Allan Schaaf: Redefining Image Hosting

As an avid Reddit user, Alan Schaaf, a college student taking up Computer Science at Ohio University, found it difficult to post or view images on the site through the image hosting sites that were available at that time. This inspired him to create his own image uploader during his spare time. In 2009, he launched Imgur which became an instant hit when he shared it with other people on Reddit.

Schaaf continued working on the site on his own as he worked his way towards a college degree. The uploader he created had become so popular that Schaaf had to switch hosting providers in order to accommodate the growth in its audience base and bandwidth used by the image hosting site’s users. In the early stages of Imgur, Schaaf relied on donations by the site’s users in order to keep the site up and running. As the site’s audience grew, he knew it wasn’t enough. This is why Schaaf also decided to increase the site’s revenue by allowing display ads and sponsored images on the site. By 2011, Schaaf took his dorm-room company and moved it to San Francisco. He began hiring employees and by 2013 the company had 10 people on its staff. Schaaf funded the company on his own and did not rely on investors in order to continue operating. This was why TechCrunch named Imgur as the Best Bootstrapped Startup during the 2012 Crunchies Awards.

Today, Schaaf no longer needs to fund his company using revenues from display ads as the company had just received a $40 million investment from Andreessen Horrowitz in 2014. Schaaf is taking his vision of creating a user-friendly image hosting service for Reddit users has now blossomed into a whole new entity. Aside from just hosting images, Imgur has also integrated a host of different services that has left users hooked on the site.