Case Study: SmartShoot achieves nearly 40x scale and automated, "invisible" finance operations with Tipalti

SmartShoot Scales Nearly 40x with ‘Invisible’ Finance Operations

SmartShoot, a San Francisco–based online marketplace that scaled nearly 40x, connects enterprise clients like Yelp, Google, YouTube and Zillow with a network of over 4,000 freelance photographers and videographers to deliver thousands of jobs each month. As volume grew, manual payables and payment notifications consumed finance time (two full days monthly), created US and international tax‑compliance risk, and left a single finance lead unable to focus on strategic priorities.

SmartShoot implemented Tipalti to automate onboarding, tax collection and validation, and global payments. The solution eliminated tax‑penalty exposure, freed about 24 days of finance time per year, ensured timely, transparent payments to talent, and allowed finance to concentrate on pricing, corporate development and business partnering to support continued growth.

SmartShoot

John Pfeister

Head of Finance