In 2016, Parminder Sahni’s friend was planning his honeymoon, and he wanted someone to capture some memorable moments. He could think of no one better than Sahni, who had designed the entire itinerary for the trip and stay from his company, Travelwithsmile.com
While capturing these photos, this 33-year old had his Eureka moment. He realised that many other guests would want someone who would not be obtrusive but would encapsulate the critical moments of their trip or stay at a destination. “The idea clicked that great value and experience can be created with the help of photography in the travel domain,” he stated.
A resident of Raipur, he always had an entrepreneurial mind and was always quick to spot what he thought was the next big opportunity. And he believed he had chanced upon one when it came to photographing travellers and guests on their vacay.
His inspiration was Uber – except he wanted to create one for photographers. He envisaged a digital platform where guests could interact with a pool of photographers. He quickly discussed things with his co-founders Kaushik Singh and Shahnawaz Sadique on ways to build a platform that offered cheap, easy, and hassle-free access to photographers wherever the user wanted. And thus, VSnapU was born.
A CLICK OF THE OTHER SIDE
After the test run with his friend’s assignment, Sahni decided to see how he could actually make VSnapU take off with hotel companies that would accept this idea. He chose to start with the picturesque Munnar, a favourite with travellers. Moreover, he thought that hotel owners there would like to offer photography as an additional service to their guests.
However, the going wasn’t easy, and not many hotel owners bought into the concept. Changing the plans on the spot, Sahni quickly set up a promotional kit comprising standees and other marketing collateral at a few tourist landmarks. The marketing initiative was a success of sorts, and a family from Jalandhar became their first customers, followed by two honeymooning couples.
To ensure that these assignments were a success, Sahni hired two local photographers. Soon, he started getting online bookings for scheduled photoshoots in Kerala, which validated his plans.
CLICK BY CLICK
VSnapU raised a pre-seed round under the NITI Aayog’s Start Up India initiative. “We are a team of 40 people on the payroll, including photographers and editors,” Sahni proudly claimed. “Additionally, we have over 1000 freelance photographers who get regular work through our platform and support our presence in 28 countries.”
This prompted the company to invest more in technology. All the image storage and processing are currently on the cloud in real-time. Explaining this, Sahni stated, “Our technology platform is used for allocation, upload, editing & delivery of jobs. We are working on face recognition based-image distribution for mass photography of 1000s of people in public attractions, like theme-parks and concerts, etc.”
The reason is simple. VSnapU is designed as an impulse buy when a client at a resort identifies leisure time or is seeking a novel escapade. “This could be to fuel their own desire to fill up. Moreover, the social media frenzy these days supports our product at a large base,” said Sahni added.
During the pandemic, the group activities saw a sudden dip, and he saw an opportunity to tie up with hotels for a win-win collaboration. Hotel companies can attach a professional and personalised photoshoot as part of the stay package. This is ideal for pre-wedding shoots, honeymooning couples, or other special occasions like birthdays or anniversaries.
Sahni believed that extending such a service can help hotels increase their direct bookings and revenue. “When our professionally clicked photos are posted on social media by a guest, it directly influences their network who are likely to visit that particular hotel or tourist destination,” he explained.
He is dismissive about competition from the ubiquitous smartphone because while selfies are suitable for the moment, only high-quality photos make an impact that lasts a lifetime.
