Danny Postma is an indie hacker and is understood 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 excellent facial lighting that will take hours for an actual photographer to arrange below even probably the most excellent situations.
You’re identified to be a serial entrepreneur, what was the primary enterprise that you simply began?
Landingfolio was my first main venture. 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 fighting creating efficient touchdown web page designs for my purchasers. I created Landingfolio, a design gallery showcasing the best touchdown web page designs on the web, as a aspect venture to handle this.
I didn’t know find out how to program on the time, so I constructed it utilizing WordPress. This was a lot simpler than I anticipated. The web site nonetheless exists to today and will get 1000’s of tourists, however it’s laborious to monetize, so I made a decision to maneuver on to different initiatives.
When did you first turn into immersed on this planet of AI?
I first grew to become immersed on this planet of AI considerably by probability. Whereas engaged on my product Headlime, which was initially a non-AI device, a buddy launched me to GPT-3. I used to be intrigued by GPT-3’s capabilities, so I made a decision to succeed in out on to Greg Brockman, the CTO of OpenAI, to request entry. Luckily, I used to be in a position to 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 type 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 may 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 received 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 noticed 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 atmosphere, alongside Copy.AI and some different instruments.
May you share the genesis story behind HeadshotPro?
When secure 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 massive corporations like Getty Pictures, 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 rework faces, and realized I used to be engaged on one thing fairly comparable. I shortly developed and launched my product inside 30 hours, beating a competitor to market. ProfilePicture.AI, exploded on Twitter, producing important 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 photos.
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 buddy. We each had been engaged on AI-related initiatives, and I developed a Python mannequin that would manipulate images into completely different poses. This growth led me to give attention to creating headshots utilizing AI.
I launched Deep Company and HeadshotPro concurrently. Whereas Deep Company garnered numerous press consideration, it did not translate into gross sales. Alternatively, HeadshotPro was an prompt hit. Seeing the demand for AI-generated headshots, I made a decision to focus extra on HeadshotPro. It was an surprising pivot, however 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 may look easy at first look, however we have now an enormous pipeline operating within the backend to output nice headshots. Most of our rivals solely use Steady Diffusion, an open-source picture technology mannequin, together with DreamBooth, which trains by yourself images.
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 12 months now on our personal customized fashions. We’re getting actually near constantly producing AI images which are indistinguishable from actual images.
One other open-source mannequin we use is LLaVa, a Giant Language and Imaginative and prescient Assistant that you could immediate to ask questions on photographs. We use this, for instance, to filter dangerous person 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 sensible ones.
You began HeadshotPro as a solopreneur, what are a few of the challenges with transitioning to constructing a group?
Transitioning from being a solopreneur to constructing a group for HeadshotPro has been a big problem and a journey of private {and professional} progress. One of many major challenges I confronted was the worry of hiring. Initially, I used to be hesitant to scale the group due to the uncertainties concerned in managing folks. This worry led me to automate as a lot as I might alone, particularly throughout the pre-AI instances.
Nevertheless, as HeadshotPro grew, I noticed that I might now not handle the whole lot alone. The choices had been both to promote the enterprise, proceed as a solopreneur, or construct a group. I in the end determined that constructing a group was the precise factor to do if I needed to scale the enterprise, irrespective of how scary it was.
This determination marked a big shift from my id as a solopreneur and compelled me to acknowledge that I did not have all of the solutions. I understood that constructing a group would require a special mindset and would change the objectives I had for my enterprise. It was not nearly operating a enterprise anymore; it was about main a group 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 group members from the very first interview, setting the expectation that this was new territory for me and there could be bumps alongside the street. I began with contractors and part-time individuals who already had different purchasers, creating a security internet whereas I realized the ropes of group administration.
Wanting again, I ought to have began a group method earlier. I now have a small group of unimaginable good and devoted folks they usually do issues I might have by no means ever carried out myself. It’s additionally method much less lonely and way more enjoyable to share your wins collectively.
AI headshot turbines are gaining 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 sensible photograph generations. By making every day iterations in the direction of increased high quality headshots, we imagine that inside a 12 months our headshots might be indistinguishable from actual images, additional growing the hole between us and different much less critical AI headshot turbines.
Lastly, we focus completely on skilled headshots. The majority of our rivals are shifting horizontally, providing issues like courting images and cute avatars, working their method in the direction of changing into a full-fledged photostudio. Whereas there may be clearly a marketplace for this, our group 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 group is enhancing or optimizing the HeadshotPro expertise?
It’d sound cliche, however we actually are obsessive about the standard of our outcomes. Producing AI headshots which are indistinguishable from actual images is our finish purpose. If the mannequin improves by 1% every day, there’s no cause why we will’t attain that purpose, or get actually near it, by the top of this 12 months.
Other than iterative high quality enhancements, we’re engaged on bettering clothes technology. We really feel “digital attempt on” providers 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 usually request issues like matching fits for his or her worker’s headshots.
Then, after all, our person expertise is all the time getting higher. Proper now we require 15-17 person enter images, 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 somewhat simpler for our clients, with out compromising the photograph high quality we work laborious 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, exhibiting 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 numerous enjoyable ones there, however I’m really within the strategy of promoting most of those merchandise to totally give attention to HeadshotPro. These initiatives haven’t received a lot consideration from me since HeadshotPro has taken off.
Thanks for the good interview, readers who want to be taught extra ought to go to HeadshotPro.
