Danny Postma is an indie hacker and is thought for being a serial entrepreneur, he’s additionally the Founding father of HeadshotPro. HeadshotPro generates AI headshots which are designed to seize a customers most photogenic qualities and reproduce them on a backdrop of the customers selecting, with good facial lighting that will take hours for an actual photographer to arrange underneath even essentially the most good situations.
You’re identified to be a serial entrepreneur, what was the primary enterprise that you simply began?
Landingfolio was my first main undertaking. I began in 2015 after I was 21. On the time I used to be working as a contract Conversion Optimization Specialist and I used to be battling creating efficient touchdown web page designs for my shoppers. I created Landingfolio, a design gallery showcasing the good touchdown web page designs on the web, as a facet undertaking to deal with this.
I didn’t know how you can program on the time, so I constructed it utilizing WordPress. This was a lot simpler than I anticipated. The web site nonetheless exists to this present day and will get 1000’s of tourists, however it’s onerous to monetize, so I made a decision to maneuver on to different tasks.
When did you first turn out to be immersed on the planet of AI?
I first turned immersed on the planet of AI considerably by probability. Whereas engaged on my product Headlime, which was initially a non-AI device, a good friend launched me to GPT-3. I used to be intrigued by GPT-3’s capabilities, so I made a decision to achieve out on to Greg Brockman, the CTO of OpenAI, to request entry. Happily, I used to be capable of get entry as a part of the primary batch of customers.
What was your first AI enterprise?
This introduction to GPT-3 marked the start of my journey into AI. It was form of a serendipitous transition from a non-AI product to an AI-based one.
Whereas engaged on Landingfolio, I wrote an interactive e book of 200 headlines, the place you might simply enter sure variables to have the headlines custom-made to suit your personal use case. I realised this might really be a extremely good software program device, so I turned it into a extremely easy copy spinner that did the changing for you and known as it Headlime.
Across the identical time, GPT-3 was launched and as talked about above, I acquired entry actually early. I experimented with letting GPT-3 write the templates for Headlime—I used to be astounded by its skill to generate copy. This led to a pivotal second the place I spotted the potential of turning Headlime into an AI-powered copywriting device.
It was a bit fortunate that I used to be already engaged on a copywriting device when a copywriting AI like GPT-3 got here into the image. I used to be one of many first folks to implement GPT-3 in a manufacturing setting, alongside Copy.AI and some different instruments.
Might you share the genesis story behind HeadshotPro?
When steady diffusion AI was launched in September 2022, it opened up new potentialities for me. Initially, I considered making a inventory photograph web site and developed one thing known as Inventory AI. Nevertheless, the standard wasn’t assembly expectations, and there was a priority about potential authorized points from large firms like Getty Photographs, identified for his or her in depth authorized sources to guard their picture rights.
This concern led me to pivot. I noticed Dreambooth was launching an AI service that would remodel faces, and realized I used to be engaged on one thing fairly related. I rapidly developed and launched my product inside 30 hours, beating a competitor to market. ProfilePicture.AI, exploded on Twitter, producing vital gross sales in only a week. It was a extremely shareable product, and I used to be lucky to rank nicely in Google searches for profile footage.
Nevertheless, because the preliminary pleasure dwindled and gross sales started to lower, I knew I needed to pivot once more. That is after I began collaborating with David, a developer good friend. We each have been engaged on AI-related tasks, and I developed a Python mannequin that would manipulate pictures into completely different poses. This growth led me to concentrate on creating headshots utilizing AI.
I launched Deep Company and HeadshotPro concurrently. Whereas Deep Company garnered a variety of press consideration, it did not translate into gross sales. Alternatively, HeadshotPro was an on the spot hit. Seeing the demand for AI-generated headshots, I made a decision to focus extra on HeadshotPro. It was an sudden pivot, nevertheless it demonstrates the significance of staying versatile and reacting to what the market is telling you.
What are a few of the completely different machine studying and Generative AI algorithms which are used within the backend?
HeadshotPro would possibly look easy at first look, however we’ve an enormous pipeline working within the backend to output nice headshots. Most of our rivals solely use Secure Diffusion, an open-source picture technology mannequin, together with DreamBooth, which trains by yourself pictures.
That’s not how we do issues.
We deploy dozens of additional open-source and customized growth fashions to 10x the output high quality. We’ve been working for a full yr now on our personal customized fashions. We’re getting actually near constantly producing AI pictures which are indistinguishable from actual pictures.
