Emory juniors Stephanie Chan, Michael Simon, and Denver Rayburn were driving back from lunch during move-in week in August when they began discussing how they had so many photos from their summer vacations, but could not think of a fun way to display them in their apartments. Thus, the three students, who are passionate about entrepreneurship and technology, launched their own start-up, PosterFuse.
I spoke with one of the founders, Stephanie, to learn more about her company and its success. Since its launch, PosterFuse has had over 1800 users on its website, and Stephanie and her team have created about 680 20 x 32” posters and 700 Facebook cover photos. While the cover photo template is free for users, PosterFuse charges $22 plus shipping for custom posters that contain the creator’s personal Instagram and Facebook photos.
Recently, PosterFuse has entered into a partnership with BroTips, another start-up that was established by an Emory student, Dominique Barfield. Now, PosterFuse allows users to incorporate various “Brotips” within their custom posters. When I asked Stephanie why her team chose to collaborate with Brotips she replied, “It’s kind of self-explanatory…They’re one of the fastest growing lifestyle brands that is synonymous with success.” She also attributed Brotips’ tremendous following and college-aged audience as reasons why the partnership was so attractive to her.
Business has increased dramatically since PosterFuse teamed up with Brotips. Stephanie says that while it can be challenging to coordinate schedules and balance college life and academics with her booming business, it has also been a lot of fun. She says, “The best part is being able to dream up an idea with the team and see the idea come to life in a matter of hours or days, and just be able to experiment with different marketing campaigns. The best part of starting a business with a team is having everyone pull in their expertise; and the ability to learn from and with each other about challenges that classes can’t teach or prepare you for.”
Stephanie says that launching PosterFuse and collaborating with Brotips is just the beginning for her company. Her team hopes to expand its audience reach, and to partner with other brands, especially in the music and entertainment industries. At Her Campus Emory, we think that our picture-loving readers will find this start-up exciting and may even be interested in making their own posters.