SINCE ITS FOUNDING in 2017, Cameo has been in the business of creating "magical moments." These are how the company refers to its personalized video messages from well-known actors, musicians, athletes, and other celebrities. In the early days of Cameo, these messages were primarily for individuals to send to friends or family. But a few years after the company's launch, Cameo's founders and employees noticed a new trend among their most active users: They were requesting magical moments for business purposes.
"Reading these requests, a bunch were, 'I want you to promote my sandwich shop,' or 'Can you make an ad for my car dealership?'" explains Dom Scandinaro, Cameo's senior vice president of engineering and data. "It became pretty obvious to the team early on that we should build a specific offering for business."
Thus was Cameo for Business born. As Cameo discovered, however, building an enterprise offering of this magnitude meant overcoming unique strategic and technical challenges. The story of the company's growth since its founding underscores the importance of flexible and agile software solutions—and the importance of forming strategic partnerships early.
The database decision
When Cameo was initially building its platform, the company faced the question of how to handle its data. Of course, this question isn't unique to Cameo. Every tech company has to decide which type of database it will use, but the choice that Cameo co-founder Devon Townsend and team made before the company's 2017 launch proved critical to the company's future.
The key factors that Cameo was concerned with for its data needs—even in those early days—were flexibility and scale, which ultimately led Townsend to work with MongoDB and its document data model.
"The MongoDB document model empowers developers by removing the friction and rigidity imposed by traditional relational database systems," says MongoDB's chief product officer Sahir Azam. "Our intuitive approach allows developers to interact with data seamlessly with their preferred programming language, driving velocity and scalability into the development process."
The decision to use MongoDB helped Cameo's engineering teams build and launch several different features—such as direct messaging, Cameo Calls (live video calls), and virtual stickers—with unique data requirements due to distinct technical complexities. MongoDB's flexibility and scalability allowed Cameo's developers to build and maintain those features while simultaneously keeping the company's overall data infrastructure consistent.
"I feel very fortunate that [Cameo co-founder Devon Townsend] chose MongoDB when he was originally building things out," says Scandinaro.
When Cameo engineers set out to create Cameo for Business years later, new complexities arose due to the demand it might create. Cameo's engineers realized they needed to upgrade how they worked with data to account for those complexities.
Handling growth and complexity—plus spikes in demand—with ease
Just as with Cameo's 2017 launch, the key criteria for Cameo for Business were flexibility and scale—but at an even greater level than before.
For example, Cameo for Business created additional complexities that MongoDB helped solve without impacting Cameo's larger platform. The ability to give business orders as much specificity as required without bogging down the entire system would prove key to the successful launch of the offering.
"If a business order suddenly has a bunch of new requirements, we can add those as additional fields to the order without needing to affect every consumer order," says Scandinaro.
Separate from Cameo for Business, Cameo has also embraced a future where anyone can join its platform. The company realized that individuals with niche or localized appeal can offer personalized experiences that are just as meaningful as those from A-list celebrities.
"Limited talent equals limited fans, but unlimited talent equals unlimited fans," says Scandinaro.
Where talent used to be added to the platform exclusively through Cameo's talent relations team, they recently shifted to a self-enrollment model that allows anyone to join just by visiting the Cameo site. The policy brings in large numbers of new talent every month—more than 1,000 on average—and with them, surges in demand. A big enough surge could potentially impact Cameo's overall site functionality.
But Cameo was prepared for any increase in traffic. In 2019, Cameo transitioned from MongoDB Community Edition (which Cameo’s developers self-managed) to MongoDB Atlas, MongoDB's fully managed developer data platform. Doing so meant Cameo could focus more on delighting customers and less on maintaining its own databases.
Moving to MongoDB Atlas has also helped Cameo easily handle surges in traffic, such as those it regularly sees during holidays—or from the surges in interest that coincided with the launch of Cameo for Business and the new talent self-enrollment model.
