Tessa Barton and Cole Herrmann launched their photo editing app for two reasons: passion and practicality.
In 2017, the newlyweds were struggling to pay their $2,800-per-month New York rent. They tried a series of side hustles — a denim line, collage kits, writing and selling a book — but none were particularly lucrative, and the products took up too much space in their 250-square-foot studio apartment.
At the time, Herrmann was a full-time software developer. Barton was a freelance photographer and burgeoning influencer. They turned to an idea that used both of their skillsets: making and selling photo filters on Adobe Lightroom.
Over several weeks, the filters gained an audience, prompting the pair to launch their own photo-editing app called Tezza — Barton’s nickname since college, she says — in 2018.
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Today, Tezza is a lifestyle brand that combines most of the couple’s side hustle attempts — selling collage kits, apparel and a recently launched magazine, in addition to its flagship photo and video editing app. The Los Angeles-based company brought in $26.5 million in sales last year, or $2.2 million per month on average, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
“We started this without the intention of it becoming a business,” says Herrmann. “It really started as a passion project, a way for us to hopefully get some extra income to pay rent and survive in New York City.”
Creating and learning from mistakes
Barton’s photography career started at age 16. She took photos around her home state of Utah, edited them in the style of high fashion magazines and posted them on Instagram, she says.
Eventually, brands like Urban Outfitters and Free People — both owned by parent company URBN — reached out, offering to pay her to plan shoots around their products. By the time she and Herrmann moved to New York in 2016, she’d amassed roughly 20,000 followers on social media, she says.
Publicly, the…
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