So much has changed since we first released the Simple Booth Event Edition app in 2013. Here we are eleven years later, but in many ways 2024 was just as exciting and transformative as the year we started.

The photo booth industry is growing

We are seeing the photo booth industry develop more and more. Not only are group pictures, selfies, and video clips as popular as ever, but the types of photo experiences offered at events continue to broaden and diversify.

The biggest trends we saw in 2024:

1. 360 photo booths didn’t lose any momentum
2. AI photo booths started popping up everywhere
3. More locations embraced permanent photo booths

This is great news for entrepreneurs looking to start a photo booth business, as well as venues seeking a permanent photo experience for daily visitors and special events. With more opportunities to differentiate from competitors, businesses can offer unique services at profitable price points that appeal to a wide range of customers.

Considering that virtual photo booths were a brand new concept in just 2020, the continued expansion of the industry in all directions is quite remarkable.

Simple Booth continues to evolve

This year we released over 25 updates to the HALO app, including some big new features.

We kicked off this year with the launch of the new API integration for captured leads. This game-changing feature makes it easier than ever for businesses to grow their marketing lists and stay connected with photo booth participants.

In February, we rolled out multiple overlays, a highly requested feature that lets participants choose from a selection of designs to go over their photo. This opens the door to endless creative possibilities for both event hosts and participants.

The fun kept rolling through the summer. Our team took a moment to embrace the glam life, adding features like a glam filter for that flawless finish and new tools to simplify on-device editing management.

But 2024 wouldn’t be complete without diving into AI, so we introduced an AI-powered virtual background replacement. Say goodbye to green screens and hello to seamless, professional backgrounds—it’s a win-win for everyone.

For the details, check out our HALO 4 Release announcement, where we break it all down.

And then just before the holidays got in full swing, we introduced weekly plans starting at just $9 per week, making HALO software more accessible and flexible than ever before. Whether you’re in events, hospitality, retail, or any other industry, our goal is to provide solutions that you can use all year round.

We focused on our customers

2024 was about more than adding cool new features—our favorite part was taking the time to connect with you—our incredible customers.

We enjoyed reading the amazing feedback from customers (along with valuable constructive criticism we truly appreciate!). Hearing directly from you helps us improve and ensure we’re building tools that truly meet your needs.

But we wanted to dive deeper and really find out what HALO really meant to our customers. So our team conducted extensive customer interviews and published nine case studies highlighting how real businesses deploy HALO in creative and impactful ways. Many of these businesses have captured hundreds of thousands of photos and raved about the difference it made.

From a trip to the vibrant streets of New Orleans to learn how Creole Cuisine is spicing up marketing efforts, to a visit to Nashville where Ole Red is bringing the country lifestyle and photo booths together, we’ve been blown away by the stories of how HALO works for these amazing brands.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

This year, HALO has made its mark across a variety of industries.

We’ve seen it add a touch of elegance to the opera, bring excitement to sports arenas, amplify the electric vibes of the music industry, and charm mini-golf enthusiasts across the pond.

HALO has also shined in the event services industry, helping companies like Amore Entertainment and Just Call Malik earn six figures in revenue and capture countless memorable moments for clients.

We are so proud of what our customers have achieved, to be able to tell such captivating stories, and the part we get to play in them.

Bring on 2025

We can’t wait to carry this energy into 2025, and we have some exciting projects in the pipeline. Stay tuned for details on some major product announcements in the new year!

It’s been amazing to see how HALO owners use the hardware and app to elevate their businesses and create unforgettable experiences. Your creativity and business savvy continue to inspire us.

As a result of all the great things happening, we grew our team by almost 50% in 2024. New folks joined us and roles were filled in sale, engineering, and marketing. It’s been great to see how fresh perspectives and talents are helping us push boundaries and make new things possible.

Here’s to an incredible 2024 and an even brighter year ahead. From all of us at Simple Booth, thank you for being part of our journey.

Let’s make 2025 the best year yet!

It’s a milestone for us–an accomplishment that’s been 3+ years in the making.

