2910: From MySpace to AI: Ted Leonard on Photobucket's Evolution and Future

[00:00:01] Are you ready to journey through the evolution of digital photo storage? And

[00:00:07] by that I mean the days before iCloud, before iPhone. You remember that far back?

[00:00:12] Well today we're gonna go on a voyage from the beginning to where we are now

[00:00:17] and also explore the future of image sharing in the age of AI because today

[00:00:23] I'm joined by Ted Leonard, the CEO of Photobucket, which is a platform that has

[00:00:29] been at the forefront of online photo management for more than two decades.

[00:00:34] Photobucket isn't just about storing images though, it's about preserving

[00:00:38] memories, empowering communities and with over 14 billion images stored for 90

[00:00:44] million users around the world, Photobucket stands as a custodian of

[00:00:48] personal and collective history. So in this episode I want to uncover how

[00:00:52] Photobucket has adapted to the digital age. From the world of MySpace to the

[00:00:58] arrival of the iPhone to cloud storage, social media etc. To their new exciting

[00:01:05] features, group bookings and how they're navigating the latest AI trends and

[00:01:09] ultimately what's it take to remain relevant where in every second countless

[00:01:15] images are created. Really looking forward to this one so buckle up and

[00:01:19] hold on tight as I beam your ears all the way to the US where Ted is waiting

[00:01:24] to join me today. So a massive warm welcome to the show. Can you tell everyone

[00:01:31] listening a little about who you are and what you do? Hi Neil, thanks for having

[00:01:36] me. Really excited to be here to talk with you and all the listeners. My

[00:01:41] name is Ted Leonard and I'm the CEO of Photobucket. Photobucket is the leading

[00:01:46] independent cloud storage solution for photos and videos. To put that into

[00:01:50] context we have about 13 billion images which encompasses both photos and videos

[00:01:57] on our platform and 70 million users that have trusted us for over 20 years.

[00:02:04] That's absolutely phenomenal. 13 billion images and I was reading before you came

[00:02:10] on there was something like 21 year old legacy and I remember using you back in

[00:02:14] the day when I had a I think it was a very early website and I was embedding

[00:02:19] photos on there and stuff. It was my port of call for everything but I've got to ask

[00:02:23] I mean that well that was me using it back in 2007 or so but how has the

[00:02:27] company evolved during this time and what kind of challenges have you had to

[00:02:31] adapt and and what shaped your journey because it is a it's a long time. There's

[00:02:35] been a lot of changes in this industry hasn't it? Yeah I'd say Photobucket's

[00:02:40] resilience over the last two decades is a major part of the company's legacy that

[00:02:46] few people really understand. So going back to your use case in 2007 let's go

[00:02:51] back to 2003 the company was founded by Alex Welsh and Darren Crystal and

[00:02:56] Photobucket was the solution to content constraints specifically on MySpace if

[00:03:04] you remember that social media. So specifically Alex and Darren built a

[00:03:08] product that allowed MySpace users to showcase their unique selves without

[00:03:14] having to deal with sort of capacity constraints that was that was put on by

[00:03:20] MySpace. So really this was the hosting solution that they had built and as that

[00:03:25] evolves like really the core of Photobucket from a service perspective

[00:03:32] and a solution for users it was to publicly display their digital content

[00:03:37] on other websites. So it's not just MySpace it's forums, it's blogs, it's

[00:03:43] e-commerce sites and this is all through that hosting functionality. Cool fact

[00:03:48] that Photobucket was acquired in 2007 by News Corp for 300 million dollars so

[00:03:52] you're talking about a huge sort of rise to prominence and then and then a major

[00:03:58] acquisition which was subsequently divested a few years later when really

[00:04:04] MySpace wasn't a thing anymore. So when we fast forward to 2018 that's when I

[00:04:10] became the CEO, Photobucket was actually in a nosedive. It was in a really really

[00:04:16] tough spot and it was a free service that was barely supported by

[00:04:24] advertising revenue. So the team and I really had to make some major changes

[00:04:28] and we had to do so really quickly and I think at the highest level possible we

[00:04:35] really had to flip from a capital dependent IV drip technology company

[00:04:40] that's always going out and raising money to a cash flow positive business

[00:04:44] and that was really kind of the high-level sort of challenge that we had

[00:04:49] to do. So what did we do to kind of flip from a capital dependent company to a

