Portland photographers: Any knowledge of PICR or Vitaliy Rizhkov?
March 29, 2016 12:03 AM Subscribe
Does anybody in the PDX area (or, actually, anybody in general) know anything about PICR or Vitaliy Rizhkov?
So, my much-neglected LinkedIn account got a message from one Vitaliy Rizhkov, who apparently wants his company, PICR, to be the Uber for photographers. Does anybody know anything about this person or his company?
The first thing I have to question is why on earth the CEO/founder/whomever would be trying to reach me directly on LinkedIn - I'm a small-fry, recent-ish transplant to the area, not an influential mass market fellow. How successful could this venture possibly be at this point, despite his self-aggrandizing blog posts, if he's got the time and inclination to reach out to somebody like me? I'm not delusional enough to think that it's worth the effort, and the substance of the LinkedIn communications does little to reduce my suspicion. (If you're interested, I can post or memail them)
Second: this, like so many other tech start-ups, seems to be a solution in search of a problem. I, like every other digitally competent photographer, have a website, and people are already using google to find things. Everybody posts nonstop about how you have to be on social media everywhere all the time making noise if you want business and success (I am not; social media sites and how they claim to own everything you post is odious to me). Even were that not already the case, there are already many sites and listing sites, such as this one. They've all existed longer and most likely have larger user bases as well. Everything I can read about this guy makes him sound like one of the many startup caricatures.
I'll be the first to admit that I can be overly suspecting of charismatic people, hustler types in general, and people such as this in particular, but nothing has yet taught me that I should not be, and the research I've done so far hasn't turned up anything particularly useful. So, anybody on MeFi who's interacted with this person or his company: what do you know about any of it? I'm planning to make a phone call; if you don't already know things, do you have questions?
So far as I can tell, their business plan is to be a web middleman for 12%, as opposed to charging a fee for listing. Right now I'm planning to gather information on all of their competitors and their terms of service and ask some pointed questions in a phone call tomorrow, but my curiosity has been engaged, so I want to know what I can find out. I'm not planning on signing up for anything, or doing anything other than gathering information. But any I can get right now is useful.
So, my much-neglected LinkedIn account got a message from one Vitaliy Rizhkov, who apparently wants his company, PICR, to be the Uber for photographers. Does anybody know anything about this person or his company?
The first thing I have to question is why on earth the CEO/founder/whomever would be trying to reach me directly on LinkedIn - I'm a small-fry, recent-ish transplant to the area, not an influential mass market fellow. How successful could this venture possibly be at this point, despite his self-aggrandizing blog posts, if he's got the time and inclination to reach out to somebody like me? I'm not delusional enough to think that it's worth the effort, and the substance of the LinkedIn communications does little to reduce my suspicion. (If you're interested, I can post or memail them)
Second: this, like so many other tech start-ups, seems to be a solution in search of a problem. I, like every other digitally competent photographer, have a website, and people are already using google to find things. Everybody posts nonstop about how you have to be on social media everywhere all the time making noise if you want business and success (I am not; social media sites and how they claim to own everything you post is odious to me). Even were that not already the case, there are already many sites and listing sites, such as this one. They've all existed longer and most likely have larger user bases as well. Everything I can read about this guy makes him sound like one of the many startup caricatures.
I'll be the first to admit that I can be overly suspecting of charismatic people, hustler types in general, and people such as this in particular, but nothing has yet taught me that I should not be, and the research I've done so far hasn't turned up anything particularly useful. So, anybody on MeFi who's interacted with this person or his company: what do you know about any of it? I'm planning to make a phone call; if you don't already know things, do you have questions?
So far as I can tell, their business plan is to be a web middleman for 12%, as opposed to charging a fee for listing. Right now I'm planning to gather information on all of their competitors and their terms of service and ask some pointed questions in a phone call tomorrow, but my curiosity has been engaged, so I want to know what I can find out. I'm not planning on signing up for anything, or doing anything other than gathering information. But any I can get right now is useful.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, but this is waaaaay too much like "I want to have a discussion about this" rather than "here's my concrete problem I need help with." If you have questions, please contact us -- taz
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