Pixologie: Your Photo Estate Experts

It was late 2020, and after seven years of constant toil, Pixologie’s financial performance just wasn’t working out the way Mollie Bartelt had hoped. What was she doing wrong? Mollie was confident there was demand for her market offer—photo estates: printed and digital archives of families’ photographs, videos, and documents that helped families preserve their legacy—but there seemed to be a disconnect between what she was offering and the market, as evidenced by Pixologie’s weak financial results. She had two things in mind that might help keep the proverbial lights on. The first was receiving a U.S. Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) grant during the early part of the pandemic. That would allow her to tread water until the second lifeline might kick in and help in the long-term. The second change involved adopting a new market-centric perspective that she was learning about while working with a small-business group.