[00:04:57] sustainable cash flow positive business? Number one we pivoted the revenue model

[00:05:02] so I mentioned that the company was supported by advertising revenue and it

[00:05:06] was a free service offering. So we pivoted the model from that free first

[00:05:10] model to a paid first subscription model and I'm happy to say that that was a

[00:05:16] pretty successful pivot and we've grown our subscriber base by 46% year over year

[00:05:21] from 2018 until 2024. We also shifted to what we call a preservation solution. So

[00:05:30] we talked about at its sort of infancy PhotoBucket was a solution to publicly

[00:05:37] share digital images and as we thought about what the future entails we thought

[00:05:44] that putting a more robust storage solution on the market was the right

[00:05:50] decision. So as opposed to a hosting solution we really wanted to put a

[00:05:54] storage first solution out there that focused on privacy, that focused on

[00:05:58] affordability and was kind of a backup storage for photos and videos.

[00:06:05] And then number three we had to clean up a significant amount of technical debt

[00:06:11] and that meant migrating 13 billion images and 70 million accounts from an

[00:06:19] on-prem data center to the cloud coincidingly deploying four new

[00:06:25] products. So those are all kind of like the big things we did. I would say

[00:06:30] the biggest challenge we've had to tackle is staying relevant in a

[00:06:34] landscape where two solutions are pre-installed on every single device. So

[00:06:38] we have to call out the gorilla in the room, how do we continue to be the and to

[00:06:43] Apple and Google and not the or? And that has been sort of our North Star guiding

[00:06:47] question over the course of the past six years is make ourselves complementary to

[00:06:53] those pre-installed solutions and not make those pre-installed solutions a

[00:06:57] competitor. And listening to the story and the evolution took me back I'll get

[00:07:01] quite a few flashbacks but you go back to 2003, 2005 if you had an online

[00:07:07] portfolio wanted to showcase your identity it was my space this was a time

[00:07:12] before Facebook, before Instagram and you guys were absolutely huge weren't you

[00:07:17] How amazing is it? Yeah, we were the pioneer and you know I think that

[00:07:24] the biggest thing and probably the most impressive thing is just I go back to

[00:07:29] that word resiliency right? Yeah. The resiliency over the past two decades to

[00:07:34] stay relevant in a space that's evolved in the space that's changed you know

[00:07:41] just talking about our market itself for photos and videos and then getting into

[00:07:47] kind of the evolution of the internet as a whole right? So when we think back to

[00:07:51] 2003, 2004, 2005 everything was free and we've seen this sort of migration from

[00:07:59] that free to now most things are paid and you know everyone has two handfuls

[00:08:05] of subscriptions if not more right? Yeah. So we've been able to kind of stay at the

[00:08:10] forefront of all the evolution from photos to videos to storage and the

[00:08:15] expense associated with storage going from on-prem to the cloud I'm going from

[00:08:21] a free internet to a paid first internet it's it's been a pretty amazing journey

[00:08:25] and really just an amazing story from the beginning to now and there's a lot

[00:08:32] more as the story continues. It really does and you know you've adapted and

[00:08:37] evolved to be relevant in a world of social media and cloud storage but

[00:08:42] before you have time to pat yourself on the back there there's got rapid

[00:08:45] advancements in AI now particularly in an era of open AI and AI generated images

[00:08:50] so how are you at Photobook adapting to these trends and what role do you see AI

[00:08:55] playing and maybe enhancing your platform too? Yeah Neil there is a lot to

[00:09:01] unpack with this question because between now and literally when this podcast is

[00:09:07] over in 30 minutes there's going to be material advancements with AI that is

[00:09:12] where we are with AI right now. So you know I kind of break this up into three

[00:09:18] parts first let's let's talk about generative images this is really easy

[00:09:22] for us like we won't play in that space we don't we don't see ourselves as a

[00:09:26] generative image company by any means we don't we're not building our own

[00:09:31] models like we are a memory preservation and sharing solution and there is enough

[00:09:37] demand for us to thrive in this vertical if you think about it at no

[00:09:43] time in history has basically every single person walked around with a

[00:09:48] camera in their pocket like they do now but the capturing of personal memories

[00:09:52] the capturing of memories like it's there so there's enough demand for us to

[00:09:57] thrive in this vertical as a photo and video specific memory preservation and

[00:10:01] sharing site right? In terms of AI enhancing the platform there are a

[00:10:06] number of opportunities that we're exploring so you know kind of starting

