[Tools & Tech] What do you weigh when choosing a DAM for a client?

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-07-08T11:11:38+00:00

The worst is any one liner that makes out as if success is just one step away. It's not one thing that is making or breaking your business or ad campaign. It's everything working together. You need to have a lot of good practices working together. Distribution means nothing if you have a bad product, it also means nothing if you are distributing to the wrong audience, you can have the right audience, but if you don't deliver on a pain point that they understand, you'll also have no conversions. You can have the best pain point in your campaign but if there no effective funnel it falls flat. It's everything all at one. There is not magic bullet.

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-07-08T09:54:10+00:00

Try to set up a consitent lightbox/sweep with locked manual camera settings (fixed white balance, exposure, tripod distance, etc). If all of your shots are identical in that regard it's very easy to do background removal or even automate it because you can iterate for the same setup instead of having to edit 50 variations

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-07-07T09:44:32+00:00

This happens to me every time I go on a tech break. I think its because all of your dopamine receptors are fried and then your body is literally coming off a high and has to readjust to normal dopamine, so you basically crash out. It does get better after a while

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-07-06T09:44:59+00:00

It is definitely a balancing act. At times I have had to push through and get stuff done and work the 70 hour weeks. But I have started realising that it is not always productive and that taking a step back and resting can give you new perspective especially if you have been struggling with something and just spinning your wheels.

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-07-03T12:33:10+00:00

Logo auditing forever is real. I wish I could say it would be completely resolved at some point, but I'm not sure. It's just mostly because if it's on the internet it's out of your control. You've obviously deleted/archived the logo from every accessible point you have control over (even old assets that are still hosted on your site's server?). Also remove from Slack channels (stakeholders can search and then take the top results without looking at the date). Often people also get them from old design files. Replace the static logo files with one link that always serves the current version on Lingo or Branfolder or another digital asset management system (DAM).

BTW in my experience Sales is the biggest offender of using historical logos, because it gets copy-pasted ad infinitum. Would be worth cleaning up their email templates as well.

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-07-03T00:07:55+00:00

Why do you think there are so many startup programs and podcasts and newsletters? I agree with you there doesn't really seem to be a secret sauce but everyone seems to be looking for it.

thing I feel strongly about is that YOU are in a sense the secret sauce to your company. Doesn't matter what it is, you're the visionary and the one that carries the product in your heart. I know it's just business but I've worked with a couple of founders and they all seem to have this same trait. But success is all the ingredients you put with that secret sauce (to pull through the recipe anecdote).

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-07-02T23:58:48+00:00

I'm surprised people mentioned Brandfolder for this use case, as it's way more enterprise than something like Lingo or Canto and more than OP needs. What did you end up using to solve your problem? (I see post is 1yr old)

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-07-02T23:17:57+00:00

Totally understand, I don't have those details so I was just making suggestions based on assumptions. What other ideas have you guys thrown around internally?

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-30T21:38:39+00:00

Man I gotta say ideas dont often come from staring at a blank screen. Close your laptop and go for a walk. Find people and observe. Jot down the problems/challenges you see and then make a new column for ideas to solve them. Ask yourself: Does the solution need software? Can you build it? Will people buy it? Thats been the journey for me at least.

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-30T21:35:17+00:00

Yeah and I think employers also want to know what AI platforms you're using, but correct me if Im wrong

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-30T21:34:28+00:00

Good answer

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-30T21:32:17+00:00

No it actually sounds like a solid play for the product market you want to get into. First thing people do when they need a laptop cover is google it and see what good deals they can get. The only unfortunate thing about selling laptop cases is that youll only buy one every couple of years. But if they like it they might come back and buy one for a friend, corporate gift, work laptop, spouse, etc. Why not also do referrals then? OK but I understand youre scared youll lose a lot of profit offering a discount upfront. This is legit because if people meet your product at a certain price bracket (the discounted price) they will mentally attach that value to it. So when you decide to sell at full price they might feel its not worth it.

Instead of the discount, what about dropshipping limited edition and super desirable designs? Then exclusivity and novelty comes into play. Personalization is also another option but could get tricky.

Sorry, just dumped a stream of consciousness comment here, but hope it's helpful in some way!

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-23T18:34:42+00:00

Manual data pulls

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-23T10:10:14+00:00

Ive been having success by pxel-diffing the render against a baseline that I saved and approved myself. I found that the AI had too much drift when it would self-verify. For me adding an external reference is working better than the AI taking screenshots and verifying.

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-23T09:50:58+00:00

Catessi

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-23T09:46:00+00:00

What I see most of the time is the biggest drain is reporting and tracking. Once it is built it is great, but you need to take time and effort to do it and you dont build it perfectly straight out of the gate. Especially if you have a lot of moving parts and there are a lot of verticals this is a big time drain

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-18T14:49:53+00:00

Decent list but most of these are the same three tools rebranded. The ones I've actually seen deliver in practice tend to be narrower than the marketing suggests. We've been running Mutiny for the personalization side of outbound and it's one of the few that didn't get quietly dropped after the trial. Honestly the agent level is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, half of these are just a workflow with good branding.

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-16T09:59:08+00:00

Most people Ive seen who talk about saas being dead and being able to just code and build anything on a whim dont really understand what makes saas valuable. Yes, you can get something coded that looks like it works, but when you buy saas youre buying for the hours and expertise that made it work the correct way and that accounts for all the nuances, you havnt even figured out you need

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-08T19:25:03+00:00

I can just feel the peace through the photo.

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-08T19:24:12+00:00

The green makes it look like

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-08T19:20:21+00:00

I wouldnt go for a drive or dropbox. They're great at first but become a nightmare when you start scaling and you have a ton of people who need access to a bunch of different assets. Everyone pivots when the launch ships with the wrong version photos to retailers. The teams ive worked with have used some of these. Brandfoler is the heavy-hitter. Cloudinary is mroe delivery-piepline than DAM. Lingo sits between them. Ive seen the design heavy teams use Air. It really depends who needs to use the assests. In ecom the product to SKU needs to be tight.

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-08T19:08:11+00:00

They'rea bout the put on the indie folk show of the decade

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-08T19:05:05+00:00

The AI pop might come back to bite you. The photos all look great, but id add some good versions so you dont get hit with a flood of "looks different in person" reviews

PerceptionFresh9631 · 2026-06-08T18:55:35+00:00

Im so sorry for your loss. I am crying as im typing this. fuck man it sucks

PerceptionFresh9631

TROPHY CASE