Slingshot: A Side Project Saved My Startup [Creativity Series #15]

Published: Sept. 11, 2016, 8:07 p.m.

FOR EXCLUSIVE BONUS CONTENT + CREATIVE EXPERIMENTS: Subscribe at [unthinkable.fm](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Funthinkable.fm "http://unthinkable.fm") to get a quick note from Jay every Monday morning.\n\n \n\n\xa0\n\n \n\nTODAY:\n\n \n\nHear the story of a creative side project that saved a startup. Crew co-founder and CEO Mikael Cho talks about Unsplash.com, a photography side project that now boasts billions of photo views each month and salvaged a startup heading for bankruptcy. The project is so widely used today that a photo on the site gets viewed more times than a photo on the cover of TIME Magazine ... but it all started with a ridiculously small amount of time and an even smaller budget.\n\n \n\n\xa0\n\n \n\nLINKS TO KNOW:\n\n \n\n[unsplash.com](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Funsplash.com "http://unsplash.com")\n\n \n\nMikael's company: [crew.co](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcrew.co "http://crew.co")\n\n \n\nMikael's Twitter: [twitter.com/mikaelcho](https://exit.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fmikaelcho "https://twitter.com/mikaelcho")\n\n \n\nJay's Twitter: [twitter.com/jayacunzo](https://exit.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fjayacunzo "https://twitter.com/jayacunzo")\n\n \n\nJay's Snapchat: [snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsnapchat.com%2Fadd%2Fjayacunzo "http://snapchat.com/add/jayacunzo")\n\n \n\n\xa0\n\n \n\n\xa0\n\n \n\nTOPICS DISCUSSED:\n\n \n\nSide Projects\n\n \n\nStartups\n\n \n\nPhotography\n\n \n\nCreativity\n\n \n\nCraft\n\n \n\nIntuition\n\n \n\nArt\n\n \n\nTechnology\n\n \n\nContent Marketing