[00:10:10] on what we already do right we already use AI for image tagging to create a

[00:10:15] better experience for our customers as we think about the future the biggest

[00:10:20] problem that AI can solve from my perspective is the digital memory mess

[00:10:27] every person has so I don't take a lot of pictures but I do right I I think I

[00:10:34] have something like 12,000 pictures in my account that's a digital memory mess

[00:10:41] so how do we solve that simplified organization automated organization

[00:10:47] facial and object identification in combination with sorting and getting

[00:10:52] rid of duplicates those are just a few areas we believe AI will enhance the

[00:10:56] consumer experience and we are not at this point seeing significant investment

[00:11:02] from other solutions in that area so that's really kind of like one of the

[00:11:08] biggest areas that we believe will help improve the holistic customer experience

[00:11:14] even though we are a storage site we in storage is a commodity like we don't

[00:11:19] really want to drive revenue by accounts having more storage it did make sense to

[00:11:26] like remove duplicates let's let's let's clean everything out we want to drive

[00:11:31] our revenue through solutions features and functionalities that we're

[00:11:35] delivering to the customer that's kind of how we see the value that we can add

[00:11:38] and lastly on that AI question we believe that we are one of the most

[00:11:46] relevant players in the AI market because of the content we have on our

[00:11:49] platform and our ability to help leaders in the AI space train their models and

[00:11:56] evolve so that's one of the big things we're working on right now is figuring

[00:12:00] out how we can leverage the content on our platform to help other AI companies

[00:12:08] train their models and continue to evolve so we can continue to invest in

[00:12:13] our product over time. Yeah I mean you mentioned the duplicate thing now it's

[00:12:18] funny isn't that no matter where we go what we're doing we've got used to

[00:12:22] taking 10-15 photos of one particular moment or memory and then going through

[00:12:27] and deleting but the ones that we don't want but usually that's on an

[00:12:32] airplane ride six months later or something it's a big problem isn't it?

[00:12:36] I mean there's so much you can do with the duplicates it comes down to you know

[00:12:39] photos are not just memories right we use them as utility to remember where

[00:12:43] hey we parked the car yeah and everything like that so how do we clean up that

[00:12:47] digital mess that we're creating for ourselves that's that's kind of one of

[00:12:50] the biggest nuts I think we can crack. And I suppose that brings us up to group

[00:12:54] bookings I was reading about this before you came on so can you tell me a bit more

[00:12:57] about the concept behind that and also how that feature enhances photo sharing

[00:13:02] and collaboration with within different communities. Although it's a new system

[00:13:07] here leveraging new technology it feels like still going back to your roots

[00:13:10] because that's what you were always all about isn't it that collaboration and

[00:13:14] bringing different communities together. Yeah I'd say the big difference that

[00:13:17] that we're tackling right now is doing it in a in sort of a privacy centric

[00:13:22] privacy first manner but yeah let's go back to the kind of root of it there's a

[00:13:26] big problem with sharing memories right now that many people don't realize. So

[00:13:32] Neil like think back to the last time someone shared a photo with you and

[00:13:37] others in a group text right think about when that happened yeah and what did

[00:13:42] you do with that photo? Well there's so many from whatsapp is a big killer on

[00:13:45] that one and I'm horrified by some of it I find it there somewhere that I've long

[00:13:49] forgotten about. Right right it's kind of a point in time reflection isn't it? Yeah

[00:13:54] exactly right so there's not a preservation component to it right it's

[00:13:59] one of those things of like oh wow that was really cool now let me get back to

[00:14:02] what I'm doing so right now most sharing within groups results in a point in time

[00:14:07] reflection like we just talked about rarely is the memory preserved there

[00:14:12] certainly aren't aggregated and these memories quickly get lost. I also argue

[00:14:18] that with group buckets we're missing out on a lot like my kids are both

[00:14:22] active in sports and I think about you know either being at a ski venue or

[00:14:29] being on the sidelines and all the other parents that are taking pictures what am

[00:14:32] I missing out on so there's a lot there's a lot to unpack here. Group

[00:14:37] buckets not only simplifies how you engage collaborate and share it

[00:14:42] transforms into a two-way exchange where you and others share photo and video

[00:14:47] memories back and forth so it really draws everyone closer within that group

[00:14:52] itself what we're trying to do is with group buckets is really make sharing the

