Scaling AI Photo Editing to 300M Users with Photoroom’s Matt Rouif | AI Basics with Google Cloud

This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis

Technology

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this AI Basics episode, Jason sits down with Matt Rouif, Co-founder & CEO of Photoroom — the AI photo editing app with 300M+ downloads and 5B images processed annually.

They break down:

Why Photoroom built its own specialized AI models
How they grew from a scrappy startup to $50M+ in revenue
Lessons in product-led growth (from eBay sellers to DoorDash & Amazon)
Red-teaming, brand safety, and building trust in AI imagery
The future of personalized ads, content, and design

This one is a masterclass for founders, operators, and builders.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Matt Rouif joins Jason to discuss AI Basics.

(0:45) Meet Matt Rouif: Photoroom’s $50M+ AI photo startup

(3:15) Live demo: background removal + virtual try-on

(7:40) From indie sellers to DoorDash & Amazon

(12:20) The “Barbie Movie” API moment

(17:05) Red-teaming AI: trust, safety & brand protection

(22:10) Running a 100-person AI startup

(26:30) The future of personalized ads (put you in the ad?)

Explore Further:

Google Cloud’s Report: The Future of AI

Get insights from 23 leading experts on how startups can leverage AI for real business impact.

👉 Read the full report

More AI Basics Episodes

Founders, operators, and builders — catch up on our full Startup Basics series (Legal, Finance, Growth & AI):

👉 thisweekinstartups.com/basics

Links from episode:

Check out Photoroom: https://www.photoroom.com/

Check out Google Cloud: https://cloud.google.com/

Follow Matt:

X: https://x.com/matthieurouif

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthieurouif/

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Follow TWiST:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups

Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right, everybody, welcome back to this week in startups.
0:06.8	We're continuing our basics series.
0:09.6	Why do we do these?
0:10.5	Well, so many founders email me, DM me all the time with basic questions.
0:16.1	So when we see a question come up over and over and over again, we find experts, we bring them
0:19.9	together, and we do these very short, tight, concise, basic videos. And they explain to you everything
0:26.0	you need to know about important topics like legal or marketing. And we decided to add
0:32.3	AI to the mix. You can see all the basics at this week in startups.com slash basics.
0:37.1	We do this to support founders. Just plain and simple. We know they need this information, and we are delighted that our friends that Google Cloud have sponsored this season. You can check out their report. The Future of AI, Perspectives for Startups. It's got insights from 23 different top AI experts. I think a couple of my besties are in there.
0:54.8	Like I think Chamonthe Freeberger are in there today.
0:57.4	Very lucky to have Matt Ruiz here.
1:00.0	He is the co-founder and CEO of Photo Room.
1:02.5	It's a power space AI photo editing app with 300 million downloads.
1:09.4	And they process, wait for it, five billion images a year.
1:13.6	Reportedly, Matt, you got 50 million in revenue already, and it's what year?
1:20.1	When did you start this company?
1:21.2	Welcome to the program.
1:22.2	Hi, Jason.
1:22.9	Thanks.
1:23.6	Yeah, we started in 2019, just before COVID, actually.
1:28.0	So it's been like a six-year journey.
1:30.1	Amazing.
	...

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