VP of Global Expansion

Smiler is the first online photography marketplace, connecting professional photographers to consumers at popular locations for spontaneous or pre-booked photo shoots. The company is active in five cities in Europe, and has the ambition to become the number one global platform for the next generation of gig-workers. Smiler is ready to capture the world by expanding to other cities, countries, and continents, driven by the VP of Global Expansion.

About Smiler

That once-in-a-lifetime family trip to New York City needs to be commemorated – and ideally with a beautiful photo that is framed and proudly displayed, rather than through many failed selfies. It was exactly this realization, at Times Square many years ago, that prompted founders Martine Rooth and Kasper Middelkoop to create a business where photographers (whether professional or aspiring) and consumers (whether international tourists or families on outings) can easily get in touch in an ad-hoc manner, for spontaneous or planned photo shoots at traveler hot spots.

With Smiler, photographers may earn up to 120 euros per hour based on performance. They sign up on the Smiler platform and get onboarded with online information and a few practice runs with experienced Smiler photographers. Once onboarded, the photographer goes to one of the listed locations and approaches visitors proactively for a photo shoot. Alternatively, consumers may select a photographer and location of choice in advance, and make an appointment via the platform. Locations include popular hotspots in the public domain, but Smiler also partners with theme parks, museums, zoos and the like.

The photographer makes the resulting pictures available via the platform. Smiler makes it easy to exchange the necessary information with QR codes, creating a quick and contactless customer journey. Consumers only pay for the photos they want, so there is zero risk involved. For the photographer, this is a fun and flexible way to supplement income. Smiler also continues to add functionalities, such as the recently added possibility to book a shoot in advance.

Active in five European cities with a total of 70 locations, Smiler is already a hit. The company secured 7.5 million euros of funding last year. Smiler is now ready to embark upon an ambitious international expansion journey. This is where the VP of Global Expansion comes in.

Vacancy: VP of Global Expansion

The VP of Global Expansion leads the supply operations – online and on-the-ground onboarding and activation of photographers – as well as its scaling: the expansion strategy and roll-out of new regions and locations. They are part of the Management Team and report to the Chief Revenue Officer, Martine Rooth. The VP of Global Expansion is always hunting for volume while simultaneously safeguarding quality. They use the platform’s data to understand where and why dropoff happens, then streamline the operations to improve activation and retention of photographers. They also use this information to put together a scaling playbook that can be used in all newly added Smiler regions and locations.

A scalable and smooth process that allows each photographer to successfully work via Smiler for an extended period of time is the ultimate goal. This includes managing the performance marketeers to generate and qualify photographer leads; leading the online community management team for maximizing onboarding, activation and retention rates; and managing the on-the-ground operational teams that execute the in-person onboarding and training sessions.

The VP of Global Expansion works together with the Marcom team that is responsible for marketing, brand & communications. Next to that, they will closely collaborate with the Commercial team, which signs new partner venues and maximizes revenue from activated photographers. The VP of Global Expansion will act as linking pin between these two functions, ensuring smooth, successful and above all scalable activation of new photographers.

“If we want to achieve true global scale, we will need to streamline our supply operations and bring them online as much as possible, while rolling out the necessary local team management activities on all continents. Only a very experienced, successful operations leader with significant scaling experience will be up to this task.” – Martine Rooth, Co-Founder and CRO at Smiler

Smiler offers a game-changing business model with high potential for global success. However, the model operates at the intersection of online and offline, posing some challenges when it comes to scalability in supply operations. This is therefore an exciting role for an operations leader who has ample experience in fast-paced scale-up environments, and whose track record includes at least one clear example of rolling out supply operations successfully. The right candidate may come from a background of a food delivery or other logistics or gig-economy related business. They have a solid knowledge of data management and experience working with large numbers of semi-independent freelance staff. The VP of Global Expansion brings both structure and inspirational drive, to motivate and retain the target audience of (aspiring) photographers to show up frequently at Smiler locations for extended periods of time.

The VP of Global Expansion joins a company with tremendous global potential, in a yet unchartered market. This is an excellent opportunity for an ambitious and experienced operations leader to fulfil a senior position at a promising, unique organization.

Interested?

Smiler is working with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.
To express your interest, please contact Vivian Linker at vivian.linker@topofminds.com.