Building a Company That Helps You Live in the Moment and Still Share It
Dori Adams, founder of Shutterb, turns adversity into innovation with a platform that connects event organizers to smartphone storytellers. Her mission: help people stay present, capture real moments, and bring authenticity back to content creation.
A World Obsessed with Recording, Disconnected from Living
For Dori Adams, the founder and CEO of Shutterb, storytelling is more than a marketing strategy. It’s a way of finding meaning through the moments that test us. Her company—a fast-growing platform that connects event organizers with smartphone content creators—emerged from a lifetime of learning how to see beauty and resilience in imperfection.
Dori’s journey began in a household that was once defined by stability and success. Her father ran a thriving plumbing business in Toronto with twenty trucks on the road. The family had every sign of comfort—vacations, a pool in the backyard, the sense of security that seemed permanent. Then, when Dori was still young, everything changed. Her father developed fibromyalgia, one of the first diagnosed cases in Canada, and the prescribed pain medication led to years of dependency and decline. The man who had built the family’s foundation was now losing his business, his health, and his sense of self.
By her early twenties, Dori found herself not only pursuing a degree in advertising but also caring for her father as his world unraveled. She managed his hospital stays, his business collapse, and the day-to-day weight of mental illness and addiction. Eventually, after years of struggle, he passed away. “It forced me to keep moving forward,” she recalls. “There was no other option.”
That phrase—move forward—became her mantra and even her tattoo. It would later become the heartbeat of Shutterb, the company she founded to help people stay present and connected while others capture their moments.
Empowering Presence Through Storytelling
Before founding Shutterb, Dori spent sixteen years in corporate advertising, leading multi-million-dollar accounts and helping brands find their voice through storytelling. She excelled in the world of strategy, content, and brand positioning, but something deeper kept calling her. One night at a concert, she noticed a father and son sharing a small but powerful moment, and she thought, someone should be able to capture that without them missing it. That thought stayed with her for years.
When her daughter was born in 2019, the idea resurfaced with new urgency. “Becoming a mother changed everything,” Dori says. “I wanted to show my daughter what it looks like to build something from the ground up—to create your own path.” During her maternity leave, she began shaping the early vision of what would become Shutterb.
Launched in September 2023, Shutterb has already captured over a thousand events, built a network of trained smartphone creators, and reached six-figure annual revenue. But beyond the metrics, Dori’s vision is deeply human. “We live in a world obsessed with recording,” she says. “I want people to put their phones down, be in the moment, and still get the content they need afterward.”
In a market flooded with AI-generated content, Dori sees Shutterb as a reminder of what’s real. Her focus on live experiences—capturing human connection rather than polished perfection—reflects her own story of resilience. “I grew up watching everything fall apart and learning how to rebuild,” she says. “That’s what entrepreneurship is. It’s about showing up again and again, even when it’s hard.”
That same mindset shapes how she leads her team and the growing community of “Shutterbees.” Through Shutterb Labs, she trains creators not only in how to shoot content but also in emotional intelligence, storytelling, and client relationships. “Anyone can take a photo,” she says. “But it takes awareness to tell a story that moves people.”
A World Where Authenticity Wins
The parallels between her life and her company are striking. Where she once felt responsible for holding her family together, she now channels that drive into building a company that empowers others to find stability, expression, and purpose. She leads with a mix of grit and empathy, always pushing forward, always teaching her team to see meaning where others might see only mess.
Today, as Shutterb expands into new markets, Dori’s story continues to shape the company’s identity. She envisions a future where creators around the world earn a living by capturing genuine human experiences—where storytelling is real, inclusive, and deeply felt. She has proven that adversity can become artistry, and that the best leaders aren’t defined by what they avoid, but by what they transform. “Everything I’ve been through taught me how to see people,” she says. “And that’s what Shutterb is really about—seeing the story that’s already there and helping others tell it.”
Watch the founder's UpNext PopUp interview from Elevate Festival 2025
About Flashpoint POV Spotlights
Flashpoint POV Spotlights are in-depth founder features produced by Flashpoint Global—a thought leadership management studio that helps innovators articulate the world they’re creating.
Each story begins with a Future Narrative Session and develops into a Minimum Viable POV (MVPov): the founder’s clearest statement of purpose and perspective.
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