April 24, 2017

Meet Michelle Staver of Drunken Pixel in Los Feliz

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Staver.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My now husband and I have always loved photography, especially portraits and beautiful lighting. When a friend who worked for Lululemon was in charge of creating a fun experience for the LA Marathon expo in 2012 and needed a photo booth set up, we decided to put in a bid.

We knew we could recreate the quality portrait experience in a photo booth setting as back then, most photo booths used poor quality webcam or similar style cameras to capture the images whereas we were using professional DSLR cameras and studio lighting. Since that first event, we’ve evolved the booth style and housing but that really kicked off the company as soon after word of mouth kept us busy hiring more people and building additional booths.

We can’t believe it’s been 5 years and we now operate in two cities (second city is Seattle) and have added some extra fun to over 550 events by the end of 2016!

Has it been a smooth road?
I think with any company there will be some growing pains when you’re first starting out! We definitely had to learn as we grew about taxes, business licenses, insurance, and things we were not as well versed in for the first-time business owner. The thing that took the longest time to nail down and still fluctuates based on competitive pricing is figuring out rental timing and pricing. We did some really crazy deals to get more experience under our belts through Living Social/Groupon initially but quickly realized we were breaking even if not losing money at those events since the photo booth rental timing was only 2 hours but the amount of time we had to invest in preparing + connecting with those clients, creating that customized experience, and even just getting to/from those events (hello LA traffic) was too much. We switched to a 3-hour rental model for two of our packages and 4-hour rental minimum for our platinum package. We’re still analyzing constantly where we fall in the spectrum of pricing compared to other companies in each city as we know how expensive putting on a wedding or event can be so we try our best to be as reasonable as possible while still giving our clients amazing quality and customizability for their unique style.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We’re an open-air style photo booth company and we like to have fun, I mean, our name is Drunken Pixel for a reason. We think that any party should be a good time for the host and the guests and that doesn’t mean that you should have to pay a ton of money or sacrifice on quality. We were a bit ahead of the trend using high quality cameras, lighting, and printers but now almost all other companies use that as well. We definitely have 5 years of experience under our belts and have always valued quality. Additionally, rather than some company models that have set packages we allow our clients to mix + match to create the type of photo booth experience that they want for their unique event. We also want to be reasonable, we try to treat our clients how we would treat a friend, so if clients want to bring their own props or create their own backdrop to get creative and save some money, no problem, doesn’t cost a thing! Then on the flipside, if a client wants us to go to town with a crazy custom one of a kind handmade backdrop or props, we are happy to create a customized quote for that option as well.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think that Los Angeles is a pretty saturated market for a new photo booth company now. However, that being said, what helped us get started was the fact that we were offering something that other companies were not, quality from using professional photography equipment. So, if there is something that a new company can do that others don’t offer, there is always room to create your own market!

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