"MongoDB Atlas is a great tool for us to be able to build quickly and scale when that kind of traffic happens," notes Scandinaro. "A database that scales with unpredictable traffic is paramount to our success."
To date, Cameo has delivered more than five million magical moments, adds Scandinaro.
Opening Cameo to a much, much wider audience
Cameo for Business was launched in 2020, and in July 2023 the company opened its doors to a broader talent pool. As a result, the company has seen a remarkable 200 percent year-over-year growth in talent sign-ups due to these new initiatives.
This trajectory points toward a promising future for Cameo as it continues attracting distinct talent from across the globe. The key to enticing new talent is making it easier for them to deliver the kind of magical moments that best align with their interests.
"If you're a tarot card reader and you're joining Cameo, you're obviously going to be more excited about doing a tarot card reading than you might be a birthday shout-out or something like that," says Scandinaro.
And because it can now use data to match both business and individual customers to its ever-expanding roster of diverse talent, Cameo has set an even more ambitious goal for its future. Rather than seeking to double or triple its current scale, the company is aiming for a tenfold expansion.
Focusing on magical moments, not database management
"We don't dictate from the top down as far as what we're going to do and how we're going to do it," Scandinaro says of Cameo’s engineering ethos. "It's a very collaborative process."
Because MongoDB Atlas is fully managed, Cameo's developers have more time to focus on enhancing how they can deliver magical moments.
Recently, they've turned to artificial intelligence (AI) to further enhance Cameo for Business (as well as Cameo's other offerings), specifically around data categorization and search capabilities using AI.
“We’ve extended the capabilities of MongoDB to make it much easier for developers to add AI capabilities to any application,” says MongoDB’s Sahir Azam. “MongoDB Atlas is uniquely positioned to enable organizations of all sizes to modernize, innovate, and deliver the business outcomes that drive success—all on one developer data platform.”
With MongoDB Atlas as the foundation, Cameo's developers aim to use the speed and efficiency of AI to improve search functionality and to provide users with increasingly personalized experiences. This means that Cameo customers will be able to identify the talent that best matches specific audience demographics to create the most effective and impactful campaigns.
Harnessing new tools like AI is just one way Cameo relies on its innovative engineering culture to push the platform forward in a way that delights customers and creates further flexibility for future products and features. And the adaptability of MongoDB helped Cameo innovate.
"Many relational databases require you to know exactly what your data will look like before you even get started," says Scandinaro, noting that MongoDB offered Cameo the opposite approach.
"It's a very flexible, developer-friendly database technology versus a more legacy solution that's locked down and very structured and tells you how you're going to do things. With MongoDB, you tell it how you're going to do things."
Cameo's future success
As a result of Cameo's decision to expand, innovate, and scale, the company is seeing significant growth and record profits. Cameo's success underscores the importance of using data to benefit customers to thrive in a competitive market. Moreover, because Cameo is now open to a broader audience of creators, the different types of content Cameo can offer customers—from invitations to episode recaps to proposals and even fantasy football draft tips—is unlimited.
MongoDB continues to play a crucial role in this journey. Scandinaro credits its efficiency, cost savings, and scalability as instrumental in helping Cameo achieve its ambitious revenue targets. MongoDB has also played a vital role in empowering Cameo's developers and invigorating its engineering culture, says Scandinaro.
Ultimately, Cameo is a compelling example of how technology and innovation can drive success in today's dynamic—and unpredictable—business landscape. With the right partners, companies like Cameo can continue to deliver magical moments for customers.
"The reason that myself and so many others are so excited to work at Cameo," says Scandinaro, "is the joy that our products bring people. We love being part of something that makes customers cry, laugh, and jump for joy."
To learn more about how MongoDB streamlines the development of next-generation AI-powered applications—from chatbots offering personalized support, to AI-generated images, code, audio, and video—visit MongoDB for Artificial Intelligence.
This story was produced by WIRED Brand Lab for MongoDB.
