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- ⚡ How this Start-Up is Turning Photo Chaos into Pure Nostalgia
⚡ How this Start-Up is Turning Photo Chaos into Pure Nostalgia
Genius marketing hacks, Authentic Start-Up Stories, Fantastic Start-Up opportunities and so much more in this week's issue of Innovators Uncensored!
Richard Lee
June 13, 2025
Morning Innovators ⚡ In less than 5 minutes, we’ll cover…
🥳 The best funding opportunities, events and jobs in the Start-Up world this week
📰 This week’s biggest news stories in the Start-Up world
📸 How is this Start-Up turning photo chaos into pure nostalgia?
📦 How your product packaging can get you global attention
🎬 A tool that helps you turn one video into 5 ads
✨ Last weeks most clicked link was this link taking you through to apply for the Santander X awards, with £135,000 in funding up for grabs.
🥳 LAST NIGHT WAS INCREDIBLE! We hosted another one of our awesome Start-Up Socials in Cardiff last night, and it was absolutely electric! 150 Start-Up Founders and enthusiasts under 1 roof creates an incredible atmosphere! Our Next Cardiff Start-Up Social in on the 11th of September with Kevin Smith, Kevin built and exited Credas for an 8-figure sum, is a serial Angel Investor and is going again with an incredible new Start-Up. 150 Founders, first drink on us, get your ticket here!
Happy hustling,
Rich
🎤 Opportunities + Events
🌕 Lunar Ventures are currently looking to write €750k - €1m tickets into Pre-Seed DeepTech Founders who are solving hard problems - connect with the team here!
🌊 Wave Ventures have just raised €7m to back Gen Z Founders at the earliest stage, contact the team here!
📣 TechCrunch have just extended the deadline for their Start-Up Battlefield competition, with $100,000 up for grabs - apply here!
We now have a community of thousands of Start-Ups and Founders, here are the hottest Start-Up job opportunities from the Innovators Uncensored community on our very own Start-Ups Job Board!
💼 Start-Up Jobs
🕵️ a16z continues to grow its scout network in Europe after closing London office. Sifted
🚕 Wayve and Uber plan London robotaxi launch after UK speeds up autonomous vehicle rollout. TechCrunch
🍏 Apple brings Apple Intelligence to the IPhone screen at WWDC 2025 TechCrunch
💾 British quantum group Oxford Ionics to be acquired by US firm in $1bn deal. UKTN
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Often, the packaging that your product comes in is just as important as the product itself. Chagee proved that with their recent social media virality, because it had absolutely nothing to do with the product itself.
In the image above, you can see the cup that Chagee’s coffee comes in. You’ll notice there seems to be a small door opened at the bottom of the cup, this is where the fun begins. If you open that door, there’s a chance there is a prize in there - potentially a free coffee! However, there’s a risk involved - not all of the cups have a prize in! There’s a good chance that you’ll open the door on your coffee and it will just act as a leak in your coffee cup and pour your coffee all over you.
This started a craze on social media with people filming themselves and their friends opening their cup to see if they got a prize or got covered in coffee! It feels weird to say that inconveniently covering their customers in coffee has gained them a huge amount of popularity.
How can you use your packaging to create this game-like opening of your product?
Each week we highlight our favourite tools - either something we’ve been using in our businesses, or tools that our innovator community have recommended.
Create high-ROI video ads in seconds with VidAU. Use our AI-powered toolkit of proven ad templates, avatars, and data-backed formats to launch scroll-stopping creatives—fast. No editing needed. Built for marketers and eCom sellers who want results now.
Picnic: Swipe, Sort, Smile - The App Turning Photo Chaos into Pure Nostalgia
Most people have thousands of photos on their phones - and no idea what to do with them.
That’s where Picnic comes in. Founded by Jack, Picnic is a photo-organising app with a twist. Instead of a boring chore, it turns the clean-up process into a swiping game that’s actually fun. Users relive their best memories as they sort, delete, and rediscover the story of their camera roll, one moment at a time.
More than one million people have used Picnic to bring order to their digital photo mess. It’s not just productivity, it’s a feel-good trip down memory lane.
Going Viral on TikTok: First Customers from First Swipes
Jack’s journey with Picnic didn’t start with glossy ad campaigns or VC-backed launch parties. It started with a TikTok.
By posting raw, relatable videos about the mess that is everyone’s photo library, the team struck a chord. The concept was simple: “Your camera roll is chaos. Let’s fix that, and have fun doing it!” The videos spread fast, and so did the downloads.
That early traction gave the team proof of something founders dream of: people genuinely wanted what they were building.
Scaling with Strategy: Paid Ads, Public Spaces, and People Power
Once Picnic nailed its product messaging, scaling wasn’t just possible - it was inevitable!
They leaned into performance marketing, especially on Instagram and Facebook, where visuals could do the talking. But the real growth engine? Word of mouth.
People were swiping through their photos in public, on trains, on flights, in cafés, and that naturally sparked curiosity. Add in a clever referral system and subtle branding on shared images, and suddenly Picnic wasn’t just an app - it was a movement.
Lessons in Growth: Love Paid Marketing (and Don’t Be Ashamed of It)
There’s a myth in Start-Up land that paid marketing is a crutch. Jack would strongly disagree.
“If we did it all again, we’d build scalable paid marketing systems much earlier,” he admits.
Picnic learned that while product-led growth sounds good on paper, the highest leverage early on is simply building something awesome, not hacking virality. Get people to love your product first. Then scale it, unapologetically.
VCs, Angels, and a Painfully Honest First Fundraise
Picnic raised around £3 million over several years, backed by VCs and angels. But the first round? Brutal.
Jack describes it as “gruelling”, with rejections from nearly every VC they approached. In desperation, he called on friends, leaned on personal networks, and flew to New York to attend high-profile founder events.
“Honestly? Most of that was a waste of time,” he says now. “What works is building something that has traction VCs can’t ignore.”
Lesson learned: let the product do the talking, and raise when there’s real momentum behind you.
Four Years to Product-Market Fit - and the Toll It Took
Building Picnic hasn’t been all swiping and smiles. It took four years to find true product-market fit. Along the way, Jack built a brilliant team, then ran out of money and had to let them go. He faced health scares, financial pressure, and the emotional weight of near-constant uncertainty.
“It’s been a bumpy ride,” he says with characteristic understatement.
But through it all, he kept going. And that, in the end, made all the difference.
Biggest Lessons: Pick Your Market, and Stay Alive
Jack has learned a few things the hard way:
Market and timing matter.
So do co-founders.
But more than anything? Resilience is everything.
“This journey can be lonely and thankless,” Jack says. “But if you push through the pain, and it will be painful, success is rarely as far away as it feels.”
He compares it to a marathon where the winner isn’t the fastest, but the last team still standing. Picnic’s continued growth is proof that sometimes, sticking it out is the boldest move of all.
What’s Next for Picnic?
Now that Picnic has found its stride, it’s looking to go even bigger - expanding features, scaling growth, and helping even more people fall back in love with their photos.
Because at its core, Picnic isn’t just about organising images. It’s about reclaiming memories, and giving people a way to enjoy them again.
One swipe at a time.
Next week I’ll be highlighting another awesome Start-Up, as well as sharing all the usuals including funding opportunities, Start-Up news, plus plenty of awesome tips, tricks and tools.
P.S. Connect with me on LinkedIn…
