Intro…

In late December, I bought the domain RideShots.cc and wrote about what I was trying to build on January 9th. Five days later, I met with Marko – a photographer, runner, and cyclist – and pitch him the idea to take photos of cyclists on Krvavec ⛰️.

Less than three months later — on a sunny Saturday, April 12…

The RideShots.cc experiment in action

Here are some stats:

• 150 QR codes printed
• 10 kg of bananas bought (~50, if you're curious)
• 30 chocolate bars as a backup
• 1 hour spent sticking QR codes on bananas and bars (🙏 to Maja & Ada)
• 0 paid ads — just word of mouth to friends
• 15 bananas handed out
• 3 cyclists politely declined a banana
• 4 email signups for photo alerts
• 1 Strava comment with a QR banana — legends!
• 2 📸 bundles purchased over the weekend 🎉

Oh, and before that, I built the platform — facial recognition to match faces to photos, photo hosting with strict privacy, and the purchase flow. But that's a detail.

Marko, our photographer (also an endurance athlete) brought:

• two cameras,
• music on the speakers,
• and a lot of good vibe.

By the way… we priced the photos at €9.99 each and €24.90 for a bundle — not to get rich, but to see if RideShots actually delivers value. Since we're not VC-backed, we have to build this the sustainable way — with real customers, real feedback, and hopefully, someday, real jobs.

What did we get in return?

Genuinely positive feedback from cyclists.

I expected to feel a bit awkward standing there handing out bananas, but even a small cheer – and a tasty snack – seemed to lift people's spirit when they were gasping for air. That was heartwarming. It certainly gave us the motivation to carry on!

Overall, it was a great learning experience.

However, there's still a lot we can improve going forward (👇).

What did we learn?

Conditions for taking great photos change throughout the day.

A sunny day's a good day for cycling, but not so for pointing your camera at the sun. Early morning and just before sunset are typically the best times for taking photos, but not many cyclists pass by in the golden hour.

We went out early – partially to give ourselves time to settle in, but also to shoot some promo material for RideShots. We were able to capture great shots, but those were staged and well prepared.

The real challenge came when we had just a few seconds – 5 or 10 – to snap a cyclists pedaling uphill. If Marko was positioned on a hill, he needed to pay all his attention to spot a person coming out of the corner. Toggling between two cameras was not really an option. For some shots, we just weren't prepared. Some shots were interrupted by passing vehicles. What can we do, eh?

Oh, and I made a mistake handing out QR-coded bananas too close to the shooting point, which meant I showed up in some of the photos. Oops! In an ideal world, riders would cycle by smoothly, get a different notification for their photos, and I'd never be in the way. This is still something we're figuring out.

Right now, RideShots uses face recognition to match cyclists to their photos. But backshots can be beautiful too, and matching them is an interesting AI challenge I'm keen to tackle next.

Lastly, improving the post-ride experience

We need to improve both the way photos are found and how they're presented.

As a photographer, you're taking numerous shots in a short time to capture everything. Wanting to get photos out the same day, I made the decision to publish the entire batch — over 1,000 pictures. In hindsight, that was a mistake. It was not only cost-ineffective, but also resulted in a poor user experience. As a cyclist myself, I wouldn't want to sift through so many photos. I'd prefer a curated selection of my best shots.

For efficiency, we decided to handle photo editing after a purchase. While this makes sense from an organization perspective, it's not ideal from a user experience standpoint. If someone sees their photo that's blurry, too bright, or too dark, they might dismiss it, even though it could turn out great after editing. We need to improve how we display your photos.

What gave us motivation to continue?

It genuinely felt like people were happy to be cheered on by a couple of sports enthusiasts — with a camera and a snack.

We didn't get yelled at.
At worst, three people declined a banana, but they did that with a smile.

Roughly 30% of cyclists who got one scanned the QR code (this number keeps increasing).

Some probably missed it or binned it. That's fair.

Until next time…

How about you – did we met at Krvavec? Would you prefer to get your RideShots somewhere else? Is there anything you think we should improve? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for riding reading!