We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sanela Ebbeskov Jankovic a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sanela, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?
That is a very honest question, and I think most entrepreneurs would agree that the answer is not always simple.
Yes, overall I am happier as a business owner. Building something from nothing and watching it grow into a real company is incredibly rewarding. Creating iUSE Photography and the technology behind www.iUSEphotography.com www.iUSEplatform.com has allowed me to combine engineering, creativity, and entrepreneurship in a way that a traditional job probably would not have allowed. The ability to design systems, solve problems, and build infrastructure that thousands of clients rely on is something I find deeply satisfying.
But that does not mean there are not moments where you briefly imagine what life might look like with a more traditional job.
I remember one evening very clearly. It was late at night, long after most people had finished their workday. I was sitting at my computer reviewing platform updates and client issues while our photographers were still out shooting properties and our editing team was processing files. Running a company like iUSE Photography means the work does not really stop at 5 p.m. There are always emails, decisions, and systems to monitor.
At that moment I remember thinking: What would it be like to simply close a laptop at 5 p.m., leave the office, and not think about work again until the next morning?” The thought crossed my mind for a moment.
But then something interesting happened. Almost immediately my mind shifted back to what we were building. I looked at the platform we had created for www.iUSEphotography.com, the network of photographers and editors we had built, and the thousands of real estate agents who rely on the system to market their listings. I realized that while a traditional job might bring a certain level of predictability, it would not give me the same sense of ownership or purpose.
As an engineer, I enjoy solving complex problems and designing systems that improve how things work. Entrepreneurship allows me to do that every day. The challenges can be intense, but they also make the journey meaningful. This is also why we have custom-built, designed and developed our PropTech Software Platform for real estate media professionals called iUSE platform www.iUSEplatform.com
I thrive by running a large team and my own company. That responsibility sits well with me. I’m always thinking about the business and I love to do the work that comes with being a business owner and engineer.
My husband and co-founder, Morten, and I often talk about this. Building a company together has been both demanding and rewarding, but the experience of creating something that did not exist before is incredibly fulfilling.
So yes, the thought of a regular job occasionally crosses my mind, usually during a long day or late evening. But it never stays very long. Every time I reflect on it, I come back to the same conclusion: I would much rather build something meaningful than simply clock in and clock out.
In the end, entrepreneurship is not just about running a business. For me, it is about building systems, creating opportunities, and continuously improving the way an industry operates. That process is what keeps me motivated. Also, to have built iUSE photography from nothing and now being the leading #1 Real Estate Media company in South Florida is very impressive and something that we can be very proud of.
Sanela, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Sanela Ebbeskov Jankovic, and I am the engineer, founder, and one of the owners behind iUSE Photography, which you can find at www.iUSEphotography.com. Together with my husband and business partner Morten Ebbeskov Jankovic, we built the company with a vision of combining technology, efficiency, and high-quality visual media for the real estate industry. A true PropTech Software Driven Real Estate Media company.
My background is in engineering and systems thinking, and that mindset strongly shaped how iUSE Photography was built from the beginning. When we started the company in 2015, we quickly realized that while real estate photography itself was creative and exciting, the infrastructure behind most photography businesses was often very manual and inefficient. Orders were managed through emails, text messages, spreadsheets, and phone calls.
As an engineer, I saw an opportunity to build something better.
Instead of simply creating another photography company, I designed and built the technology platform that powers www.iUSEphotography.com and iUSE platform www.iUSEplatform.com. The platform automates the entire workflow—from when a real estate agent places an order online, to scheduling photographers, coordinating editing, and delivering the final media files to the client. My role has been to engineer and execute the systems that allow the company to operate efficiently at scale.
Through www.iUSEphotography.com, we provide professional real estate photography and media services that help agents market their listings effectively online. Our services include HDR real estate photography, aerial drone photography, video walkthrough tours, virtual staging, 2D floor plans, and other marketing media used in property listings. Today, most buyers discover homes online first, so the quality of visual presentation has become incredibly important in real estate marketing.
What sets iUSE Photography apart is that we are not just a photography company, we are a technology-driven real estate media platform. The engineering behind www.iUSEphotography.com is iUSE platform www.iUSEplatform.com and on our real estate media website iUSEphotography.com and allows agents to place an order in minutes and have the entire process managed through a structured system that coordinates photographers, editors, and delivery. That combination of **technology, automation, and creative media production has allowed us to work with thousands of real estate agents and brokerages over the years.
Since founding the company, our team of photographers and editors has produced hundreds of thousands of real estate images used in property listings. The scale of that work would not be possible without the platform and operational systems that we built.
From a personal perspective, what I am most proud of is that we were able to take an industry that traditionally operated in a very fragmented way and build a structured, technology-supported ecosystem around it. The platform behind www.iUSEphotography.com allows photographers to focus on capturing great media while agents receive a seamless and reliable service.
