# Center City: Curalate Pictures Bright Future in Philadelphia

Apu Gupta didn’t specifically want to start a company in Philadelphia. It just happened that way. [![Curalate works with other companies to establish marketing strategies that utilize Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr and other visual-based social media outlets.](https://phillyn-media.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/25231307/Two-300x200.jpg)](https://phillyn-media.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/25231307/Two.jpg)Curalate works with other companies to establish marketing strategies that utilize Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr and other visual-based social media outlets. In May 2012, after unsuccessfully attempting to start a business that rented out people’s spare storage space, Gupta and his business partner, Nick Shiftan, came up with the idea to start Curalate, a business that helps other businesses promote themselves on visual-based social media. Gupta’s wife was working in the city, and he convinced Shiftan to move from California. “We never set out to build a company in Philadelphia,” said Gupta, Curalate’s CEO. "It was happenstance. I think Philadelphia has become a really good place for us to grow the company." While it may seem odd for someone to move across the country to help start a company, Shiftan embraces the role of an entrepreneur. [![Curalate's office, at 2401 Market Street, mostly consists of one big room, including a corner referred to as the "living room."](https://phillyn-media.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/25231305/Three-300x200.jpg)](https://phillyn-media.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/25231305/Three.jpg)Curalate's office, at 2401 Market St., mostly consists of one big room, including a corner referred to as the "living room." "Being an entrepreneur is all about having the chance to do things you're totally unqualified to,” Shiftan said. “When we started Curalate, I knew absolutely nothing about computer vision, absolutely nothing about marketing. … That ignorance was bliss and allowed us to challenge a lot of preconceived notions and do things that no one had ever done before." Gupta and Shiftan are considered the co-founders of the company, but both gave credit to marketing manager Brendan Lowry, the company’s first employee, for helping start Curalate. https://vimeo.com/94709472\]  ***– Text, images and video by Evan Cross***