I hadn't really worked in an office before Shutterstock, so I didn't have the experience of building a culture, nor did I understand how important that is for attracting and retaining the best talent.

There is a lack of talent in technology, and we need to be encouraging kids in school to learn how to code. We need to encourage computer science as a major. We need to encourage entrepreneurism.

Shutterstock has the tech ethos. Rex has the relationships, packaging, and merchandising know-how.

At Shutterstock, we've been offering tutorials to customers and contributors on our blog for many years. Our audience already viewed us as thought leaders on the latest digital and creative skills; we felt it so natural for us to launch Skillfeed, which is an online marketplace for professional learning.

At around 50 employees, you get to the point where you can't see what's going on all the time. So you start to have weekly check-ins, and you have days that go by without knowing exactly what's going on.

We continually hear from our engaged customer base that Shutterstock's content is a true differentiator, given not only the size of the library but also the quality and diversity of the images we offer.

Nobody is opposed to paying taxes; governments need to coordinate, work together and simplify the law.

By investing in diverse asset types from SD video to HD video to 4K video, we can satisfy the video needs of a wide array of users.

I started Shutterstock without any outside funding; I believe in creating a lean startup. By not taking outside investors early, I was forced to use every dollar I had as efficiently as possible. And I was able to keep a large part of the company.

Working with limited resources is an excellent way to hone skills that will serve you well for the rest of your career. You will prioritize profitability from the start.

I met with several public company CEOs to learn about their experiences of going public and listened to as many earnings calls as I possibly could.

Offset is helping to expand our relationship with large enterprises and serve a broader set of imaging.

I was trying to create products to complement the pop-up blocker. All these people were giving me their credit cards. I figured I could sell them something else.

I would still rather be in Silicon Alley. I like the West Coast also, but it's sort of fragmented. You have companies in downtown San Francisco, companies in Mountain View, and people are driving between them all. It's kind of nice in New York to just jump in a cab and reach another company so easily.

As I started college, I started to build software products that I could sell to people over the Web.

The best ways of marketing were email and banner advertising, but I needed images... and they were very expensive.

I figured managing people was obvious - I'd tell someone what they needed to do and they'd do what I wanted. It turns out that's not the case. It was frustrating at first.

Editorial imagery licensing includes celebrity, entertainment, sports, and news images that capture what is happening in the world around us.

I've never been very flashy or high-profile.

You can't be afraid of the problem. Don't be afraid of failure; don't be afraid to make mistakes. Make sure you learn from each step; iterate, and stay as efficient as possible without being paralyzed by a difficult situation.

Evolution has been the key tenet of success over the past 13 years, and we have transformed from a single subscription e-commerce image business into a company with a diversified portfolio of content offerings, servicing the needs of businesses of all types and sizes globally.

I opened up Shutterstock to the whole world. I created a contributor community that anyone could give stock photography a shot.

There's tonnes of room for more people in the tech market, and there are lots of content gaps that have still not yet been tapped into.

I hear so many startups talking about how they can raise VC instead of questioning whether they need it in the first place.