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Keepy – For now. For later. For ever.
Offir Gutelzon is one of the founders of the Israeli startup Pic Scout, which was acquired by the stock photography giant – Getty images.
After the exit, Offir moved to New York city to take up an executive job at Getty Image. Not too long after, did the entrepreneurial bug bite him again to spearhead a new, exciting project – Keepy.
Offir Gutelzon / Co-Founder, CEO at Keepy
Keepy is all about collecting memories and the interaction around those memories. The idea struck him when he found himself regularly posting pictures of his children’s artwork from kindergarten on Facebook so that his parents could see it. He realized that many parents stumble upon this exact same problem in trying to somehow encapsulate and share their child’s growth with their family and close friends.
Ultimately, Keepy turned into a place where people could not only store information, but also interact amongst themselves. So now, every grandma can comment on her grandchild’s picture or a video, and take part in the “keepy”.
Offir shares a great piece of advice that his father gave him, namely, “You have to go out there and start doing something, if you want people to join you.” He took this ideology one step forward, by realizing that the most important person in a movement or a company is not the first one, but the second one to get on the bandwagon. Hence, it is extremely important to empower the first person who joins you, who in turn would help you turn your idea into reality.
The biggest perk of his current undertaking is the fact that it has helped translate his love for his family into a business opportunity.
A valuable tip Offir offers all aspiring entrepreneurs is to know when to shut down and walk away from a stagnant project. It is indeed hard, he says, since you put in so much effort and time into it, but one must attain the right balance between optimism and realism in order to succeed in the startup world.
Offir Gutelzon, Yael Sahar and Abby Pecoriello