How One AI Feature Supercharged Photoroom’s Growth

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Jun 26, 2025

Olivier Lemarié, VP of Growth at Photoroom, has played a pivotal role in scaling the photo editing app since its inception. In this discussion, he reveals how an AI feature transformed their background removal tool, leading to explosive growth. The conversation delves into Photoroom’s strategic evolution and how viral user excitement drove organic growth. Olivier highlights successful subscription strategies and the innovative advertising techniques that enabled expansion into international markets, showcasing the profound impact of AI in enhancing user experience.

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INSIGHT

Accuracy and Speed Differentiation

PhotoRoom's differentiation lies in its best-in-class accuracy and speed for background removal tailored for online sellers.
Precision matters more to sellers than casual users, making PhotoRoom uniquely suited for e-commerce needs.

ANECDOTE

Early AI Expertise Advantage

PhotoRoom's CTO had a background in AI and product innovation which positioned the team to launch AI features early.
They spent seven months tailoring AI background generation for instant mobile app use, a key product challenge.

INSIGHT

AI Backgrounds for Brand Context

Sellers want product images with personalized backgrounds for branding beyond white backgrounds.
The new AI feature allows generating contextual backgrounds instantly, massively speeding up marketing workflows.

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Olivier Lemarié is the VP of Growth at Photoroom, one of the world’s largest and most popular photo editing apps. Olivier joined Photoroom in 2020 as the company’s second employee and helped it scale to >$50M in ARR in less than 3 years. Prior to Photoroom, Olivier held sales and marketing roles at Google, Wooga, and Molotov TV. He is also an experienced growth advisor who helps mobile app startups with user acquisition, product-led growth, monetization, hiring, and culture.

Key Takeaways:

Photoroom was founded in 2019 and launched publicly in 2020 with a focus on using powerful photo editing software to help creators and entrepreneurs market and sell their products online.
The key to Photoroom’s differentiation vs. other photo editing apps comes down to their superior technology, which allows them to equip online sellers with photo editing tools that are faster and more accurate than anyone else.
In early 2023, Photoroom launched an AI-powered feature that allowed its users to remove and replace photo backgrounds faster and better than ever before. This product launch became an instant hit within Photoroom’s creator community, which led to rapid organic growth through viral word of mouth.
Photoroom’s AI photo editing tools created such a powerful “wow effect” that they also dramatically improved the efficiency of the company’s paid ads, reducing CPIs so significantly that Photoroom was able to expand into new international markets like Thailand, Mexico, and Brazil that were previously not inaccessible.
Over time, Photoroom developed country-specific playbooks for expanding into international markets, including hiring agencies in Japan and Korea to navigate the local culture and offering weekly plans in Thailand, Mexico, and Brazil where consumers often have less money to pay for monthly or annual subscriptions.

Olivier Lemarié:

Website: https://www.photoroom.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivierlemarie/
X: https://x.com/olivier_lemarie

Phil Carter:

Website: https://philgcarter.com
Substack: https://philgcarter.substack.com
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/philgcarter
X: https://x.com/philgcarter

Podcast Production by Podders: https://podders.io