[00:14:58] emotional experience it should be and that is kind of the core task here in

[00:15:06] that creating a safe and secure kind of gated group of people with common

[00:15:11] interests whether it's youth sports whether it's a wedding whether it's

[00:15:14] friends and family you know there are so many segments that we can tap into

[00:15:20] being able to preserve to reflect and do more with those memories and also

[00:15:28] capture more memories holistically like that is the intent but behind group

[00:15:33] buckets and we're really really excited about this this product. And I would

[00:15:38] imagine a lot of users that are turning to photo bookie to preserve memories and

[00:15:43] share with people around the world they don't trust a lot of those big tech

[00:15:47] companies and social media companies and privacy and security are going to be top

[00:15:52] of mind for those so how do you ensure that data remains safe that memories are

[00:15:56] effectively maintained and get that balance or that need a balance between

[00:16:02] security and seamless collaboration and sharing it's quite a fine and

[00:16:07] tricky balance I would imagine. Totally and it's one of the most frustrating

[00:16:12] things that I have to deal with the CEO of this company because what I want to

[00:16:17] do is I want to continue to enhance the product I want to deliver features and

[00:16:21] functionality that are really visible to our customers so it's frustrating at

[00:16:26] times because ensuring the security ensuring the safety all that that all

[00:16:36] that work really takes resources away from the concept of like building more

[00:16:42] features and enhancing the functionality for customers so we're we're always

[00:16:46] enhancing our architecture and our back-end stack and other aspects of the

[00:16:50] site to ensure that safety and security and we're doing it sort of in

[00:16:58] combination with you know trying to have a balanced parallel between what we're

[00:17:02] doing for the customer and everything like that so much like most tech

[00:17:06] companies out there big and small we operate in a well-known cloud

[00:17:10] environment with multiple redundancies so you know we pick good partners and we

[00:17:15] make sure we have a lot of redundancies out there in addition to you know that

[00:17:19] the engineering that we put into the product itself in 2020 we moved to a

[00:17:26] private first solution so we talked about what photo bucket was before and

[00:17:30] up until 2020 actually every single photo that was uploaded to photo bucket

[00:17:35] had a label of a public label meaning it was you know it was uploaded for public

[00:17:43] sharing and really until 2020 photo bucket was kind of a search engine for

[00:17:47] images and at that point in time we took a step back and we said every new

[00:17:53] upload going forward needs to have a private label let's remove this search

[00:17:57] bar let's make this a paywall let's make this you know kind of username

[00:18:02] password to log into the account let's let's really enhance the privacy here

[00:18:06] and you know making sure that you know we focus on preservation security and

[00:18:11] everything like that so as we continue to evolve so will our privacy first

[00:18:16] approach to customers data and content. And of course here in 2024 is an

[00:18:23] increasingly crowded digital media space and for people listening all

[00:18:27] around the world maybe they've got fond memories and have accounts with photo

[00:18:30] bucket what would you say distinguishes photo bucket from competitors now in

[00:18:36] 2024 and what makes it a platform of choice for so many users I'd love to

[00:18:40] hear a bit of feedback on what you're seeing here and who your users are. Yeah

[00:18:46] I'm sure we'll touch on this more throughout the podcast but yeah

[00:18:51] we operate in a fragmented space right with with big players you know we are not

[00:18:57] a bolt-on to a core offering yeah and let's just call it what it is Apple

[00:19:03] sells computers they sell phones they sell iPads and they have a bolt-on

[00:19:07] iCloud solution really that gives their customers access to photos across their

[00:19:16] hardware ecosystem Google they are an advertising company like they are the

[00:19:21] yellow pages of the internet right that 85 plus percent of their revenue comes

[00:19:26] from advertising so Google Photos is is not a core offering of those photos and

[00:19:32] videos are our core offering you know from a mission perspective we are the

[00:19:41] caretakers of your memories and our core tenets kind of resonate around us

[00:19:46] being focused on photos and videos centralization being the first one past

[00:19:53] present and future all in one place like think of photo bucket as the

[00:19:56] aggregator regardless of the type of hardware or you know digital solutions

[00:20:00] that you use were agnostic so everything can be centralized within photo bucket

[00:20:06] and again ask memories present memories future memories community were trusted

[00:20:10] by over 70 million people we take a collaborative approach to the product

[00:20:14] and we truly share a passion around memories being that it's our core focus

