One of the bigger annoyances these days has to do with taking pictures. There is not really any way to get everyone in the picture. Someone – the person taking the picture – is always left out. However, we just came across a new startup that wants to change that problem. CaseCam is the World’s most compact iPhone tripod. The case features “A flip-out kickstand props up your phone and a mirror embedded in the kickstand reflects the image into your iPhone’s camera, enabling you to take pictures or video without having to hold up your phone.”¹ This is an awesome solution. We had a chance to ask the CaseCam team a few questions about their product:

What is CaseCam?

CaseCam is the world’s most compact iPhone tripod. A flip-out kickstand props up your phone and a mirror embedded in the kickstand reflects the image into your iPhone’s camera, enabling you to take pictures or video without having to hold up your phone. The CaseCam App has a delayed shot feature that allows you to take group photos without leaving the photographer out of the picture. It also allows you to use your friend’s phone as a remote trigger for taking the group photo from your phone, and with a WiFi connection, frame the shot while you’re in the picture. Plus the app has a direct sharing feature.

Why build the CaseCam?

Garett Ochs and Justin Cicero started CaseCam together after they both realized the need for a solution like this.

Garett came up with the idea as a senior in the mechanical engineering program at the University of Washington. This was right about the time that the Oxford English Dictionary officially added the word “selfie.” He was out at a local bar with my friends and remembers thinking how ridiculous they looked trying to take a “group selfie” picture, especially considering how many tries it took to get everyone in the picture without “the selfie arm” getting into the frame. This experience led to the realization that the world needed a solution like CaseCam, and he knew my entrepreneurial spirit and mechanical engineering background made me the ideal person to create it. (he has a day job designing space craft)

Justin, Garett’s business partner, has been integral in influencing the design of CaseCam since its inception. Justin had been thinking for years about how a solution like CaseCam might improve the day-to-day lives of other parents by allowing them to better capture their family photos and videos. Looking through photo albums, Justin realized there was only one parent in every family photo – either him or his wife. Loving to take his family on adventures and vacations, it had always been hard to find an impromptu photographer at the beach, zoo or Disneyland. Additionally, he realized at his preschooler’s holiday show that every third parent, like him, was unsuccessfully trying to control a wobbling iPhone camera while capturing video. He wanted to create CaseCam so his kids and grandkids could look back and see the entire family together in photos, and so parents could shoot better, more stable videos, while being able to enjoy their important memories firsthand, too.

How is the CaseCam different from what is currently available?

The most similar products to CaseCam are MirrorCase and Covr Photo. Both offer a cell phone case for the iPhone that redirects light into the phone’s camera, allowing you to use your phone like a remote control to take pictures and video horizontally. CaseCam, however, solves a problem that these others don’t – the ability to take pictures without needing a photographer. The CaseCam app will allow users to take group photos more easily than ever before using the innovative WiFi viewfinder feature, allowing you to frame your shot and snap the photo while you are in the picture.

Main features of the app will include: a timer, the ability to pair up with other iOS and Android devices to trigger the camera shutter remotely via Bluetooth, and even a WiFi viewfinder feature that enables users to sync up with another mobile device so they can see what their CaseCam sees from the screen of another device. This allows picture takers to frame the photo they are taking, while they are in it, to take the perfect picture the first time. Within the ap, users will also be able to edit the photo and share it to social media.

There are three main points that differentiate us from Covr Photo and MirrorCase: form factor, cost and capability. Our case fits all the functionality of Covr Photo and MirrorCase into a much slimmer package – the same size as a typical protective case. With a $25 price point compared to the $55 price of Covr Photo, CaseCam is also much more reasonable in cost. Additionally, the capability of the CaseCam app is unique among our competitors and allows the user to take pictures and video remotely, which opens up a whole new realm of iPhone camera capability.

Tell us about your founding team and their backgrounds.

Garett Ochs is a 24-year-old Seattle native who graduated last year from the University of Washington’s Mechanical Engineering program. While in school, Garett was a designer for the UW Formula Motorsports team, which designs and builds formula style race cars for international competition (the UW team is ranked 8th out of 500 international teams). Now for a living, Garett designs and builds spacecraft intended for space exploration and the mining and processing of minerals on asteroids. He was one of the first employees at Planetary Resources Inc, a company that started in a one-bedroom apartment in Bellevue, and now has 35 employees and continues to grow. Last year the company launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised $1.5 million to build a spacecraft that Garett helped design.

Justin Cicero, also a Seattle-area native, is a 42-year-old father of two. He and his wife had been thinking for years about how a solution like CaseCam might improve the day-to-day lives of other parents by allowing them to better capture their family photos and videos. Looking through photo albums, Justin realized there was only one parent in every family photo – either him or his wife. Loving to take his family on adventures and vacations, it had always been hard to find an impromptu photographer at the beach, zoo or Disneyland. Additionally, he realized at his preschoolers’ holiday show that every third parent, like him, was unsuccessfully trying to control a wobbling iPhone camera while capturing video. He wanted to create CaseCam so his kids and grandkids could look back and see the entire family together in photos, and so parents could shoot better, more stable videos, while being able to enjoy their important memories firsthand, too. Justin works as a managing real estate broker in Kirkland.

What’s the next step? What are your short-term goals?

On July 21st CaseCam will launch via a Kickstarter campaign to raise $25k. This will fund the production of the first mold used to create the case. From there, they will develop cases for other popular phones and offer a variety of colors.