Why I Built Menvin

Solving my own pain so photographers don’t drown in their inbox

As photographers, we live and die by our response times. We can shoot jaw-dropping work, but if inquiries sit in the inbox too long, leads go cold. It sucks, but that’s the industry.

For years, I handled my photo clients the manual way: - Check inbox constantly. - Copy-paste pricing details. - Rewrite the same paragraphs again and again. - Stress about missing a hot lead while on a job.

When my wife became a full-time photographer, I saw her living the same nightmare — especially after long events when the only thing she wanted was sleep, not admin.

I tried using AI tools to help. ChatGPT. Assistants. Templates.

But the workflow was clunky: -Back-and-forth between email client and AI -Repeating context every time -Fixing made-up prices and invented promises -Confirming availability manually

Useful? Yes. Good enough? No way.

So I built the thing I actually needed:

A silent AI layer that lives inside the existing inbox, detects real inquiries, applies my pricing and calendar rules, and puts a finished reply in Drafts — ready for me to hit send.

Menvin isn’t another inbox or CRM. It’s the invisible superpower photographers always deserved.

I built Menvin because creative people should create — not get stuck writing the same first reply forever.