[00:20:21] reliable preservation our third core tenant focused on original quality of

[00:20:27] content like we are one of the few that preserves original quality of photos and

[00:20:33] videos when they're uploaded safe secure and guaranteed you know we've been

[00:20:39] around for a really long time which gets into our fourth tenant of a

[00:20:42] lifelong commitment 20 plus years dedicated to sustainable and what I

[00:20:48] think is really really important and love about the company that not a lot of

[00:20:51] people know is carbon neutral memory management so you know we want to be

[00:20:56] good stewards of our planet here and we're focused on carbon neutral memory

[00:21:01] management in a tech space that that gobbles up a lot of energy so I think

[00:21:07] it's pretty cool that we've said you know we're here we've been here for two

[00:21:11] decades we're gonna continue to stay in the space and we're gonna do so in a in

[00:21:16] a positive way if that makes sense it really does and I think we've got to

[00:21:21] bring the trust thing back into this as well because we don't have to look too

[00:21:25] far back from when we saw what happened with the Cambridge Analytica scandal and

[00:21:29] there was also I think we're still like a billion pictures that were taken and

[00:21:33] used to train it one of the big techs AI there and especially when an age of

[00:21:38] facial recognition and things trust and security is increasingly becoming

[00:21:42] paramount I don't think we we knew the the scale of it back then and what it

[00:21:47] could impact now but I think that what we're getting used to the the difference

[00:21:50] AI is making in the world and the impact it's having it really is these table

[00:21:54] stakes now isn't it we're certainly learning more and more and I think you

[00:21:58] know technology evolves the way technology is used to evolve and

[00:22:02] customers understanding evolves and I think you know there it probably comes

[00:22:08] down to a generational spectrum so each generation has a unique spectrum as to

[00:22:13] you know their degree of risk or their degree of willingness to kind of like

[00:22:17] you know accept what what what's going to happen but you know at the end of the

[00:22:22] day we see ourselves as a small independent photo and video solution

[00:22:32] digital photo and video solution how can we differentiate ourselves is by making

[00:22:36] a commitment to our customers that we're not going to sell your data we're not

[00:22:42] going to step on your toes like this is a safe spot to share photos it's really

[00:22:48] interesting because we kind of operate in two different landscapes right where

[00:22:51] we switch this model to a privacy first model in in 2020 but prior to that I

[00:22:58] mean it was it was a public first model so we're kind of you know hovering on

[00:23:03] both sides of the fence if that makes sense but we're treating the commitments

[00:23:07] that we've made to to those that are uploading images in a privacy first

[00:23:12] manner we are certainly committed to to maintaining that that privacy and trust

[00:23:16] of those customers and as we said earlier in our conversation that

[00:23:20] evolution does continue and considering the not just the evolving technologies

[00:23:25] but also user behavior as well and what they expect what are the future

[00:23:30] opportunities and challenges as well that you foresee for the photo book it

[00:23:34] especially considering everything that you're seeing around you it must be both

[00:23:38] exciting and daunting at the same time sometimes yeah absolutely let's just

[00:23:43] tackle the challenges first obviously there's increasing competition through

[00:23:46] innovation this is not unique to us every single company faces increasing

[00:23:51] competition through innovation photos and videos have been more of an

[00:23:54] afterthought but at this point in time we're seeing more focus in the area I

[00:23:59] mean just look at Marissa Mayer right she just launched a group photo solution

[00:24:02] with with you know her company and everything like that so we're seeing

[00:24:05] more of a focus in the photo video space and we need to make sure that you know we

[00:24:09] don't get complacent and fall back number two battling in a fragmented

[00:24:15] landscape we touched on this a little bit earlier but we're playing in a

[00:24:18] saturated market with two giant leaders and that's really really challenging so

[00:24:22] we need to continue to think creatively on how we can differentiate ourselves

[00:24:25] from the independence and truly be the end to Apple and Google not the or like

[00:24:31] we are not a competitor to Apple and Google we will never be able to compete

[00:24:35] with them directly so what can we do to be a complementary offering to what what

[00:24:39] they have pre-installed on every single smartphone and then I think number three

[00:24:43] is recruiting and retaining technology talent without being at the forefront of

[00:24:48] innovation so there's a lot of sexy tech out there now and new things just new

[00:24:54] things seem to cycle in tech every 24 to 36 months right we're not an R&D shop

