This Week in Startups Scaling AI Photo Editing to 300M Users with Photoroom’s Matt Rouif | AI Basics with Google Cloud
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Aug 19, 2025 Matt Rouif, Co-founder & CEO of Photoroom, shares insights from leading an AI photo editing app with over 300 million downloads. He discusses building specialized AI models and their journey from a small startup to generating over $50 million in revenue. The conversation touches on the importance of user feedback in scaling AI technology, ethical considerations in AI advertising, and innovative strategies for personalized ads. Rouif also emphasizes brand safety and the future of digital imagery, offering invaluable lessons for founders and operators.
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Control Over Creativity
- Photoroom focuses on control and trust rather than pure creativity to help photos that sell.
- They preserve exact product colors and logos while adding generative enhancements for consistent brand-safe imagery.
Live Demo: Photo Shoot In Seconds
- Matt demos background removal and virtual try-on showing sneakers placed on a chosen model and AI-generated backgrounds.
- The result looks like a professional photoshoot delivered in seconds, saving small businesses thousands.
Get Outside And Watch Users
- Go build and talk directly to users in the real world to find friction and watch them use your product.
- Iterate rapidly based on observed behavior instead of assuming users will find hidden features.