after its founding in 2003 with ceo jon oringer as the sole employee, by 2007 shutterstock had grown to 30 people. in 2010 oringer hired thilo semmelbauer as coo, who had previously worked with theladders.com and weight watchers. with 295 employees as of october 2013, the firm had grown to 700 employees as of 2016. in 2014, "fast company" published an article featuring shutterstock as an example of a successful "intrapreneur"-reliant company, touting the company's "hackathons" for fostering staff creativity.