And that’s important, because we didn’t get here overnight. When we launched the online service in 2016 we saw our first million uploads. That was exciting, but it was just the beginning.

By 2017, it was four million.

And now, here we are, 10 million strong and counting–more than double where we were at the beginning of 2018.

We’re thrilled about the digits, but this is more than just a number to our team at Simple Booth.

To us, those 10 million uploads aren’t just random bits of data. Each and every photo represents something memorable to the person uploading it. Maybe it’s the night you popped the question, sunset pictures on the beach of your destination wedding or that headshot from your first day on the job of a new career.

Whatever it is, it’s far more valuable than just some ones and zeroes. It’s a memory.

At Simple Booth, we truly believe we’re making the world a better place in our own small way by bringing people closer together to create smiles and laughter.

It’s not about the photos. It’s about the experiences.

Here’s to the next 10 million!

-The Simple Booth Team

We are proud of the hard work we put in to make this possible, but we are even more grateful for our customers who embraced our unique photo booth solution. You believed in our mission to help people capture social experiences with products that are fun and easy to use.

You. Are. The. Best.

You’ve made it possible for the Simple Booth platform to capture over 7 million amazing, fun-filled photographic moments to date and grow to over 100,000 mobile app users! This is because of you.

Thank you dear customers and early-adopters, for embracing our photo philosophies and making this an amazing journey for our team.

Our journey doesn’t slow down here.

This achievement comes at the same time as we release our biggest HALO app update ever, with exciting new features like Digital Props that take the photo booth experience to another level. We will harness the recent recognition and excitement to fuel our product development and make it possible for more people to capture moments in fun and authentic ways with the Simple Booth platform.

Simple Booth will push ahead with our vision to be the world’s platform for creating and sharing moments and events.

Thanks again for believing in us!

About Simple Booth

Simple Booth provides location-based photo experiences for people, brands and businesses of all sizes. Together, Simple Booth’s suite of apps and hardware help people capture moments at their favorite events and locations, connecting their experiences and enabling them to document interactions with their favorite brands and venues in a fun and authentic way. Today more than 7 million photos and animated GIFs have been uploaded to Simple Booth’s social platform by more than 100,000 registered users.

Simple Booth was incorporated in 2016 by Mark Hennings and Jeremy Cox. It currently serves customers worldwide from its headquarters in Austin, TX and office in Denver, CO.

We took a lot of GIFs. We had a lot of laughs. We grew our little startup into something a little bit bigger, with plenty further to reach.

Here are our top 10 happenings from 2017.

Our platform grew like crazy

Our users got active this year and captured a lot of awesome memories. Simple Booth’s platform started the year with 750,000 unique layouts and GIFs uploaded and finished with over four million. Our developers worked tirelessly to keep our cloud game strong, events running smoothly and loading photos fast.

New Years Eve was the single biggest day of the year, seeing over 50,000 new uploads in one night with a peak rate of 3 new uploads per second.

A whole new industry emerged

What do orthodontists, ride-sharing apps, electricians, mortgage companies, beauty retailers, wineries, liquor brands, churches and libraries have in common? They all found value in creating unique photo experiences in 2017. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg—photo booths aren’t just for weddings and events anymore.

Demand for modern photo booths really started to rev up in 2017 across multiple sectors, with user-generated content, word-of-mouth and experiential marketing as major driving forces. People in a wide variety of industries are discovering the value of creating fun, prepared photo experiences for their guests—even in places you might not expect.

Our team multiplied

Simple Booth welcomed 9 new team members in 2017, doubling our crew. Two thirds came from our acquisition of MYEVENTISTHEBOMB (MEITB), a boutique photo experience agency started by Simple Booth Co-founder, Jeremy Cox.

MEITB has always used Simple Booth products for events. With a team in the field and a team in the lab, we stayed close to the end-user experience and made sure we were building the right features for the right people.

We launched an iPhone app

In August we unveiled the Simple Booth native iPhone app, and along with it our grand plan to make photo booths a more connected experience. For the first time, party-goers have a place for all their photo strips and GIFs to live and can browse to find fun events happening nearby.

