We spent $0 to launch a business from our tiny apartment—now it brings in $26.5 million a year

In 2018, Tessa “Tezza” Barton and Cole Herrmann launched a photo editing app called Tezza to simplify photo editing for social media users. Instead of startup funds, the husband-and-wife duo relied on Barton’s photography expertise and Herrmann’s software engineering skills to create the app — starting with premade filters and expanding into more complex editing tools. Tezza brought in $26.5 million in 2023, and boasts 2.5 million monthly users today.