faith • family • freedoM
DAVIDJAY
Almost nobody feels at ease when a lens points their way.
Some moments you'll forget I'm there. Some moments I'll tell you exactly where to stand. Either way, you stay yourselves.
WHAT I BUILD
The companies
DAVIDJAY
Watch the entire 30 minute videoButtonPAS
• Gave them websites.
Agree • Helped them book clients and get paid.
Pass • Provided a way to deliver and sell their work.
Shoot & Share • A community of 50,000 photographers helping each other succeed
After dropping out of Westmont College I spent ten years behind the camera.
I photographed weddings all over the world and was named the #1 wedding and portrait photographer in the world.
Photographers kept asking how I ran my business, so I built communities and companies to help them.
build your business before building your house.
TRACK RECO
A community for photographers to learn and connect. 50,000 members in 100 local groups.
Online photo galleries for photographers to share and sell. $7.5M ARR, then an exit.
A drag-and-drop website builder for creatives. $2M ARR, then an exit.
Video emails and widgets to help personalize client communication
Contracts and payments for small businesses.
$400M in contract volume.
$7.5M ARR · Pass Gallery$2M ARR ·$400M in contracts · Agree50,000 members · Shoot & Share10,000+ users · WarmWelcome
Léa + Martin
- phil j
IF YOU MAKE YOUR BUSINESS ABOUT HELPING OTHER PEOPLE YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE PLENTY OF WORK.
• Philip Jay
(my dad)
PRESENT
These days the building happens with my hands as much as my laptop.
Life looks a lot like a ranch now: fixing what breaks, raising what grows, and doing the real work alongside my wife and our four kids.
It's slower, louder and better.
BUILDING, WITH MY FAMILY BESIDE ME.
- 2018
School ➜ Soccer ➜ Church. Repeat.
Growing up my life was pretty routine. I'd go from school to soccer to church and then repeat. I wasn't a fan of school until I was forced into taking an art class and I choose photography - and loved it.
- 2002
On to College
I went to Westmont College on a soccer scholarship but ended up dropping out before graduating.
- 2003
Wedding Photography
As a college dropout I couldn't get a job but I loved photography and started photographing friends weddings for free. At one wedding I decided to put a slideshow at the reception and my career exploded. In a few years I was shooting weddings and speaking to photographers all over the world.
- 2004
Helping other photographers
I was one of the only photographers embracing digital cameras and new technology so other new photographers started to ask me how to start their business so I started a free photography forum to help other photographers. It was called OpenSourcePhoto.
- 2005
Software
As my career grew other photographers wanted to be able to do these slideshows as well but it wasn't easy so I partnered up with some developers and started building software.
- 2007
Recession
Trying to start a bootstrapped software company in the midst of a recession was hard. REALLY hard. Employees don't understand this. Friends & family don't understand. Nobody understands except the person going through it. The person who is firing their friends, whose cars are being repoed and whose business is dying.
- 2008
Tea Fire
In the midst of having to layoff my best friends my house almost burned down. The flames burned through my yard and torched all my neighbors homes but mine survived.
- 2008
Bailout
As is often the case and brutal situation can often be a blessing. As I was laying off my best friends from the recession I got a check from insurance for $82k to replace the trees and landscaping that burned in the fire. This ended up saving because it gave us a few months of runway to get thing going.
DAVID JAY · Founder & CEO
I'm David Jay.
I started as a wedding photographer, named #1 in the world by the WPJA, then spent twenty years building companies for creatives and small businesses. All bootstrapped so we only ate what we killed.
Today I live ranch-style in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida and San Diego, CA with my wife and our four kids.
DAVIDJAY existed, I spent my evenings on the quay at the old port market, watching boats slip in and out with the tide.Faith, family and freedom shape everything I build.
I'M IN YOUR CORNER
FUTURE
Tools, advice, or a real conversation. Whatever helps you get it done.
We build it
Twenty years of building taught me the work is about the people you serve. I'll ask plenty.
We talk it through
A business, a brand, or something with your own two hands. Share where you are and what feels stuck.
