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Meet Eric Michaels of Slo Moe Booth, Foto ATM, and SAYERS in Lincoln Park

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Michaels.

Eric, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
In 2015 I suddenly had some extra free time on my hands when my band at the time broke up. I was just starting a new group, SAYERS, my current band, and I had a full-time job as the Music Director at Uncommon Ground. While I loved my work, the thought of spending 40 hours a week building someone else’s business made me sick inside. I needed something else, so I went on the hunt for a business idea. I started meeting with my friend Kevin Sweeney weekly before work to brainstorm ideas over coffee. After a month of spitballing ideas we weren’t getting anywhere, but then everything changed when I got invited to a wedding. I found out the bride was looking for something unique, something more interesting than a traditional, enclosed box photo booth. At the time, Kevin and I just happened to come upon some viral slo mo videos online and the idea clicked; we decided to create a slow motion video booth and bring it to the wedding for free. By some miracle, we sourced a manufacturer, software provider, and technology in under two weeks and presented our new product at the wedding. From there, it took off through referrals and advertising trial and error. Kevin eventually left the company and pursued a new business opportunity in Bloomington, but I decided to quit my job and go all in on building the business. Three years later, Slo Moe Booth has tripled in size, serviced national marketing campaigns for Corona, Modelo, Chicago Blackhawks, and Cox Communications, provided booths for celebrities such as Mike Epps and Andrew W.K., and made our name as one of the top photo booth companies in the Midwest. While building Slo Moe Booth up, I was getting ideas to create my own retail product that I believe will replace all traditional photo booths found in bars, hotels, restaurants, and retail outlets. I wanted to capitalize on the popularity of Slo Moe Booth’s open air photo booth style and the rise in the Instagram printing trend, while making instant printing more easily accessible than the Walgreens process. I pitched the idea to some investors and eventually found Brian Gardner, the founder of Imagit Solutions, to help me make this vision a reality. With the help of Brian and our Director of Sales, Ken Haton, Foto ATM was born. In just under a year, our line of combination photo booth, social media, and smartphone instant print kiosks have been installed in bars, amusement centers, and conferences in Illinois, Texas, Arizona, and even Australia.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s definitely not a smooth road, nor has it ever been one. As far as I’m concerned I’m still building, with one of my companies, Foto ATM, only a year old. The main struggle for me has been delegating my time wisely. When you are building something, there is no tried and true road map, you just have to dive in and hope you are spending your time in a way that will result in money in the bank. For instance, in the beginning, like most start-ups, I was spending more money on advertising and equipment than revenue coming in. Eventually you hope that the investment pays off, and in my case so far it has-fingers crossed, but nothing like spending away your entire savings and taking on debt without a guarantee of success.

Slo Moe Booth, Foto ATM, & my band SAYERS – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Slo Moe Booth offers the most innovative photo booth rentals in the Midwest, including Open Air Photo Booth Kiosks, Slow Motion Video Booths, Hashtag Printers, and Flip Books. What’s more, all of our booths come with social sharing, so guests can tag and share slow motion videos, photos, and GIFs across platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. I am most proud of our consistent record of excellent service and five star reviews from Google and Thumbtack to The Knot and Wedding Wire. Ask any small business owner, and they can tell you how hard it is to maintain a dependable reputation.

My new company, Foto ATM, is replacing the traditional photo printing and photo booth market with social media and smartphone instant print kiosks. Through the use of custom Instagram & Twitter hashtags, a Foto ATM is able to drive social media traffic and revenue to a plethora of retail spaces. Pay and Print branded photos directly from a smartphone, built-in photo booth, or Instagram/Twitter.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
There have been moments in almost every venture, not sure where to start. In music, I have had the opportunity to play in over 60 cities in the US and Canada, sharing shows with bands from Dawes to The Lumineers. My current band, SAYERS, just came off a successful launch of our new record, Horror Stories, and got that sucker played on Q101 and XRT!

On the start-up side, I have two favorite moments. The first was quitting my job and living off Slo Moe Booth. The second was seeing the very first Foto ATM sitting in a bar in Texas. There is something really special about coming up with an idea years ago, a concept that only exists in your head, and then seeing it through to an actual, physical thing you can touch.

Pricing:

  • Slo Moe Booth photo booth rentals start at $399 and range in price dependent on booth style, location, and rental hours.

Contact Info:

Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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