Patch is adding value to everyday digital images by allowing users to contextualize them. In doing so, users can find more inherent value in their digital photos, even if they choose not to share them socially. It’s currently an iOS application that allows users to inscribe and draw on the “flip-side” of photos. Users can use Patch for anything; from niche journaling (fashion, food, fitness, traveling, parents, etc.) to just being a children’s app to draw pictures. There are a lot of applications and just about anyone can find it useful. The functionality of the app will soon allow its users more organizational and social features as well, as there is an updated version that will be released in February 2015.
About the Founders
David and Michael, co-founders of Patch, come from a small town in the Midwest where they went to college together. They have always been entrepreneurial – during college they had a music promotional business where they booked rappers and DJs and flipped door sales. After college they moved to California where David works in the movie business and Michael works in tech for a large firm. They came up with an idea in 2013 and released the first version in the iOS store on October 31st, 2014.
The Idea and Observation
We came up with the idea when our younger sisters started using apps, specifically social ones. We noticed that the context of the digital photos received or created would get lost over time, and so we started thinking that this could be fixed if only digital photos had the same qualities as physical ones. It was enticing to make the product social, right out of the gate, but we felt that it was important to first test our core idea that user will value having context with their photos.
The biggest hurdle initially was to line up with the granular, everyday decisions that start-ups have to make and then translate that into something concrete; these difficulties keep work fun and challenging each day.
Unique Formulas
Digital photos losing context was / is a major issue to be handled. Whether you share on a social network or just store in a cloud, digital photos by themselves don’t make it very easy to retain context outside of what is contained in the image itself. The sheer mass of digital photos being taken is going to drastically increase over the next few years, decades and so forth. As a result, this problem will start to become more apparent as users continue to look for solutions to storing and categorizing their own personal content.
With Patch, users can preserve the thoughts and feelings they had at the exact moment that they took a photo. A picture speaks a thousand words, but it might not say everything the owner wants.The obtained solution also saves real estate on the device by utilizing the ability to “”flip”” a photo in order to read or view more about it.
Sketches of the spread out
We are currently catering the product to users with niche interests and needs such as fashion, art, music, photography, travel, cooking, parents, fitness etc. We’ve been fortunate to have downloads on every continent except Antarctica, but have been mostly focusing on several large cities where these types of recordable, potentially photo-centric verticals are most prominent.
Competitive comparisons
Journaling apps such as Day One, Collect or Heyday would probably be our closest comparable competitors. Some might draw competitive comparisons to companies like Instagram or Snapchat simply because they have in-app camera mechanisms – we do not see it this way. We view companies like this as potential partners more than anything, and believe that there will be more synergies with them as Patch moves forward with additional features and improvements.
Monetization
There are several strategies which lead us to monetization, but we would be remiss to state a definitive response, as we are still learning about the ways in which people use Patch. Perhaps the February version will provide some more insight.
To make your memories and album digital visit:http://www.thepatch.co/