What I didn't expect was how hard it would be to find something that didn't require either a premium subscription or hours of hunting through dead ends.
The problem: I couldn't justify shutterstock's pricing
Like most people starting out, I checked Shutterstock first. Everyone mentions it, so I figured it was the standard.
The issue wasn't that Shutterstock is bad (it's not). The issue was simple math.
I needed maybe 4-5 images total with transparent background for my initial launch. At €29/month, I'd be paying for way more than I needed. If I only subscribed for one month, that's still €29 for mockups and content I could potentially find elsewhere for free.
For someone testing a product idea, that felt like money I'd rather spend on ads.
Pinterest: a beautiful time sink
Pinterest seemed more promising. Free to browse, tons of design inspiration, and I'd seen people talk about finding templates there.
After 30 minutes, I had a folder full of pins but nothing I could actually use, as transparent background apparently was behind the sign up which I wanted to omit.
How I found woopicx
I searched for coffee 3d icons with transparent background and the ad on google appeared.
My first reaction was skeptical a bit, but I thought if someone did spend money on ad to get to me, I must check that business 🫠
I didn’t try AI generated feature as it was enough for me to just get those images of coffee mugshots.
That was really good enough for me and fast and for free https://woopicx.com/collection/basic3d
Not only coffee
It also gave me the ideas for my hero on the landing page that I happily used to create https://woopicx.com/search/landing-page