Nour Chamoun studied Graphic Design in Lebanon and moved to New York about 7 years ago in pursuit of her Masters in Design and Technology.
She learned that she was able to create through coding and found it revolutionary. She also came across her co-founder, Christina Hawatmeh, during her time in grad school. Although she did a few stints here and there, her longest run is with her co-founder at Scopio.

“Scopio’s (Scope it out) mission is to make stock photography more diverse, authentic and affordable.” The approach is getting millions of photographers found on platforms like Instagram to join the Scopio community. They would submit their photos which are sold to buyers, with a percentage to the photographer.

She shares how Scopio allows emerging photographers to monetize their content and at the same time allows buyers to use photos that are diverse – from around the world; helping them tell better stories and that are more relatable and representative of different groups of people. Scopio moves away from the traditional concept of stock photography that lacks authenticity. Pictures tell a story that is worth a thousand words.

She had a lot to share about her views on remote work. “We are a remote team, and remote employment has two sides to it.”

There is some difficulty with communication so you have to establish very clear communication routines with the people you are working with. She prefers remote as it gives her the freedom of flexibility and gets her away from an oppressive office environment. She maintains that the main thing is communication and understanding between two parties who are working remotely together.

“We have learned a lot through communication and that we need structure to establish a productive relationship.”

She believes that there is need for better infrastructure and tools than what we have today, to keep the future of remote going. “The idea of remote is that the world becomes your oyster…it gives you the advantage of finding the diversity of talent that you would otherwise not find in your locality.”

Nour has managed to gain the lucrative title of Forbes 30 Under 30 in the media category. She believes that this recognition gives more outside credibility to her work and the ability to do much more with the company in the future. She says that “the status attached to the title gives us access to people and resources.”

In her 5 years at Scopio, Nour has come to the realization that starting any business is about creating meaningful impact; otherwise it is not worth it.

“You have to believe in what you are creating and the significance of the problem you are solving for people.”
Speaking about how Gaper and Scopio can synergize, she commented on how vetting to the top 1% is important and going remote needs a lot of back and forth, which Gaper solves. “Hire Smart” because as an entrepreneur you are going to hire as well as fire a lot during the lifetime of the company.

Hear on to learn what else Nour had to talk about.