ONE of Barack Obama’s entrepreneurship advisers believes Edinburgh-based picture website Blipfoto is on course to become a “$1 billion company”.
Ken Morse, who sits on the American president’s National Advisory Council on Innovation & Entrepreneurship, is one of the investors who have pumped a total of £700,000 into the technology start-up during three funding rounds.
Blipfoto, which was created in 2004 by chief executive Joe Tree, allows users to post a single photograph each day, charging members a fee to use the full website.
In May, serial technology entrepreneur Ian Ritchie joined the firm as its chairman and Gareth Williams, founder and chief executive of Edinburgh-based flight comparison website Skyscanner, is now offering the company advice on its international expansion.
Morse said: “Blipfoto is already operating like a $200 million company with Ian as chairman. With Gareth advising them on social media retail, they’re going to start acting like a $500m company.”
Morse was in Edinburgh this week to speak at the Clean Energy Entrepreneurship & Investment conference organised by the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation.
Williams had previously stated his intention to turn his own company, Skyscanner, into a $1bn business and float it on the stock market.