We cut steel

The skeptics told us not to start a hardware business because of inventory and logistical constraints. We proved them wrong. In 2017 we shipped over 500 HALOs to customers in 20 different countries. We scored patents on both design and utility of Simple Booth HALO®.

Our in-house product team came together in an exciting way and moved the design, engineering and supply chain forward. Now, we’ve never been more excited about the potential for converged software, hardware, digital and real life experiences in the photo technology space.

Subscriptions grew up

It’s hard to believe that at the beginning of 2017 we only offered a single subscription plan. Simple Booth was just a baby! Since then we launched new tiers including Starter, Lite, Standard and Premium plans. The new options brought a flood of new customers and opened the door to creative new ways to use Simple Booth.

We shipped features

In the spring we introduced a new Gallery HTML 5 web app that re-imagined the gallery and digital sharing experience. Then we launched LiveFeed, Green Screen, advanced data capture, moderation tools and free seasonal themes.

We landed our mission statement

After long sessions on the state of social media, what we’ve built, and what we want to build next, we landed on a very simple mission statement. Putting your purpose in writing is a big deal for any business, especially a young startup. So here it goes. Simple Booth exists “to help people capture social experiences with products that are fun and easy to use.” Hope you dig it as much as we do.

Let’s talk about iPads

Just two years ago, the old-guarde photo booth rental folks didn’t believe iPads would ever replace DSLR photo booths. Such talk is now all but unheard of. iPad-based photo solutions have proliferated and for good reason. In 2017, Apple increased the front-facing camera resolution on iPad Pro to 7 MP. They lowered the cost of entry for a full-size iPad to $329 and updated the 12.9″ form factor with new features.

Theres little lingering doubt that tablets are the future of photo booths, and we’re leading the wave.

We laid a new architectural foundation

Under the hood, we migrated our entire iOS codebase from Objective C to Swift. On the web, we adopted new standards and best practices and swapped frameworks. Next year the hard work will pay off, Simple Booth will be more agile and releasing features faster than ever.

So what about next year?

I can tell you that 2018 will be an incredible year for experiential photo tech. We’ve been busy behind the scenes on big projects that will come to fruition in the first half of 2018. Stay tuned and follow us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook for the latest news and product announcements.

MYEVENTISTHEBOMB was formed in 2013 by Jeremy Cox, Co-founder at Simple Booth. Since that time, their team has helped hundreds of companies, brands, and individuals amplify event activations and create branded experiences with photo booth rentals and managed services.

MEITB excels at maximizing fun and minimizing stress for every type of event imaginable. With each photo booth rental, clients of MEITB are able to create brand awareness as well as unique and unforgettable experience for guests.

Joining forces with MEITB will help us place event experts at the forefront of activations and make it easy for customers to get the photo booth equipment they need for their events.

This will be great for clients who already own a HALO but need to scale up for a larger event.”

-Mark Hennings, Co-founder and CEO at Simple Booth

You’re now able to get full service or self-serve photo booth rentals directly from Simple Booth.

Full Service Photo Booth Rentals

A full service HALO rental includes an experienced on-site brand ambassador who will help you get the most out of your photo booth rental by inspiring guests and promoting your brand.

We offer all of the custom branding features of HALO, unique physical props, and the option to have a backdrop, photo print station, and a live feed that displays the photos from your event in real time onto a screen or TV monitor.

This week we’ve also introduced a new green screen photo booth feature.

Self-serve Photo Booth Rentals

A self-serve HALO photo booth rental offers the opportunity to curate your own photo booth experience. Our in-house creative team will help design branding for your event, then ship the HALO directly to you with everything ready-to-go for your activation.

It’s a turn-key solution that can be set up in 5 minutes. After the event is over, simply apply the return shipping label and send it back.

The teams from MYEVENTISTHEBOMB and Simple Booth are incredibly excited about this merger. We’ve been working side by side for the past year and are happy to finally make it official!

MYEVENTISTHEBOMB has offices in Denver, Dallas, Houston and Austin and ships HALO photo booths anywhere in the US.

