2022
June
Released “E04|S01 – Compton Goes Pro: Portrait Photography Business Operations”
May
Released “E03|S01 – Compton Goes Pro: How To Make a Living as a Pro Photographer”
Implemented faster CDN and Server Security with Clodflare and CloudwaysApril
Released “E02|S01 – Compton Goes Pro: Phases of Compton’s Transition: “You Create Your Own Luck””
March
Released “Window Light Portraits” Collection
Launched Video Podcast Show “Compton Goes Pro”February
Released “Intro To Studio Portrait Photography” Master Class
Roll out of the exclusive ISO1200 Ambassador ProgramJanuary
Released “Headshot Photography” Collection
Scaled up server capacity with Cloudways
2021
November 1st, 2021: We Are Live!
Release Candidate V1.0 / 3 first topical collections / Another 6 collections are in the making / A Halloween Success!
August to October > Platform Final Stage (+ Newsletter)
Changing hosting company to achieve better speed and more effortless scalability down the road (global cloud) / Cache tuning, CDN, network tests / Finalizing the first 3 course collections we will launch with / Creation & implementation of our members’ newsletter “Inner Circle” / Adding new digital training partnerships for member discounts / Testing, testing, testing / Getting ready for launch (having an endless to-do list once the migration takes place) / Pushing the Release Candidate to the production server
June & July > Onboarding Process ‘Contributor Core’
The platform “mock-up” (aka Beta) is ready and fully functional. A bit slow still, but it spins / We are reaching out to contributors, asking for permissions / Finalizing core roster and content catalog we want to launch with / Back & forth, bothering quite a lot of people, but we get sign-offs from AMAZING folks / Also, some first partnerships with industry heavyweights & household names are getting finalized.
March to May > Finalizing Beta
Redefining editorial grid; filling-in all the pieces & missing “glue” / Planning “go-to-market”/launch campaign & rollout ideas / Testing, fixing, sweating, crisis, desperation, bouncing-back, all-nighters … – just about anything that’s connected to hardcore bootstrapping such a project 🙂
2020
Fall 2020 to March 2021 > Bootstrapping a Dummy Platform (Alpha)
We are building the platform. Piece by piece, function by function. Back to the drawing board, new ideas, scrapping former ideas,…
April to August > Pre-Production Work
Strategy, research, analyzes, concepting, talks, editorial schedules, business strategy, agreements, re-defining things, early dev page building (pre-alpha), test environment… – all the moving parts & good stuff happen.
March 17th, 2020 > The Idea is Born
After an intensive talk and extensive email-ping-pong, José Mata & Dan Hostettler agree to work on the idea of a new “photography learning platform.”