Today we’d like to introduce you to Natasha Ponomaroff.
Natasha, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Let me paint the scene, I’m fresh out of college and interning for a company based out of NY that was nutrition focused. My so-called “marketing” job had turned into a sales position, and I really disliked where I was career wise – I knew I wanted a change, I just didn’t know what my next step was. At the same time I was dating a woman who was based in Utah (I was living in CA, we had met on a plane, she was my flight attendant) we were doing the whole long distance thing, and I ultimately decided to spend a summer with her after quitting my NY based job. Once in Utah, I began geo-tagging all of the photos I was uploading because why not, this was my first time “living” in a new city, I was head over heels in love, yada yada yada. At the time, the CEO of Instasize was looking for SLC based influencers to help promote a new app they were trying to get off the ground. He reached out to me via Instagram DM, I came in to meet the team and to get a better idea of what they were looking for me to do, and through conversation I found about Instasize and how quickly they were killing the app store scene with this app that was designed for photo editing – except they had ZERO social media presence, which made no sense to me. At that point, I realized the opportunity that laid before me, and I sold my skills within the social media realm. I basically sold them on the idea that I could help them better establish themselves on social. They had a one-person marketing team back in 2015 when they hired me. Fast forward four years and I’m now the Senior of the department, I oversee a team of 5, and I handle all of our branding + acquisition, and I’m LOVING my current career endeavors. None of this would have been possible however had it not been for my initial “please hire me and here’s why” pitch back in 2015. The app itself was created by 3 of my now friends, and their story is pretty incredible.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not, we’ve faced many struggles within the marketing department, both with scaling and maintaining our current user base. About a year after I started with Instasize, Instagram changed its uploading parameters, meaning people could now post full-sized images without compromising or cropping any of their photo – a problem our app fixed, but now was not needed. We instantly saw a HUGE decline in daily/monthly users. Up until this point, Instasize’s main function was resizing images for Instagram. We had other editing features, like filters and adjustments, but people solely used the app for resizing. We needed to pivot and we needed to pivot QUICKLY. We started brainstorming and ultimately decided to focus our efforts on creating tools for content creators. In 2016 the industry really started to see a rise in influencers, “content creators” (a term that was just beginning to be used), bloggers, etc. We knew that these people would be the ones to use mobile editing features. We interviewed a ton of influencers and ultimately discovered that these individuals were using upwards of 5 apps to produce a “post worthy” image. We found out what the top used editing tools on various apps were and integrated them into our app, switching from a single purpose app to a multifunctional editing platform. We then introduced a subscription model to our audience in early 2017 and that ultimately saved the company, our user base, our brand, etc.
Instasize – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Instasize is a content creating platform for social creatives editing on mobile. We cater to the brand building entrepreneurs of today, tomorrow, and beyond. As I previously mentioned, Instasize originally began as a resizing app, and we evolved as the market did, that would probably be one of my proudest moments with this company. We were in a position where giving up or selling would have been the easy route to take, but we buckled down and began the rebranding, repositioning process. In regards to what sets us apart – we always create tools, social content, etc. with the creators in mind. Our mission here at Instasize is to give every social content creator the tools and opportunity to create meaningful content, build their unique brand, and get rewarded for their work. Everyone has unique content to share, everyone is a creator, and I think we’re the only company within the photo editing space that caters to this specific demo. Compared to everyone else within our niche, we offer tools that are SPECIFICALLY for content creators, and we offer them all in one app. In this industry, content is QUEEN, and if we’re helping you save time when creating that content, eliminating the need to bounce from one app to the next, then that’s a win in our book.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Being promoted to Senior of the marketing department was a huge moment for me personally. I started off with this company as a part-time “social media manager”, and from there we scaled. I’ve loved having a hand in building this company/brand, it’s been a great move for my career. I genuinely love my coworkers and the environment we work in every single day.
My proudest moment for the app would be when we hit 500K paying subscription members.
Pricing:
- Instasize Basic – Free
- Instasize Premium – $4.99 a month
Contact Info:
- Website: https://instasize.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/instasize.official/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/instasize.official/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Instasize
- Other: https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id576649830?mt=8
Image Credit:
Sandra Seitamaa
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