Four words – Effortless. Professional. Customizable. Affordable: Zenfolio

"In 2017, we continue our commitment to the photography industry by expanding our suite of e-commerce services.”

Since 2005, Zenfolio has been leading the online photography businesses of aspiring and professional photographers alike. Every Zenfolio account includes a full suite of services to market and grow your photography business. You get everything you need to be successful, including a website, portfolio, beautiful galleries to display your work, a photo blog, unlimited photo and HD video storage, integrated social media and marketing tools, mobile apps, and a built-in shopping cart with 2000+ ready-to-sell products.

Zenfolio is also a great place to work. The small, family-like atmosphere promotes collaboration and leads to results that you can see directly from your work, rather than being lost in the mix of a larger company. The team also enjoys subsidized lunches, health care, and events celebrating everything from software releases to monthly birthday parties.

In conversation with Arnaud Collin, General Manager

‘It is difficult to start a venture. But far more difficult to maintain it’ – How would you and your team interpret this saying?

Ten years of successfully meeting the needs of the photography community comes from a relentless focus on the customer. At Zenfolio, we live and breathe the customer needs. The key to maintaining a successful business venture is creating lots of happy customers.

What drives/inspires you to excel in your field of business?
Like many companies, Zenfolio started because we were all passionate about photography. The founding team shared a personal love for photography. The opportunity to combine personal passions with professional skills often provides rich ground for growth. Ten years of growth and success comes from building a team that shares a passion for the space and has the expertise to bring the vision to life.

Why was the company set up?
Zenfolio began in the cradle of so many great ideas: a coffee shop. Four friends with a passion for photography, a shared background in technology, and complementary skills, saw an opportunity. They wanted to create an all-in-one web solution for photographers—both aspiring and professional—to organize, display and sell their images with uncompromising quality. To achieve this goal, they surrounded themselves with talented people from leading e-commerce companies and an interest in photography, with many being professional photographers themselves.

What has kept Zenfolio a market leader over the years?
Zenfolio has been dedicated to the success of professional and aspiring photographers since its inception. Therefore, we are constantly evolving to better meet the needs of the photographer and their clients. Zenfolio is continually building new features and functionality to align with the evolution of the photography category. With the growth of social, mobile and e-commerce we are constantly expanding. For example, we are in the midst of radically increasing the power of the Zenfolio e-commerce platform. We are using our experience from leading e-commerce companies such as eBay, Alibaba, and Amazon to bring e-commerce best practices to all the Zenfolio customers.

How big is your organization today?
Zenfolio has a global team in order to meet the needs of all our customers around the world. We have 5 key departments in the company which are Product Management, Engineering, Customer Service, Customer Success and Marketing. Since we have customers spread out from San Francisco, CA to Paris, France to Sydney, Australia, we have embraced a virtual team model. We believe that staying close to the customer is the key to our success.

What new products are you getting ready to roll out in market next?
Zenfolio is in the midst of a major expansion into school and sports photography. We are building out a suite of services specifically designed to meet the needs of the school and sport photographer that is doing large photo shoots. The services include best in class e-commerce tools for clients, a full suite of client access capabilities, and the ability to easily modify the background of any image. For the photographer shooting 1000s of children and selling yearbooks, prints, and photo merchandise, Zenfolio makes it faster and more efficient to review and fulfill orders.

Where do you see yourself and your company a couple of years from now?
Over the last 10 years, Zenfolio has become the business partner of the professional and aspiring photographer. Zenfolio has been voted #1 by professional photographers year after year because of our unwavering dedication to the success of our customer. We will continue to offer best in class solutions to support them through the digital revolution that is underway in the photography category. North America has been the leader in the revolution, so we see tremendous growth opportunities as new markets come online.

Meet Arnaud Collin

Arnaud is the General Manager of Zenfolio, the leading web platform that allows pro photographers to host, showcase and sell their photos online. Arnaud takes pride in knowing that tens of thousands of photography businesses worldwide depend on Zenfolio every day.

Arnaud is a former eBay executive with a strong track record of success in product innovation, marketing, and business operations. He has over 15 years of experience in ecommerce and consumer internet in both start ups and large organizations. Arnaud is French and had worked in Europe and Australia before moving to California 8 years ago. Arnaud received a Master’s Degree in Strategic Management from HEC School of Management, the French leading business school.

Arnaud enjoys traveling – he has visited more than 40 countries, extreme experiences – he is a certified scuba diver and sky diver, and spending time with his family – he is the proud father of 3 young children.

“10 years of growth and success comes from building a team that shares a passion for the space and has the expertise to bring the vision to life.”