Just some general business advice. I know absolutely nothing about the stock photo industry: 1) Critical, i think, to any successful business endeavor, is valu

Just some general business advice. I know absolutely nothing about the stock photo industry: 1) Critical, i think, to any successful business endeavor, is value creation. The best companies create something tangible, and something of value. 2) It's very hard to compete on price. You cannot build a duplicate product and sell it for cheaper. Consumers might buy a product if it is cheaper from a well established player, but as a startup, you have to also show some value creation in the product. 3) From a layman's POV, here's the problem I see with your idea: you're not really creating anything of significant value. You're taking a niche (stock photos for cheap) that's dominated by some "big" players now (istockphoto), and trying to divide it up into smaller niches. Your value-add of "well once I have the platform built, I can expand to another niches" doesn't really help the consumer, it only helps you. 4) Presumably, you would have the same content/subject matter of stock photos as istockphoto. They're a big site. What's stopping them from having advertising campaigns, adwords, more marketing etc., attacking your niche? You probably will not be able to outspend them, so how are you going to draw in customers? 5) It's not enough to say, "well we'll give our photographers better margins." In my experience, they're going to have a value-add other than potential income stream - mainly because their current revenue stream is actually real, as yours is well, only tangible. Once you submit to iStockPhoto, can you submit elsewhere (I don't know how this works, really). If someone is making $1 per photo from 10,000 sales at iStockPhoto (and cannot submit anywhere else) they're not going to switch to you even if you offer $10 a photo. Their existing revenue stream, current relationships are worth more.