CEO Spotlight: Q&A With Frank Cardello of Shotzr

Frank Cardello, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Shotzr

Frank’s career in technology includes executive positions in both startups and large companies. Frank currently serves as the Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Shotzr, which provides targeted imagery for digital marketing, as well as targeted creative material for digital advertising. In March of 2019, Shotzr closed a $3M Series Seed equity financing round led by Access Venture Partners. Prior to co-founding Shotzr with Mark in 2017, Frank served as President of Deluxe Media (owned by MacAndrews & Forbes), President & COO at Wazee Digital, (sold to Shamrock Capital and Investcorp in 2011), as well as VP of Sales and Business Development at Jabber and Ping Identity.

What was the original idea or pain point that inspired you to start your business?

We originally founded Shotzr to help social media marketers source great imagery for their daily marketing needs.

What is Shotzr?

Shotzr provides the right image for every marketing moment. Our key clients are marketing and advertising platforms that use our API to get targeted image recommendations for their client’s posts, campaigns and ads.

What aspect of your team or company culture are you most proud of?

Our values are in balance. Shotzr was founded on the idea that every person (employees, developers, photographers) contributes, and every contributor matters. We express this through two core values. First, we try never to accept the unacceptable. Second, we value ‘wind tunnels’ — shrinking the cost of, and encouraging attempts to make progress, innovate and create value. We want all contributors to feel that they are part of the value we are building together. This has created an environment where everybody carries Shotzr forward. It has created a balanced culture of shared responsibility and shared vision, and we love it — this balance between goals and standards.

What is the most important thing you're working on right now, and how are you making it happen?

Our most important client is a business ‘from the future’, and it’s all hands on deck to build value and revenue. If we can succeed with this client, the future of Shotzr is bright. We’re leveraging this client to focus our efforts and move faster.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve received as CEO?

We aren’t going to save our way to success or scale. We need to think bigger, not in terms of our vision, but in terms of our near term goals. Make sure every day we are working on things that move the needle with the bulk of our time.

What has been the most meaningful aspect of your engagement with the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network?

Feeling that as founders, we aren’t alone in this journey. Nothing worth doing is easy, and the support from BEN is meaningful, significant, helpful, and consistent.