[00:25:00] we're kind of a middle-of-the-fairway 220 yards off the tee box it's not

[00:25:04] mind-blowing but it's really efficient efficient and effective so making sure

[00:25:09] we recruit good talent and retain that good talent in this evolving tech cycle

[00:25:14] when we're not we're not keeping pace with you know the forefront of

[00:25:18] innovation those are kind of the three biggest challenges from my perspective

[00:25:22] as we roll into the future opportunities we operate in multiple verticals with a

[00:25:29] combined TAM of over 20 billion dollars so we're really excited and and that's

[00:25:34] one of the things that we've been pretty strategic about in a sense of like how do

[00:25:37] we build product offerings to maximize our total addressable market in terms of

[00:25:43] the amount of money that's being spent so again like multiple verticals and a

[00:25:49] TAM of over 20 billion dollars specifically from a future opportunity

[00:25:54] perspective we touched on group buckets right this solves the problem in the

[00:25:58] market and if we do this right it can lead to really inexpensive growth

[00:26:03] through the network effect like there's no question about that and then it

[00:26:08] unites masses and it gives us an opportunity to highlight other aspects

[00:26:12] of our product to a new audience so we really really hot on group buckets we

[00:26:15] think that's a really amazing near-term future opportunity for us launching in

[00:26:21] July to the masses number two expanding the spectrum so the way I explain this

[00:26:29] is going left and right to add services right now we're a digital preservation

[00:26:34] site if we go down the left side of the spectrum we're integrating digitization

[00:26:41] functionality so you can take all the old prints from from way back when have

[00:26:46] those digitized and then uploaded onto photo bucket to share with friends and

[00:26:51] family and then on the right side of that spectrum we really need to expand our

[00:26:55] print offering the print and merchandising business like a billion

[00:27:00] dollar market and we're certainly under utilizing the print functionality on

[00:27:04] our site so expanding the spectrum goes left to digitization and goes right to

[00:27:08] expanding print functionality while focusing you know are that the majority

[00:27:12] of our investment on that core digital product and then number three it's

[00:27:17] positioning ourselves to be opportunistic whether it's IP that we've

[00:27:21] had over the years or content and using content to license content for AI

[00:27:26] training we always need to be thinking about the long game and that that's a

[00:27:32] challenge at in the moment when you're kind of thinking about what we need to

[00:27:37] do now but we've been really focused on the long game it would have been really

[00:27:41] easy when the company was struggling financially to say hey of these 13

[00:27:46] billion images 75% of them are from accounts that haven't been touched in

[00:27:51] five years we could probably deprecate those and get rid of them but we chose

[00:27:56] not to we made a commitment to the customer base that we will not delete

[00:28:00] images and that has put us in a position to be opportunistic specifically around

[00:28:04] AI well kudos to you and for all the work that you're doing and if I was to

[00:28:09] zoom out for a moment I feel compelled to say the old line from spider-man with

[00:28:14] great power comes great responsibility I mean you're the caretaker of more than

[00:28:18] 13 billion images do you feel that responsibility of our bookie towards

[00:28:24] creators and users in protecting and preserving their digital memories does

[00:28:29] it keep you awake at night yeah we certainly don't take this

[00:28:33] responsibility lightly yeah and I've had to deal with this responsibility in

[00:28:38] different aspects of the business so when the company was struggling

[00:28:41] financially we found a way to continue to store all of these memories which is

[00:28:48] incredibly expensive but we made that commitment like we just touched on that

[00:28:51] you know our focus was to stabilize the business so that it stood on its own

[00:28:56] without the need for continuous capital this proved to be smart because VC

[00:29:02] funding pulled back significantly in 2022 so what I'm getting at here is that

[00:29:07] like we have always made decisions in an effort to be true caretakers of memories

[00:29:15] and the big thing with having 13 billion images on the site that date back over

[00:29:20] 20 years is customers don't need them until they need them so we want to

[00:29:26] ensure that those memories are there when our customers need them the most and

[00:29:32] as we think about our relationship with our customers we want to continue to

[00:29:36] build trust deliver an improving customer experience and foster a

[00:29:40] community of creativity that positions photo bucket as the most dynamic and

[00:29:44] reliable preservation solution on the market absolutely love that and I think

[00:29:48] it's a perfect moment to end on but before I let you go you've shared your

[00:29:53] insights with everyone I'd like you to leave everyone listening with one final

