Thanks so much for mentioning Lensbaby, LLC as a company that has found a niche in the marketplace. We actually have a wonderful entrepreneurial story to tell. I am one of the Co-Founders of the company, and I met Craig because he was my wedding photographer. About a year after our wedding Craig hired me to do some marketing consulting for his photography business. One day he walked into my office with this very funny, ugly duckling of a prototype Lensbaby and told me he wanted to start a business to sell them.

As a non-photographer, I was completely mystified by the device he was holding. I suggested that we do some beta testing, under NDA, with some local photographers. We only had a handful of testers but the feedback was so consistent - "Fun, unique, amazing photographs" that I thought Craig had a potential winner on his hands.

Craig asked me to partner up with him to start the business. Amazingly we got the company off the ground with just $5,000 in cash. Impossible? Well, we designed the fist generation website ourselves and got it built for $1,200. Another $1,500 went for a provisional patent application. Our big break came when our most important supplier gave us Net 30 terms with no cash due upfront -- they looked at our website, which we had already built, and thought we were a real ongoing enterprise!

The first big shipment of components came on the first day of the big Wedding and Portrait Photographer's International (WPPI) tradeshow, where we were launching. Well, the little Original Lensbaby was a hit and in that first show we sold about 200 lenses, giving us enough cash to pay the key supplier and order a larger batch of components.

We were able to start with an extremely simple, low cost business model because initially we sold exclusively over the web and occasionally at tradeshows (where we always made a profit). The internet has profoundly changed the opportunities for niche markets! Within 6 months we had sold directly to photographers in 40 different countries around the world!

Throughout our 3.5 years of existence since our launch (we are still babies!) we have continued to focus on our niche and have found that being in a niche gives us a lot more freedom to do fun and imaginative marketing and distinctive branding.

We are always wondering how a niche product like the Lensbaby becomes more popular. Can a niche blossom into a larger market segment? One way we try to figure this out is by listening to all of the candid comments made on forums and blogs. I keep track by setting up a Google Alert, which sends me an email whenever a new comment about Lensbabies appears on the web. This is how I found your post and became inspired to share a little more about Lensbaby's Geekpreneurial history.

Sincerely,

Sam Pardue
CEO, Co-Founder
Lensbabies, LLC
http://www.lensbabies.com