Meet Simon Hudson, Founder and CEO of Cheeze, INC

Simon Hudson is the Founder and CEO of Cheeze, Inc, an NFT & Media company who bring photography to the blockchain. As a self-proclaimed paparazzi to daughter Lalia and with a passion for technology, Simon wanted to capture the moments in time by adding provenance to his photos.

With that goal in mind, Cheeze launched a dedicated platform for photographers. Using NFT photo galleries and the blockchain, Cheeze allows anyone with a collection of photos the ability to share and sell their work.

The company is backed by the likes of Guy Kawasaki, Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph, FLOW Blockchain owner Dapper Labs and brand guru and marketer James Vincent.

 

How did you come up with the idea for Cheeze?

Cheeze was initially born out of a need to better manage sharing of photos with closed friends and communities. Back in 2017 a few years after my daughter was born sharing photos became cumbersome doing so with family so we developed a mobile app for sharing and managing photos.

Fast forward to 2020 when the world was hit by the pandemic we saw a number people starting to use v1 of our product to share photos and discuss NFTs.

A new term not been seen before and with as shift in user behaviour due to being stuck at home be dug deeper and saw a huge opportunity in building a company dedicated to Photography NFTs. In late 2020 we made a pivot and focused our direction to developing what Cheeze is today, a dedicated platform for NFT Photography on the Blockchain.

Why is Cheeze different to anything ‘out there’ at present?

Whilst there are many NFT marketplaces there are none that are solely focused on building the next technical evolution known as web 3 for photographers and photos. Cheeze’s goal is to allow anyone with a camera or phone the ability to snap and mint their photos to the blockchain and provides a full 360 suite of products to achieve this.

What is its greatest Superpower?

The team. Prior to Cheeze Simon ran a Technology agency that started in 2013. The majority of the core engineers and team behind Cheeze have been working with Simon since 2015. In addition to the core team, the company has a world class hall of fame and notable support from the likes of Netflix Founder Marc Randolph and Apple Fellow Guy Kawasaki.

Does Cheeze have any competitors?

Whilst there are a number of marketplaces that have Photography categories and some newer platforms for photography there is not any one business we know of that provides a full suite of end to end products. However, the industry is new and competition is healthy to help educate and onboard users into the space, just like the late 90’s when people started to experiment with the internet, the more options users had to understand the technology the better for mass adoption.

How has the company evolved since launch?

Cheeze’s internal moto is ‘Fire & Motion’ – we have a nimble and well oiled system that allows us to iterate and change features as the overall web3 industry evolves. The company evolves on a weekly basis and is constantly forming partnerships with people to improve both user experience with the ultimate goal of removing the many barriers currently faced and achieve a wider and faster adopting rate.

What do you foresee as Cheeze’s greatest challenge(s) in the next 12 months?

The market and adoption rate. If we look back over the past 12 months we have seen Bitcoin sky rocket to $65k and drop below $20k. We have seen crazy sales volumes for NFT projects such as Beeple’s $69m sale and a large amount of failed projects. The biggest challenge will be to continue to educate new people to the space and to help them see the true power NFTs and Blockchain technology have for the future of digital asset ownership.

Getting past Year 1, what can we hope to see in the future for Cheeze?

We are currently working on bringing amazing photo collections to Cheeze from world class and amateur photographers. We are hiring new people weekly and as the team grows you can expect to see more beautifully designed product iterations and more seamless entry into NFTs for anyone who wants to bring photos on chain.