Amit Gupta has been involved in a lot of things - The Daily Jolt, The Big Moo, ChangeThis, BarCamp NY, and Jelly, and most recently his obsession is the awesome photography site Photojojo.

Jelly is casual coworking. “We invite people to work from our home for the day. We provide chairs and sofas, wireless internet, and interesting people to talk to, collaborate with, and bounce ideas off of.”

Photojojo is a very confident photography mailing list “You probably own a digital camera and you’ve probably taken a bajillion photos with it. You may have printed a few. Well, it turns out there’s a whole world of things you can do with your photos and with your camera that nobody ever told you about. We find the most kick-ass photo tips, DIY projects, and gear and bring them to you.”

Tell me about Jelly - what type of people show up and why is it popular?

We got all kinds. Entrepreneurs, web developers, tea sommeliers, industrial designers, bloggers, journalists, students, bakers… People come for different reasons. Some want a break from working from home and appreciate having others working around them, some like the casual networking that takes place, and others come for the creative vibe, the opportunity to bounce ideas off of creative people and get feedback. As many of us start working remotely, human contact becomes more precious, and a casual work-together event like Jelly brings back some of the humanity lost in our disconnected work world.

How important is it for individuals in the tech/web industry to go to events like BarCamp (which you brought to New York) and Jelly?

I think it’s really crucial to stay in tune with what’s going on in your local tech scene and to meet with as many people doing interesting work as possible. You can get a lot from reading blogs and keeping track of what’s going on via the net, but if you really want to know what people are working on now - not what they’ve been working on for the past 6 months and are ready to show the world now - you gotta talk to ‘em.

What techniques do you use to get your new ventures to their first 1,000 users?

Build a product (or service) that’s inherently worth talking about. I don’t take on new projects until I have a good idea of why someone would want to tell their friends about it. I’m not interested in buying attention.

Have you ever turned down an opportunity that you regretted or that went huge without you?

Yup. No comment.

You’re a well connected guy - do you have a hit list of people you would like to work with in the future?

I don’t really keep a list. I definitely pursue people when there’s a good match between the skill-set of someone I know, and a project I want to undertake, but I’m not looking in the opposite direction. There’s a few folks in NYC right now I’d like to work with more that I’m talking with.. and I’m on the lookout for new collaborators in San Francisco, where I just moved.

All of your sites have a “As seen in…” comment with a list of mentions from a range of impressive media companies, how do social media and blogs compare to offline marketing and public relations? Do you approach getting coverage in either differently and is one more effective than the other?

I guess I do in that I actively talk to bloggers about a new project when it’s getting close to launch and I think they might be interested. I haven’t pursued any traditional media outlets about my stuff — they’ve found me, or the project, via friends or via blogs.

Which is better for you depends on what you’re going for. With Photojojo, our goal is to spread awesome photo ideas to the world, and that means coming up with awesome ideas, and expanding our subscriber base. A solid link from a well-trafficked blog means a lot of new subscribers — a blurb in the Wall Street Journal or Washington Post is great to be able to tout, but it does less for us in increasing subscribers.

On the other hand, landing stuff like a Today Show bit for Jelly was huge in getting the word out to people all over who wanted to start their own. That wouldn’t have happened as quickly with one blog mention.

What is in store for Photojojo over the next year?

More awesomeness.

We’re looking to add some fun online photo toys, build a photo contest site, and expand our coverage of photography+moms. We’re also shopping a book proposal, and talking to a lot of different folks about partnerships, but nothing I can talk about yet.

Sounds awesome - good luck with it all!

Amit is the founder of Photojojo and recently launched Time Capsule after developing it at Jelly. Time Capsule sends you photos from your Flickr account from a year ago, and it is really really, awesome.

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Posted on November 28th, 2007 by Ross