Startup culture is one of those intangible things that is difficult to get right, but painfully obvious when it’s not. How do we build and foster a culture of aspiration, energy, fun and respect not only in our companies, but also our personal lives?

We believe it’s as simple as taking action to stimulate the culture you aspire to achieve. So what better way to kick start this than to get out of the office for a few hours or even a day long team hike? Spending time outside with your team strengthens the bond of colleagues. As a bonus, studies show hiking can boost creativity and even improve cognitive function. Sign us up!

Here are the 6 things the Simple Booth team learned hiking a Colorado 14’er.

1. Slow Down to Go Fast

Need speed? Slow down. There’s no hack to get to the top of the mountain quicker. We added two dogs and a HALO photo booth to our ascent, so a super fast summit wasn’t in the cards. Hiking teaches you to slow down, observe the world around you and to listen to your body. Being nimble is about focus and intention, not just pushing to go faster.

And you can use the “go slow” principle off the trail too. A Harvard Business Review study showed that firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved both top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating profits over a three-year period.

2. Step Away From The screen

Stepping away from the computer screen is one of the most simple fixes to reduce workplace stress, which according to the American Psychological Association, is the second most common source of stress. Movement and exercise gets endorphins flowing, making us feel good and, in turn, stimulating the brain to be creative. At fast-paced startups like Simple Booth, we want employees to collaborate and enjoy the time they spend working together. So whether it’s a short walk, quick game of Foosball or an an all day 14’er summit, time away from the desk helps us to be more productive when it’s time to get things done.

3. Be a Creative Problem Solver

Hail. Storms. Snakes. Poorly marked trails. Even the most prepared hikers can get lost or run into problems along the way. The key to making it? Adaptability. If you’re adaptable you’ll be a creative problem solver, both on and off the trail. So whether you need to duct tape a busted seam in your jacket to keep out the rain or setup a photo booth in 50 mph winds at the top of a mountain, you need to be able to think differently with the knowledge and tools you’ve got.

4. Stop Overthinking Everything

Stop thinking. Get out of your mind. Click your feet together and pose like no one’s watching. Without getting too New Age, living in the moment, or mindfulness, is an active, present state of being that brings a sense of clarity and focus. Hiking the beautiful terrain of Mount Bierstadt gave our team clarity, focus and a sense of urgency that taught us to focus on what matters most: now.

5. The Best Things In Life Are Shared

Over the course of our hike, we were fortunate to summit with the U.S. Army’s B Company, 743rd Military Intelligence Battalion, led by Captain Jeromy Turner. Hanging with B Company at the top of Mount Bierstadt, we experienced the power of a dynamic culture that drives pride, performance and fosters leadership. This culture is what every single member of the Army relies on in training, preparation and battle. Not only did the entire B Company summit together, but a team member re-enlisted and was sworn in at 14,062 feet in the Colorado Rockies.

It was an honor for Simple Booth to be able to share this magical moment.

6. Put In The Work To Get the Payoff

You’ll never break world records or get the epic view at the top if you don’t put in the hours of hard work to get there. Push past fear, pain and doubt. Be open to taking risk and exploring. Things didn’t always go the way we planned along the miles and miles of our hike (we’re looking at you, marmots), but in the end, it was worth every step.

And who knows? You just might break a world record while you’re at it…

Check out everyone’s photos from the top of Mount Bierstadt here!

Today we are launching our new blog because we want to share these important moments with you as they happen.

Everything up until this point, however, has been wildly under-documented! It’s time we open up the vault and share with you how we got started and where we want to go.

We came from the event industry

Before Simple Booth was conceptualized, co-founders Mark Hennings and Jeremy Cox worked events every weekend. Mark filmed weddings out of Omaha, NE while Jeremy moonlighted as a DJ in Austin, TX. They put their time in at countless weddings and corporate events.

In 2012, Mark was asked by a friend to set up a photo booth for an entrepreneurship after-party. Not knowing much about photo booths, he accepted the challenge with the idea to set something up using an iPad that would enable social sharing right away. Mark went to the App Store to find an app to use for a social sharing kiosk and found an iPad app that worked…but it wasn’t ideal.