One other open-source mannequin we use is LLaVa, a Massive Language and Imaginative and prescient Assistant which you could immediate to ask questions on pictures. We use this, for instance, to filter dangerous consumer uploads or take away headshot generations which are NSFW. One other mannequin we use is Codeformer, which helps take away AI-artifacts from faces and switch them into extra practical ones.
You began HeadshotPro as a solopreneur, what are a few of the challenges with transitioning to constructing a workforce?
Transitioning from being a solopreneur to constructing a workforce for HeadshotPro has been a major problem and a journey of non-public {and professional} development. One of many major challenges I confronted was the worry of hiring. Initially, I used to be hesitant to scale the workforce due to the uncertainties concerned in managing folks. This worry led me to automate as a lot as I might by myself, particularly through the pre-AI occasions.
Nevertheless, as HeadshotPro grew, I spotted that I might not handle all the pieces alone. The choices have been both to promote the enterprise, proceed as a solopreneur, or construct a workforce. I in the end determined that constructing a workforce was the suitable factor to do if I wished to scale the enterprise, irrespective of how scary it was.
This resolution marked a major shift from my identification as a solopreneur and compelled me to acknowledge that I did not have all of the solutions. I understood that constructing a workforce would require a special mindset and would change the targets I had for my enterprise. It was not nearly working a enterprise anymore; it was about main a workforce of individuals to construct one thing collectively.
This shift introduced a mixture of pleasure and worry. I used to be open about my inexperience with all of the potential workforce members from the very first interview, setting the expectation that this was new territory for me and there could be bumps alongside the highway. I began with contractors and part-time individuals who already had different shoppers, creating a security web whereas I discovered the ropes of workforce administration.
Trying again, I ought to have began a workforce method earlier. I now have a small workforce of unimaginable sensible and devoted folks they usually do issues I might have by no means ever achieved myself. It’s additionally method much less lonely and rather more enjoyable to share your wins collectively.
AI headshot turbines are rising in popularity, how do you differentiate HeadshotPro in a crowded house?
Photograph high quality is our major differentiator from different AI headshot turbines. Our rivals depend on open-source fashions—which, to be frank, merely aren’t adequate for practical photograph generations. By making each day iterations in the direction of larger high quality headshots, we consider that inside a yr our headshots will probably be indistinguishable from actual pictures, additional growing the hole between us and different much less severe AI headshot turbines.
Lastly, we focus solely on skilled headshots. The majority of our rivals are shifting horizontally, providing issues like relationship pictures and cute avatars, working their method in the direction of turning into a full-fledged photostudio. Whereas there’s clearly a marketplace for this, our workforce personally sees these detours away from skilled headshots as a distraction. Our sole focus is creating the best high quality, skilled AI headshots. I don’t really feel our rivals share this single focus.
What are some ways in which your workforce is enhancing or optimizing the HeadshotPro expertise?
It would sound cliche, however we actually are obsessive about the standard of our outcomes. Producing AI headshots which are indistinguishable from actual pictures is our finish objective. If the mannequin improves by 1% every day, there’s no cause why we will’t attain that objective, or get actually near it, by the top of this yr.
Except for iterative high quality enhancements, we’re engaged on enhancing clothes technology. We really feel “digital attempt on” companies are going to start out drumming up extra curiosity in 2024, and we hope to parlay that tech into delivering higher outcomes for our company clients who typically request issues like matching fits for his or her worker’s headshots.
Then, in fact, our consumer expertise is at all times getting higher. Proper now we require 15-17 consumer enter pictures, as a result of that’s been the magic quantity for us in maximizing high quality. We’re engaged on different strategies to make issues a bit of simpler for our clients, with out compromising the photograph high quality we work onerous to keep up.
What are another AI merchandise that you’re engaged on or contemplating launching?
I’ve constructed a ton of small AI merchandise:
- Tattoos AI: An AI-powered tattoo generator.
- Alice: A enjoyable AI social media experiment, displaying how AI can generate completely new idea and concepts that haven’t been seen earlier than.(https://www.thismodeldoesnotexist.co/)
- Profile Image AI: A profile image generator, like a (a lot) much less skilled model of HeadshotPro.
- Deep Company: Rent digital AI-generated fashions.
- Meme Morph: Flip your self into your favourite memes.
There’s a variety of enjoyable ones there, however I’m really within the strategy of promoting most of those merchandise to completely concentrate on HeadshotPro. These tasks haven’t acquired a lot consideration from me since HeadshotPro has taken off.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers who want to be taught extra ought to go to HeadshotPro.
