Louisa Imperiale is a DC mom and start-up founder. Her mission? To make you look better. Her app, Photox, connects you with real retouching professionals to make you the best you. No need for amateur Photoshop skills or hardcore gym workouts! Learn more about Louisa and why she created this gorgeous app.

1. What is Photox?

Photox is the quickest way to look your best in photographs; it’s a smartphone app that connects people with professional photo touch-up artists on-demand, 24/7.

You download the app, upload a photo, and select from over 30 touch-up options, ranging from teeth whitening and wrinkle erasing to dramatic weight loss. Once your photo is submitted, our team of professional touch-up artists will edit it and send it back to you in as little as 15 minutes.

We’re currently available on the iPhone, and will be releasing Photox for the iPad and Android, as well as a web-based version, later in 2014.

2. Why did you start Photox?

It all started with a wardrobe malfunction. In the once-in-a-lifetime photo of me holding my daughter for the very first time right after she was born,  My bra strap was showing and I didn’t want to share that photograph with the world!

So that night in the hospital, after some pleading on my part, my husband took out his laptop and did a quick Photoshop job on the photo. And that’s when I started to think, “This should really be an app… Why shouldn’t everyone have instant, affordable access to a quick professional touch-up of their photos?”

3. You’ve been working in politics for years, so why all of the sudden go into the start-up venture?

They’re not as far apart as you might think. The same skill set I developed as a political fundraiser serves me well in the start-up world: competitiveness, high tolerance for risk, etc. I actually think it’s a logical next move for a recovering political junkie. Every campaign I ever worked on was essentially a start-up, so this feels like familiar territory – in a great way!

4. How does this app differ from other photo editing apps that already exist?

One word: professionals. Photox uses your own preferences and the artistry of actual professional touch-up artists. Our artistic work is incredible and cannot be replicated by technology. I’ve used several of the other apps myself over the years and they only applied retro-looking filters (cool, but gimmicky) or made me look blurry. Umm, no thanks.

5. Obama calls and wants to kick it this weekend. Where are you going and why?

Would he mind babysitting? I could use a date night with my hubby. Or maybe POTUS and FLOTUS could join us on a double date to the Kennedy Center – the first place I worked in DC, where I met my husband 7 years later, and still by far my favorite destination in the city. Besides, I’ve always wanted to sit in the President’s Box of the Opera House – so let’s kick it there.