Oh Snap, What a Good Idea
Michael Rheaume worked at a marketing firm in Boston until it went the way of many businesses at the beginning of the Great Recession. Now, he is applying his marketing acumen elsewhere, as co-founder of the wedding photography directory, SnapKnot, where he is showing that marketing savvy and a willingness to bootstrap can take you a long way.
In February 2010, Rheaume and co-founder Reid Warner launched the site, the idea for which came form Warner’s own experience planning his wedding and the particular difficulty he had finding a good wedding photographer.
Warner posited that the problem with other, larger wedding sites is that they are overwhelming, lack focus, have too much advertising, and leave a lot to be desired in their photography section. Shockingly, many sites don’t offer anything more than thumbnails from which to choose. So, Warner and Rheaume set out to provide the wedding photography resource that was so clearly missing, and SnapKnot was born.
SnapKnot endeavors to simplify the search for a wedding photographer by literally simplifying the search. Search by location and price range and get accurate results—easy. Then, browse high definition pictures to find photographers you like and go through the provided links to their website, social media, contact info, etc.—easy.
People like easy, and so, thanks in large part to a strong social media push, SnapKnot is doing quite well. At this point, Warner and Rheaume still have not taken any money, but are in the process of scaling up. The usership and roster of photographers are growing exponentially, they are working on a few potential industry partnerships and have just released a new iPhone app. SnapKnot is proving once again that clean design, a smart, simple idea and intelligent use of social media can be a recipe for success.
