Earlier this year, the AI-powered photo-sorting app GoodOnes secured $3.6 million in seed funding and made its debut on the Apple App Store in April. Fast forward six months, with 400 million photos sorted, the app is rebranding itself as “Ollie” and embarking on a relaunch. TechCrunch recently interviewed Ollie’s CEO and co-founder, Israel Shalom, to delve into the reasons behind the name change and their progress since April.
The starting point for this transformation is the new name, “Ollie.”
Shalom explained, “Ollie is the name of our mascot, which embodies the AI. It’s a charming octopus that skillfully manages your photos, locating the best ones. Ollie personifies the AI. As we shifted more towards an AI-driven approach, aligning the brand with Ollie the octopus made more sense than retaining the name GoodOnes.”
Initially, GoodOnes aimed to simplify the process of sorting through what Shalom calls the “photo mess.” It identifies the photos and videos worthy of being favorites, the ones worth keeping, and those destined for the digital trash can. This approach saves users from the frustration of not finding meaningful photos and conserves storage space.
Notably, Ollie’s AI system can analyze and organize a week’s worth of photos in under 60 seconds, a feat faster than most individuals could achieve.
The Ollie app you install on your device is a general product but adapts to your preferences over time. Each time you use Ollie, it suggests which photos to mark as favorites or junk. You can accept or adjust these recommendations. The AI learns from your choices and becomes more accurate as it familiarizes itself with your photo preferences.
Shalom emphasized, “For every individual user, the model evolves and enhances its accuracy over time because different people have different preferences.”
While the initial seed funding supported the expansion of the engineering team and the shift toward AI-driven photo sorting, a broader shift in public perception regarding AI played a role. People have become more comfortable with AI as a valuable tool rather than something to fear. Shalom noted, “Initially, people were hesitant to trust AI with their precious photos, but now they expect AI to assist them.”
Ollie is committed to maintaining the trust of its users, particularly those with photos of children. They have taken steps to ensure users’ photos remain on their devices and are not transferred to the cloud. The Ollie team does not have access to these photos. While this approach introduces quality assurance challenges, they’ve implemented systems for bug reporting and have a customer success team to address user concerns and collect data for algorithm improvements.
The team also gathers data about user preferences without sharing actual images. When asked if they’ve been able to determine what makes a “good photo,” Shalom noted, “We’ve learned that it’s highly personal. Some people consider their food photos junk, while others cherish them. Kids’ photos are often considered the most important.”
Looking to the future, Shalom is excited about the AI program’s potential for learning and assisting even more users in sorting their photos. He emphasized that the challenge of the “photo mess” remains unresolved.
Ollie is available for free on the Apple App Store, but in the coming months, the company plans to introduce subscription-based pricing, likely at $39.99 per year.