[00:29:56] gift and that is a book that we can add to our Amazon wish list that you'd

[00:29:59] recommend everyone check out or maybe a song that we can add to our Spotify

[00:30:03] playlist guilty pleasures are allowed but what would you like to leave and why

[00:30:07] you know I I have to leave a song so I did my research and you've got an

[00:30:15] amazing playlist of songs there but it's not complete yet it's not complete it's

[00:30:23] missing one of the greatest bands of all time maybe one of the greatest musicians

[00:30:28] of all time so while this isn't my favorite song I think this helps

[00:30:33] complete the playlist and will help it of all I want to put on the song deal

[00:30:39] written originally by Jerry Garcia but performed by the Grateful Dead a lot in

[00:30:45] the seventies so deal by the Grateful Dead and it's a great song about

[00:30:50] gambling and I think you know at the core while I'm not a Vegas gambler or a

[00:30:56] card player as business operators we have to make bets all the time and in the

[00:31:03] opening line there is a cost a lot to win and even more to lose so it really

[00:31:10] resonates on all the decisions that we have to make on a daily basis as we run

[00:31:13] a company while we have a lot of data backing these bets that we're making

[00:31:18] they're still bats and we want to make sure that we win more than we lose so

[00:31:23] why don't you throw deal on there by the Grateful Dead to complete that list

[00:31:26] consider it done my friend I'm shockingly embarrassed that there is no

[00:31:31] Grateful Dead on that list I'm gonna blame my guests for not suggesting it's

[00:31:35] not your fault it's not your fault but they're on there now they will be on

[00:31:41] there by the time we finish recording this episode but anyone listening

[00:31:46] wanting to find out more information about photo book it maybe they want to

[00:31:49] connect with you or your team where would you like to direct everyone yeah

[00:31:52] you know first and foremost our site great content their photo bucket calm

[00:31:58] everything every all the products we offer is a seven have a seven day free

[00:32:02] trial check out group buckets it is going to solve a lot of problems for you

[00:32:07] all it's good I promise you and July is kind of the launch for that follow us on

[00:32:13] social all the social channels and everything like that and you know drop

[00:32:19] us a line we're very we're very responsive group of folks we're all

[00:32:24] humans none of it is done automatically drop us a line and tell us how we're

[00:32:28] doing we love feedback on how we can get better and how we can enhance the

[00:32:32] experience over time so website social media and you know through our member

[00:32:38] engagement team well I'll have links to everything so people can find you nice

[00:32:43] and easy as a user I've been part of your journey since those early myspace

[00:32:48] days and I think it's inspiring that just how much you've evolved and adapted

[00:32:53] and come through some major digital disruptions from the arrival of social

[00:32:57] media cloud storage and now of course AI and you're still rocking it so just a

[00:33:02] big thank you for sharing that story and also solving one an even bigger problem

[00:33:07] and that is getting the Grateful Dead song on our playlist so thanks for that

[00:33:10] too yeah Neil thanks so much this was wonderful I really appreciate it

[00:33:14] well one incredibly cool guy I just loved exploring with temp the impressive

[00:33:19] legacy of photo book it a man innovative approaches to photo sharing and AI

[00:33:24] technologies from those humble beginnings as a simple hosting service

[00:33:28] to becoming a leader in the digital preservation of memories and how photo

[00:33:33] book it has adapted along the way continues to adapt and evolve and thrive

[00:33:37] in this ever-evolving tech landscape and as we close today I invite you to think

[00:33:44] about the memories you cherish and the digital legacy that you might be

[00:33:48] creating along the way how do you see AI impacting your ability to preserve and

[00:33:52] share those moments please join the conversation share your thoughts email

[00:33:57] me tech blog writer outlook calm Twitter LinkedIn Instagram at Neil C Hughes

[00:34:01] look at your thoughts on this one it's something that we've all got many

[00:34:05] stories to share on I'm sure whether it be creating those myspace pages back in

[00:34:11] the day to how you manage your digital images now so it's been a pleasure

[00:34:15] having Ted on the show and to you listening thank you so much for tuning

[00:34:19] in to another episode of tech talks daily I know you've got a lot of choice

[00:34:23] out there and I really appreciate the fact that you tune into this show and

[00:34:27] hopefully you'll join me again tomorrow I've got another incredible guest lined

[00:34:30] up but thank you for listening and until next time don't be a stranger