Together with my husband Morten, we built iUSE Photography as a family-owned business driven by innovation, systems thinking, and a commitment to quality. While the creative side of the business is important, the engineering behind the infrastructure has always been what allows the company to scale and operate smoothly.
What I want readers and potential clients to know about iUSE Photography is that our goal has always been to make professional real estate media easy, reliable, and accessible for agents. By combining technology with high-quality visual production, we help real estate professionals present their listings in the best possible way.
At its core, iUSE Photography and www.iUSEphotography.com represent the intersection of engineering, creativity, and efficient systems—and that philosophy continues to guide everything we build and improve moving forward.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
We moved from Denmark to Miami in 2015 to live the American dream!
Entrepreneurship is often described as exciting, but in reality it also requires a great deal of resilience. One moment that really illustrates this for me happened during the early years of building iUSE Photography and the technology platform behind www.iUSEphotography.com.
When my husband Morten and I founded the company in 2015, we were not only launching a real estate photography service, we were also building our own custom technology platform from scratch www.iUSEplatform.com. As the engineer behind the system, I was responsible for designing and developing the infrastructure that would eventually power www.iUSEphotography.com, including the ordering system, scheduling workflow, photographer coordination, editing management, and media delivery.
In the beginning, everything was new and still being tested in the real world. I remember a period when the company was starting to grow quickly and we suddenly had a much higher volume of orders coming in through www.iUSEphotography.com. On the surface, that sounds like a good problem to have, but scaling operations while simultaneously building new technology can be extremely stressful.
There was one particular day when several things happened at once: photographers needed support in the field, clients were requesting updates on their orders, editors were waiting for files, and at the same time I was troubleshooting parts of the platform to make sure everything worked properly. I was sitting in front of my computer late in the evening reviewing systems, answering emails, and solving technical issues.
I remember taking a short pause and thinking, “This is a lot.”
But that moment also became a turning point. Instead of seeing the situation as overwhelming, I looked at it through my engineering mindset. Every challenge revealed a **system that needed to be improved or automated**. Each obstacle helped me refine the platform so that the next time the company grew, the system could handle the workload more efficiently.
Over time, those improvements became the backbone of what http://www.iUSEphotography.com) is today—a structured platform that allows real estate agents to order media easily while photographers, editors, and clients are coordinated through a streamlined system.
That experience taught me an important lesson about resilience: challenges are often signals that something needs to evolve. Instead of seeing obstacles as failures, I learned to treat them as opportunities to design better systems.
Looking back, I am proud that my husband Morten and I stayed committed during those demanding periods. Building iUSE Photography required patience, long hours, and a willingness to continuously improve what we had built.
Resilience, for me, has always been about remaining calm, thinking like an engineer, and turning problems into better solutions. And in many ways, those moments of pressure are exactly what helped shape the company into what it is today.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn came from moving between two very different ways of doing business.
We are originally from Denmark, which is an extremely digitalized country. Many processes there are automated or handled through centralized digital systems—everything from government services to banking and business administration. Because of that environment, I naturally assumed that most industries would operate with a high level of digital infrastructure and automation.
When my husband Morten and I started building iUSE Photography in the United States, I quickly realized that many parts of the industry we were entering still relied heavily on manual processes. Orders were often placed through phone calls, text messages, spreadsheets, and email threads. Scheduling photographers, coordinating edits, and delivering files were frequently handled through a patchwork of different tools rather than through a single integrated system.
My first instinct as an engineer was to try to immediately replace everything with automation. I believed that if a process could be automated, it should be automated. But what I had to unlearn was the assumption that people would instantly adopt a fully digital workflow.
The reality was that many clients were used to the “American way” of doing things—more relationship-driven, sometimes more flexible, and occasionally more manual. There is actually value in that approach as well. People want to feel that there is a human behind the service, not just a system.
So I had to adjust my thinking. Instead of trying to eliminate every manual step immediately, I learned to build technology that supports people rather than replaces them. That realization helped shape how I engineered the platform behind www.iUSEphotography.com.
Today, the system we built for iUSE Photography automates many of the operational tasks—such as ordering, scheduling, editing coordination, and delivery—while still leaving room for human communication and service where it matters.
Looking back, that lesson was incredibly valuable. I learned that technology works best when it enhances human workflows rather than forcing people to completely change how they operate overnight.
Coming from a highly digitalized country like Denmark gave me the vision for what efficient systems could look like, but building a business in the United States taught me the importance of balancing technology with human interaction and practical business culture. That balance ultimately became one of the defining strengths of iUSE Photography and www.iUSEphotography.com as well as iUSE Platform www.iUSEplatform.com and iUSE Property Website www.iUSEpropertywebsite.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.iUSEphotography.com and https://www.iUSEplatform.com and https://www.iUSEpropertywebsite.com and https://www.PropertyDescription.AI
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iusephotography
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iusephotography
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/iusephotography
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@iusephotography6268
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/iuse-photography-miami
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanela-ebbeskov-jankovic
Image Credits
iUSE photography www.iUSEphotography.com