Forbes - How Tessa Barton Turned Influencing Into A Bootstrapped Tech Startup
Tessa Barton shares her journey from a photography background to founding Tesa, a platform designed to empower content creators with tools and inspiration. Initially, she and her husband bootstrapped the company, focusing on building a community-driven app that caters to creators' needs. They emphasized authenticity and community involvement, which helped them grow organically. Tessa highlights the importance of understanding market trends and adapting to changes in the social media landscape. She also discusses the challenges and opportunities of running a small, agile team in a competitive space dominated by larger, venture-backed companies. The conversation touches on the importance of maintaining authenticity in content creation and the evolving role of influencers in the digital age. Tessa also shares insights on working with her husband, the importance of clear roles, and the value of community feedback in product development.
Key Points:
- Start hiring early to scale effectively and avoid treating the business as a hobby.
- Emphasize community involvement and feedback to build a product that resonates with users.
- Maintain authenticity in content creation to build trust and engagement with the audience.
- Adapt to social media trends while staying true to your brand's core values.
- Leverage small team agility to quickly respond to market opportunities and collaborate with brands.
Details:
1. 🎢 Transforming a Hobby into a Business
- Founders initially delayed hiring because they viewed their project as a hobby, not a business, which impacted early growth.
- Overcoming the hobby mentality was crucial for transitioning into a structured business model.
- The shift involved strategic hiring and redefining business goals to align with market demands.
- Emphasizing formal business practices helped in scaling operations and improving financial performance.
- Learning to treat the venture as a business led to better decision-making and resource allocation.
2. 📸 Tessa's Diverse Career Path
- Tessa Barton successfully transitioned from a hardcore photography background to founding her own app, showcasing her entrepreneurial spirit.
- She maintains her career as a fashion content creator, highlighting her ability to adapt and thrive in different creative fields.
- Tessa's journey exemplifies the power of leveraging core skills in photography to explore new ventures like app development.
- Her role in fashion content creation continues to grow, reflecting her sustained influence and relevance in the industry.
3. 🎨 Leading Creative Direction
- As the creative director of Tesa, the focus is on providing creators with tools and inspiration to connect with brands.
- Maintaining an active role in the industry as a creator helps in understanding and serving the needs of creators effectively.
- The aim is to develop not only useful tools but also a welcoming space for creators to learn and engage.
- Specific strategies include conducting workshops and webinars to share industry insights and trends with creators.
- An example of successful engagement is the recent collaboration project that increased creator-brand partnerships by 20%.
4. 🚀 Journey to Entrepreneurship
4.1. Background and Influences
4.2. Mission and Vision
5. 📷 Photography Beginnings and Social Media Shift
- The interviewee began their career in photography driven by a passion for storytelling through images, highlighting a deep-rooted motivation to capture compelling narratives through visual art.
- They obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Fine Art from Art School, signifying a strong formal education foundation in photography and related disciplines.
- The advent of Instagram was perceived as an opportunity to broaden the reach and impact of creative work rather than a threat to traditional methods, emphasizing adaptability in leveraging new platforms.
- Social media platforms, particularly Instagram, were strategically used starting in 2010 to not only increase visibility but also to serve as a vital source of inspiration and learning, showcasing the democratization of content creation.
- The shift to using Instagram marked a pivotal change in how creative work was shared and perceived, illustrating a proactive approach to embracing digital transformation in the arts.
6. 💡 Innovating with App Development
- Social media platforms became monetizable, prompting the couple to move to New York City to capitalize on new opportunities.
- Husband worked at a tech startup, deferring salary, while they lived with minimal financial resources.
- They had to innovate financially, starting with leveraging social media for income by engaging actively and growing a community.
- The speaker used social media strategically by posting three times a day to build an engaged community centered around shared interests.
- Shared her photography skills and aesthetic openly, believing that transparency and sharing would lead to growth.
- By 2018, they contemplated developing an app, indicating a shift to tech-driven solutions for creative and financial challenges.
- The transition from social media to app development was driven by the need to find more sustainable and scalable income sources.
