Eye-Fi
Careers at Eye-Fi
Mission
Eye-Fi’s mission is to enable consumers to take great photos everywhere.
History
Ziv Gillat was an engineer who had worked at several startups. When he started having kids, his parents frequently asked him to share photos of them. Through this experience, Gillat realized that while taking photos had become easy with the advent of mini cameras and camera phones, sharing them with others was still a hassle -- with consumers having to find a computer to transfer the files.
Gillat decided to design a solution for that problem – a memory card with Wi-Fi capabilities. Smartphones, PCs, and tablets could connect to the card, enabling the user to easily share photos right away. In 2005 he founded a firm to develop the product, along with fellow engineers Yuval Koren, Eugene Feinberg, and Berend Ozceri. The first company he ever owned, it was called Eye-Fi.
Business model of Eye-Fi
Customer Segments
Eye-Fi has a mass market business model, with no significant differentiation between customer segments. The company targets its offerings at anyone who takes photographs.
Value Proposition
Eye-Fi offers three primary value propositions: convenience, accessibility, and brand/status.
The company offers convenience by making it easy for consumers who take photos to wirelessly transfer them to nearby phones, tablets, or PCs. Furthermore, original resolution images are automatically backed up to its Cloud and organized by its apps. The platform also offers editing tools.
The company creates accessibility by providing a wide variety of options. Its cards can connect with any kind of digital camera, including point-and-shoot, smartphone, DSLR, and wearable action-cams. Its platform supports a wide variety of photo services, including Evernote, Facebook, Flickr, Kodak EasyShare Gallery, Photobucket, Picasa Web Albums, Shutterfly, Webshots, and Adobe Lightroom.
The company has established a strong brand as a result of its success. Its products have transferred more than one billion images from digital cameras to computers, mobile devices, and the Internet. It has also won many honors, including the following:
- Recognition as Best Storage Media at the TIPA Awards (2015)
- A Digifoto Pro Gold Award (2015)
- A PC Magazine Editor’s Choice Award for its Mobi Pro solution (2015)
- A Mashable.com Editor’s Choice Award (2015)
- A SXSW Interactive Award (2012)
Channels
Eye-Fi’s main channel is a group of retail chains. Specific ones include Best Buy, Ritz Camera, B&H, and Adorama.
The company also sells its products through its website and third party distributors. It promotes its offerings through its social media pages and participation in conferences.
Customer Relationships
Eye-Fi’s customer relationship is primarily of a self-service nature. Customers utilize its products while having limited interaction with employees. The company’s website provides answers to frequently asked questions.
That said, there is a personal assistance component in the form of phone and e-mail support, as well as a community element in the form of a peer forum.
Key Activities
Eye-Fi’s business model entails designing and developing its products for customers.
Key Partners
Eye-Fi does not maintain any formal partnership programs. The company relies on third-party manufacturers to produce its products. It also works with the following distributors who sell its products to their customers in order to expand its reach:
- U.S. Distributors – D&H Distributing, Ingram Distributing, WYNIT Distribution
- European Distributors – Computers Unlimited, Swains International PLC, Duttenhofer GmbH & Co., Robisa, SofTeam, Transcontinenta, Focus Nordic AB, Corwell Czech Republic, StreamPort Media FZCO, and Cam4sell.
Key Resources
Eye-Fi’s main resources are its human resources, who include the engineering employees that design and develop its products and the customer service employees who provide support.
The company places a high priority on intellectual property, with at least three issued patents in the U.S. and at least seven issued patents in Europe.
Lastly, as a startup it has relied heavily on funding from outside parties, raising $36.5 million from five investors as of February 2012.
Cost Structure
Eye-Fi has a cost-driven structure, aiming to minimize expenses through significant automation and low-price value propositions.
Its biggest cost driver is likely cost of goods sold, a variable cost. Other major drivers are in the areas of sales/marketing and customer support/operations, both fixed costs.
Revenue Streams
Eye-Fi has two revenue streams: product sales and the subscription fees it charges for access to its Cloud for storage of files. Subscription fees are $4.99 per month or $50 per year for infinite storage.
Our team
info: Matthew earned a B.S. in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland. He previously served as Executive VP and General Manager of Roxio, as Executive VP of Sonic Solutions, and as Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing at Serena Software.
info: Ziv earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He previously served as an Applications Engineering Manager at Silverback Systems and as a Senior NMS Software Engineer at Zaffire.
info: Yuval earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and a Master's in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He previously served as a Technical Leader at Cisco Systems and has over 10 years of system design experience.
info: Valerie previously held senior management positions at software and hardware companies serving both businesses and consumers. She has more than 10 years of international and operational business management experience.
