show notes and everything referenced in this episode, please go to imagen-ai.com/podcast.