- The couple recognized app development as a means to apply their creative skills in a new domain, aligning with their strategic vision for growth.
7. 👩💻 Empowering Women in Tech
7.1. App Development Journey
7.2. Impact and Market Acceptance
8. 🤝 Navigating Partnership and Growth
- The influencer's primary achievement is effectively influencing others for sales and creativity, which is crucial for brand success.
- Maintaining a leadership role involves pressures like staying innovative and authentic while ensuring audience trust.
- With over 10 years of online presence, the influencer highlights the importance of supporting other creators.
- The Tesa app launched in 2018 achieved over a million downloads in its first year, showing strong community backing.
- Pre-launch efforts included creating Adobe tools and authoring 'Insta Style' to assist others in the industry.
- Tesa's immediate success was due to addressing a demand for user-friendly options for professionals and casual users.
9. 🎯 Evolving Product and Market Strategy
- Clearly define roles among partners to prevent conflicts and enhance collaboration efficiency.
- Utilize bootstrapping as a method to build a strong, passionate business foundation; note that the company did not hire any employees for the first three years, emphasizing a lean and dedicated approach.
- Engage with the community to gather feedback, ensuring that the product aligns with market needs; for instance, community input influenced subscription pricing decisions, indicating the importance of customer involvement in shaping product offerings.
10. 📈 Adapting to Social Media Dynamics
10.1. Social Media Trends Impact
10.2. Company Strategies and Adaptation
11. 🌟 Pursuing Authenticity in Content
- Authenticity in content creation is emphasized, focusing on adhering to personal creative roots rather than solely following trends.
- Creators should evaluate if trends have long-term value before adopting them, ensuring content remains timeless.
- The inspiration for content comes from various sources such as specific fashion magazines like Vogue, classic movies, and iconic past photography, aiming to provide a nostalgic experience.
- Content creation involves extensive testing on thousands of images to ensure compatibility with diverse subjects, similar to the rigorous testing processes in beauty brands.
- The process is likened to a beauty brand, focusing on enhancing natural beauty through the content created, ensuring it resonates with the audience.
12. 🔧 Technical Advances and Team Development
12.1. Technical Development and Testing
12.2. Team Composition and Roles
12.3. Maintaining Work-Life Balance
12.4. Leadership and Team Building Challenges
13. 🌐 Strengthening Community Engagement
- Begin with subscription plans and early customer base identification to set a solid foundation.
- Differentiate your app by examining the competitive landscape and defining a unique narrative.
- Utilize AI and existing formulas for expedited app development and innovative problem-solving.
- Prioritize early hiring to ensure skills complementarity and accelerate growth.
- Recognize the transition from app to company through significant events like viral social media engagement, as seen with 3.5 years and TikTok success.
- Achieving milestones such as 2.5 million monthly users and nearly 2 million Instagram followers indicates a strong brand presence and community engagement.
- Cultivate brand as a community to enhance user loyalty and interaction.
- Employ a pro-social media strategy to bolster community success and brand engagement.
14. 🎥 Strategic Brand Collaborations
14.1. Community Engagement and User-Generated Content
14.2. Strategic Brand Collaborations
15. 🌆 Bridging Multiple Industries
15.1. Transition from New York to LA
15.2. Content Creation and Market Expansion
15.3. Rebranding for Longevity and Community Engagement
15.4. Target Market and Community Influence
16. 🔮 Envisioning the Future of Social Media
16.1. Focus on Young Women and Niching Down
16.2. Strategic Marketing Through Brand Collaboration
16.3. Content Creation Trends
16.4. Tools for Content Creation
16.5. Innovative Social Media Trends
17. 🙏 Concluding Thoughts
- Higher budgets are expected to lead to more innovative projects, indicating a future trend towards increased creativity and capabilities in the space.
- Organizations should strategically allocate these increased budgets to areas with the highest potential for innovation, such as AI and advanced analytics.
- Future trends suggest a strong focus on personalized and data-driven solutions, leveraging the expanded capabilities from these increased investments.
- Companies that successfully adapt to these changes will likely see significant competitive advantages and market growth.