Flickr

Flickr

Capturing the moment


Founders: Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake


Age of founders: 30 and 34


Background: Web programming; blogging and online community development


Founded in: 2004, Canada


Headquarters: San Francisco, California


Business type: Image sharing




I



t's easy to take your digital camera for granted, or never think about how easy it is to share photos with friends and family from anywhere across the globe. We're now so used to being able to view other people's images online, as well as commenting, tagging or liking them. However, the access to images we are so accustomed to now had very humble beginnings: when, in 2004, a start-up from Canada paved the way for today's social networking phenomenon.



Flickr, founded by then-husband and wife team Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake, didn't invent photography, or the idea of posting images online. But they did create the world's first global social network, built around sharing photos. And they pioneered many of the features now associated with Web 2.0 – the new generation of websites based on sharing information and forming online communities.


Every time you tag a picture of your holiday on Facebook, or comment on someone else's images, you are paying homage to the technology Flickr created. There's no denying it: Flickr changed for ever the way most people use, access and respond to images.


A business marriage


Born and raised in British Columbia, Canada, Stewart Butterfield became interested in programming during his teens. After graduating from college in the mid-1990s, he began rising through the ranks at online media company Communicate.com, eventually managing development projects for global giants such as HSBC.


Meanwhile Caterina Fake, born in Pennsylvania, USA, was enjoying an equally meteoric rise. After settling in California in 1994, she began a career as a designer and web developer, before taking the role of Art Director at Salon.com, a news and entertainment website, in 1997. At Salon she played a key role in developing an online community, and harnessing early social software.


This experience gave Caterina a glimpse of an emerging phenomenon, 'web logging', that would come to be known as 'blogging', which allowed people to post their rants, musings and life stories online. She soon became a fanatical blogger, publishing her thoughts on all manner of subjects. It was these blog entries that got Stewart hooked; he became an avid follower of her random musings, and loved her take on technology.


In 2000 the pair met for the first time, randomly bumping into each other at a party. Stewart recalls he made his admiration (and affection) clear, but was rebuffed; Fake had a boyfriend at the time.


However, as he was to prove time and again in business, Stewart persevered. Six months after their first meeting, he found out from her blog that she had broken up with her boyfriend, and travelled to San Francisco to try his luck again. This time she accepted, and shortly afterwards he proposed on the ski slopes of British Columbia.


But Stewart didn't just want Caterina to be his partner in marriage – he wanted to start a business with her too. In his eyes, the business would fuse Caterina's affinity with online communities and his own knowledge of programming. While they were dating he broached his business idea, and Caterina loved it.


Two weeks after returning from their honeymoon in 2002, the duo launched their company, Ludicorp, inspired by the Latin word ludus, meaning play. The they turn Game Neverending into a photo-sharing service. The game's core technology – a real-time messaging server – would remain the same, but its key objects would be converted to photos; in the new venture, images could be dragged into conversations, creating a distinct reason for people to use the site.


Caterina instantly warmed to the idea. Like her husband, she recognised that photography was a social experience; people took photos for other people as much for themselves, and the internet was opening up endless possibilities for sharing and commenting on images.


But the husband and wife team weren't working alone; they had a handful of employees at Ludicorp, and both founders felt it important to consult their staff before any change in tack was attempted. On 8 December 2003, Caterina and Stewart put their idea to a vote. Ludicorp's employees were asked whether they wanted to keep Game Neverending in its existing form, or move to the photo-sharing alternative. The vote was a tie, but Stewart managed to convince a key team member, programmer Eric Costello, to side with the new venture, which swung it for the founders.


The birth of Flickr


Even after deciding on the change of strategy, the problem of money remained. Ludicorp was still scraping by on a minuscule budget – but they knew that creating Flickr would cost less than getting Game Neverending up to scratch. But then, in mid-December, the team received an early, crucial Christmas present.


In 2002, Ludicorp had applied for funding from a Canadian new media agency called Telefilm, which offered small loans to promising film and digital start-ups. This initial application was rejected, but in 2003, Caterina and Stewart decided to try again, figuring they had nothing to lose. Just a few days before Christmas 2003, they received notice that their application had been successful, and a cheque for $450,000 (£279,000) was heading their way.