Flag allows anyone (within the US to start) to print and mail a pack of 20 photos each month for free. You can keep the prints yourself, or send them to the people you love. If you want more than 20 a month you can buy as many as you need.
To make photo printing fun – for the first time by our reckoning – we’ve designed a photo finishing system ready for the 21st century. Museum quality (Giclée) printers, German 220 gram photo paper from sustainable sources, laser cutters, and robots with carbon fiber arms will allow Flag to deliver prints, for free, that are better than any you can pay for today. We want to turn your memories into mementos you can be proud of.
Our secret to making photo printing free? An advertisement on the back of each print. It will always be tasteful, and we are steadfast in our commitment to never sell or share your personal information with advertisers.
This is something I would use. I’m okay with an ad on the back of the photos. Samuel Agboola really came up with something interesting here.
“I’m okay with an ad on the back of the photos.” Yeah, but the question is what advertiser will be okay with an ad that will likely NEVER be seen more than once–if that. “Museum quality (Giclée) printers, German 220 gram photo paper from sustainable sources, laser cutters, and robots with carbon fiber arms” can’t be cheap, so those ads will have to be expensive. And that tripe about “our commitment to never sell or share your personal information with advertisers” is just BS. Advertisers don’t want the data, they want to buy ads targeted using that data. That doesn’t mean you’re not getting pimped out.
The fact that Samuel has to Kickstart this should tell you all you need to know about it’s future. In the era of Snapchat being offered BILLIONS, if this had a chance of being profitable some VC or Angel would come up with $100K.
I don’t know if I’d be that pessimistic. Half of those things are pretty cheap, and Flag is just a physical implementation of the oh-so-popular freemium model using the world’s favorite impulse-buy platform.
Ads (“free”) get you the basic boring 4×4/4×6 prints.
Enlargements, nicer papers, expedited shipping, fancy carbon-fiber robot laser cutting, postcards, ad removal, and different finishes are all pay-per-print options, billed forgettably to your iTunes account. Whether they can move their user base from free to premium is the question, but they’ve at least put more thought into monetization than the underpants gnomes.
Thanks for the feedback guys. You make good points. Allow me to try and clarify.
Matthewmaurice – One of the reasons we know this is a good idea is the level of interest we’ve had. I’ve taken meetings with multiple investors on 2 continents over the last few months. We’re not looking to sell out as fast as possible, or do a deal based on not having a customer base, advertiser base, or track record. We’re Kickstarting because we want to build something and it’s a great way to start.
Colin – You’re right but we will give you the best paper available, the laser-cutting and a lot of other stuff for free too. It just won’t all be free. E.g. Rounded corners may be free, really complicated lacey cuts which take a lot of laser-time may not be.
This is an app I would use. And an ad directly in front of at least one person is better then most ads get. Pictures like those of new babies or recent vacation get passed around the office or work place more than once. If they can get the ads they will get the customers. And if the turn around time is good they will keep them.
PJ makes our point. A single good ad-view is a million times better than the fate of the average piece of junk mail and sending that stuff is a multi-billion dollar business in the US alone.
I’d put a picture of someone you love up against anything any ad man, with any budget, could produce at any time.
“We’re Kickstarting because we want to build something and it’s a great way to start.” Well, certainly if you want to maintain complete control of the business. I would say that if you equate taking investment with selling out then you’re you’re probably having meetings with the wrong people.
How much runway a $100K gives you, only you know, but I stand by my original points. Generic ads on the back of a random photo are going to be a hard sell to advertisers in the era of tracking cookies and Google analytics. Ads on the front of a photo will be a hard sell to everyone else. I’m sure you know exactly what it costs to print, pack and ship those 20 4×6 photos, so I’m also pretty confident you know what you need to get from someone for 20 ads (21 if you can put one on the envelope). Whether that’s enough to pay salaries as well as keep the lights (and printers) on remains to be seen. Come back and see us in a few quarters. Let’s hope you don’t end up as the next Everpix.
Any idea when this service will be availiable to the UK?
I will try this when it launches. Why not?