Danny Postma: HeadshotPro — AI Headshots to Six-Figure Months
After selling Headlime, Danny built an AI headshot product that scaled with SEO and affiliates, reaching high six-figure monthly revenue.
- MRR
- $100K–$300K peak
- ARR
- $1M–$3.6M range reported
- Users
- 200k+ shoots
- Founded
- 2023
- Team
- Solo / small
- Stack
- AI image models, custom pipeline
Where did the idea come from?
I had already sold Headlime, an AI copywriting tool, which gave me runway and some audience. When generative image models improved in late 2022 and early 2023 I looked for a use case that was both practical and underserved. Professional headshots are expensive, time-consuming, and often needed at short notice by individuals and teams. The existing options were either traditional photographers or low-quality AI experiments.
I built a pipeline that takes a set of selfies, trains a personal model, and generates consistent, usable professional headshots. Quality was the main constraint. Early AI portraits looked synthetic. I spent a long time tuning pre-processing, generation, and post-processing so the results would be acceptable for LinkedIn, company websites, and team pages.
HeadshotPro launched in March 2023. Traction came quickly. People needed the output and were willing to pay for convenience. Over the following years the product generated millions of headshots and served both individuals and larger teams, including known companies.
How did you grow without a big paid-acquisition budget?
Two channels did most of the heavy lifting: SEO and affiliates.
For SEO I created pages that matched what people actually search — AI headshot generator, team headshots, city and job-title variations, and related long-tail terms. The content was practical and the product delivered on the promise, so rankings compounded. Traffic that arrives from search already has intent.
Affiliates became a second engine. Once the product was reliable I opened a program that paid creators and site owners for sending customers. At peak the affiliate channel was reported to contribute a meaningful double-digit percentage of revenue, with monthly payouts in the tens of thousands. Systematizing payouts and tracking removed the manual friction that often kills affiliate programs.
I also launched loudly on social channels so the early spike had somewhere to land. After that, organic and partner channels carried more of the weight.
Pricing and business model choices
I chose one-time packages rather than pure subscriptions for individuals. Headshots are often a periodic need rather than a daily habit. Pricing started in the range of a few tens of dollars per session and offered multi-session packs. Teams later became an important segment because a company refreshing headshots for dozens or hundreds of employees is a larger, higher-value transaction.
Margins on AI generation depend on compute costs. Keeping the pipeline efficient and the pricing clear was essential. The goal was always to deliver something better and faster than the traditional alternative at a fraction of the cost and logistics pain.
What changed as competition and platforms evolved?
AI image capabilities improved across the industry, including offerings from large platforms. That put pressure on differentiation and on pricing power. Revenue projections were revised. Like many AI-wrapper businesses, HeadshotPro had to adapt — focusing on quality, reliability, team workflows, and the distribution channels that were still effective.
The business remained real and useful. The peak numbers that circulated publicly reflected a strong period; the longer-term picture is a product that found a genuine need and then navigated a fast-moving market.
Lessons for other builders
Own a distribution channel that is not purely paid. Search and affiliates both reward consistency and product quality. Early AI products can work when they solve a concrete, recurring or high-intent need rather than a novelty.
Quality is a feature. In generative image products the difference between “interesting demo” and “I will pay for this for my real profile photo” is large. Investing in the pipeline pays off.
Finally, be prepared for the market to move. Models improve, platforms enter the space, and customer expectations rise. The founders who survive are the ones who keep improving the product and the channels after the first growth spurt.
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