Joel Flory

A natural leader, Joel FLory provides vision and business savvy to VSCO. A rare hybrid of creative and commercial, Joel understands the complex nature of building and sustaining a brand in the creative industry.

Flory and Greg Lutze founded VSCO. Despite the embarrassment of riches generated by a passel of solitary programmers, the founders of VSCO had no intention of dipping into a get-rich-quick scheme. They were doing quite nicely nurturing a little startup peddling digital editing tools to the likes of professional photographers and graphic designers, thank you.

Launching VSCO Cam—and version 2.0 this June—changed everything. The free iOS app offers a selection of presets (i.e., photo filters) and simple editing tools all rolled neatly into a mini social platform. Users can keep their photo "grids" within the app or share their favorites on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Weibo.

With over a million downloads in the first week, the app’s drawn a massive following that goes way beyond professional photographers. Thanks to a hashtag (#vscocam is added automatically when photos are taken or manipulated in its app), amateur photographers are also uploading their postage stamp-sized oeuvres at an astounding rate. Instagram alone boasts over 4 million VSCO-tagged images.

Flory holds degrees in Industrial Technology and International Business and Facilities Management from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.