What we're building with ICON is a future-of-work enterprise, a place where talented photographers who always had the eye but maybe not the pipeline of clients can now monetize their skills. They don't have to do any contract sales or build client relationships, hunt down deposits or final payments, or worry about logistics. ICON does all of that work for them so they can just show up and shoot on their own time, working when they want to, and getting payouts without the friction of building a book of business.
In building ICON, I think about the school teacher who drives around with a Sony A7III in their backseat, the student who carries a Canon Powershot and has a great eye for angles, and the stay-at-home parent with the Nikon who used to shoot regularly but now just needs a few extra dollars every week to keep up with these insane gas prices.
None of those people are "professionals" by the old definition. They don't have a studio, a website, or a line of clients waiting. But every one of them has the thing much harder to teach: the eye. Until now, having the eye for great photos wasn't enough. The talent was real, but the opportunity was harder to navigate.
That's the part we're fixing. We're not deciding who gets to call themselves a photographer. The work does that. Our job is to find remarkably talented people and put the bookings and the payouts in front of them as their talent is already there.
The gear in the backseat was never the hard part. The opportunity was. We built the opportunity.
If you've got the eye, we're building this for you.
-Will Lucas