Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shawn Rubel. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Shawn, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

The story behind Vecteezy’s mission is deeply personal because it stems from my own frustrations as a designer. When I was starting my career, I constantly struggled to find quality visual resources that didn’t break the bank. Stock photos and vector graphics were expensive, especially for designers on tight budgets. I’d spend hours scouring the internet for free resources scattered across dozens of different sites.

At the same time, I talked to friends who contributed to big stock platforms, and they were struggling to get fair compensation for their work. Most stock marketplaces keep the majority of revenue and the contributors get very little.

I realized I could solve both sides of this equation. I could democratize access to professional-quality creative resources by making them free and affordable, while creating a platform that actually compensated contributors fairly, even for free downloads, which was unheard of in the industry.

Our mission became about removing financial barriers that prevent talented people from bringing their ideas to life, while creating sustainable income opportunities for the artists who fuel that creativity.

What makes this meaningful is that I’ve lived both sides. As a designer, I know the frustration of having great creative vision but being limited by budget. I see daily how we’re enabling small businesses and individual creators to compete with organizations that have massive creative budgets.

When I see our contributors making their primary income from Vecteezy, or hear from small business owners who launched their brands using our resources, that’s when I know we’re fulfilling our mission. We’re not just a stock photo site, we’re leveling the playing field for creativity worldwide.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m originally from Ontario, Canada, where I studied Visual Arts at Brock University. After graduation, I moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky in 2007 for a job in internet marketing. While working my day job, I was still passionate about design and needed a creative outlet, so I started tinkering with websites on nights and weekends.

The lightbulb moment came from my own pain points as a designer. I was constantly frustrated trying to find quality design resources that fit within a tight budget. Vector graphics and stock photos were expensive, and the free resources that existed were scattered across the internet with no central hub.

In 2007, I launched my first site, Brusheezy.com, offering free Photoshop brushes. When that took off, I followed with Vecteezy.com, focused on vector graphics. What started as a side project became something much bigger and I left my job in 2009 to focus on my sites full-time. Over the next few years, Vecteezy continued to grow and significantly outpaced Brusheezy, so that’s where all of my focus and energy went.

Today, Vecteezy is much more than a home for free vector graphics. We’ve expanded into stock photos, video footage, and other graphic resources. Many of the resources are free, and others are available through a Pro subscription (we launched Vecteezy Pro in 2010).

Vecteezy offers more than 60 million creative assets, and we serve over 20 million visitors each month. What sets us apart is our “freemium” approach and creator-first philosophy. We maintain a massive library of truly free content while offering Pro subscriptions for enhanced features. Most importantly, we’ve built a sustainable model where creators actually earn money from free downloads, something very few companies in the industry do.

We have thousands of contributors worldwide, many of whom make their primary income through Vecteezy. Seeing talented creators from different countries building sustainable careers through our platform is what drives me every day.

We’re also proud to be completely bootstrapped and profitable with no venture capital and no outside funding. We’ve grown organically by focusing on solving real problems for our users.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

First, hire the right people and get out of their way. Early in my journey, I tried to do everything myself. I was involved in every little facet of daily operations. But as we’ve scaled, I’ve learned that my job isn’t to be the smartest person in the room; it’s to hire the smartest, most talented people and create an environment where they can excel. We look for people who embody our G.A.R.D.E.N. core values: Genuine, Ambitious, Reliable, Detailed, Enthusiastic, and Nimble.

Consistent communication is crucial, especially with remote teams. Our leadership team meets every other morning at 8:48 AM – it’s a great way to align, touch base, and motivate each other. We use tools like Slack for daily communication and Google Meets for company meetings, but the key is creating genuine connections despite the physical distance.

I’ve worked to build accountability without micromanaging. We use two-week sprints with clear goals and regular check-ins. Our teams know what success looks like, and we trust them to get there. We have product owners who help estimate timelines and manage roadmaps, but we also accept that development is hard and timelines can shift.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Our reputation was built on a simple but powerful principle: provide value first, always. For the first three years of Vecteezy’s existence, every single resource on our site could be downloaded at no cost. I made money through ads and affiliate marketing, but users got genuine value without paying anything.

As a designer myself, I understood the daily frustrations our users faced, like expensive stock resources, scattered free content, and poor search functionality. Because I lived these pain points, we could build solutions that actually worked. Our authenticity resonated with the creative community because we weren’t trying to extract value from them; we were trying to serve them.

While major stock platforms were taking the lion’s share of revenue and leaving creators with pennies, we built a model that actually compensates contributors for free downloads. Word spread quickly in the creator community that Vecteezy was different, and many contributors started making their primary income through our platform.

In an industry full of venture capital and acquisitions, staying independent and profitable allowed us to make decisions based on what’s best for our users and contributors, not investors. This authenticity has been crucial to our reputation.

Our reputation spread primarily through word of mouth – designers telling other designers, contributors sharing their success stories, small businesses recommending us to peers. When you genuinely solve people’s problems, they become your advocates.

Building reputation is about showing up reliably day after day. We’ve weathered industry changes, economic downturns, and technological shifts while staying true to our mission of democratizing creativity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.vecteezy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vecteezy/
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/vecteezy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vecteezy/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vecteezy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzpQnk8iWbTAQe9LF3w-psg