The party, however, was a huge success. Everyone loved seeing their images right away and being able to share them, even though they needed hand-holding to navigate the app. Mark saw instant potential and decided to dive in to make an app for the perfect photo booth sharing experience.

Back in Texas, Jeremy was working hard running events for his business. He loved using photo booths and saw an opportunity to make them super social and interactive. He researched and experimented with many different options until he finally found Simple Booth on the App Store. It was a perfect fit for the vision he had and he decided to design his own hardware to go with it.

An app was born

In 2013 Simple Booth was a two-man operation. There was Mark Hennings, a college student turned wedding videographer turned app developer learning how to code apps from tutorials online. There was also Alex Kirts, a print designer taking his first stab at an app user interface.

With hard work, a bit of luck and a lot of trial and error, they released Simple Booth Event Edition (now Simple Booth Classic). There were other photo booth apps on the App Store at the time, but they were primarily loaded with goofy effects and built for personal use only. Simple Booth was one of the first that was designed for modern, live events. It delivered what what we called “the real photo booth experience on an iPad.”

Simple Booth was the first live event photo app to achieve widespread popularity. In late 2013 it was clear to be a smash hit with consumers when Mark and Alex posted a video on how to set up a photo booth in minutes. The video started getting over 500 views per day. Customers started calling and Mark’s wife Stacy joined the team to provide great customer support.

The small team kept building new features and iterating on the user interface until in 2014 they could release a pro version of the app that businesses would use.

Founders united

Then came a key moment.

Jeremy Cox had discovered Simple Booth Pro Edition on the App Store and decided to use it for his photo booth rental business. However, he wanted to expand the vision of what you could do with the photos by collecting them in online galleries that guests could view instantly on their phones.

Jeremy paid Mark to hack together a working gallery prototype. The idea of being able to view photos from the event you’re at in real-time captivated Jeremy and he quickly convinced Mark of how awesome it could be.

Meanwhile, Mark started to research how he could provide a hardware solution in addition to software for customers. Finally, in the fall of 2014, Mark and Jeremy met face-to-face in Denver during CHIVE Fest, an event that Jeremy had been hired to set up his GIF booth for. He hinted that he had some hardware to discuss with Mark.

That weekend, Mark got to see what would become the HALO hardware.

Mark and Jeremy hit if off and knew that they had to put their ideas and creations together.

Going mainstream

After the launch of the iPad Air 2, we came across a delightful surprise. The iPad displays in retail stores had a looped video of different apps in action. Simple Booth Event Edition was one of those featured apps. You could find Simple Booth in almost every Apple Store in the US! It was in mobile carrier locations like Verizon, too, all the way through the end of the year.

Everyone involved in Simple Booth was thrilled and honored to have their creative use of the iPad and app design recognized by Apple in such a prominent way. We never properly bragged about it, so here we go… it was awesome.

We started selling our first ever hardware units in the spring of 2015. It was the beginning of a great union between hardware and apps for a complete photo booth experience.

Building the web platform

In the summer, we decided we would need to build more web tools to offer a seamless experience for guests and the event hosts. We started developing a backend web system to make our dreams a reality.

We debuted our platform at Web Summit in Dublin. It was there that we met the son of the family that originally invested in London’s first photo booths! We only had a brief time with him, but it was a meaningful opportunity to make a connection to the origin story of photo booths while we were working so hard on the industry’s future.

At the beginning of 2016 we publicly launched the HALO subscription service with online galleries, text messaging, data capture, and other cloud features.

Since then, Simple Booth has been focusing on building out a core team of talented designers and developers. We grew in 2016 from 5 people to over 14! We are making our products more scalable, useable, and increasing the capabilities of what our team can accomplish.

We had our first team retreat in Lake Tahoe in July, 2016 and a second one in Austin, TX in October. Just recently we also opened our first offices in both Austin and Denver.

Gearing up for big changes

As a team we are rallied around our shared vision for the future. Our mission is to deliver fun and convenient photo experiences to people in their everyday lives. We plan to bring new products to market that will completely change the way people see photo booths.

We can’t wait to show them to you.