John and Sam Shahidi started developing iOS apps in 2009 and started out as a video game development company called Rock Software, later renamed RockLive. Their first commercial app was RunPee.

Between 2009 and 2012, they developed additional apps for celebrity athletes, including Usain Bolt, Terrell Owens, Ronaldo and Mike Tyson. To promote the game Mike Tyson Main Event in 2011, Shahidi rented a boxing ring during the festival South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, with Tyson making an appearance.

RockLive was rebranded to Shots Mobile. Shots, a selfie photo sharing app, was released in November 2013. It was intended as an anti-bullying social media network. The inspiration for the app came after Facebook was forced take down a page that attracted cyberbullying. As a child, Shahidi had been bullied due to his Iranian Kurdish heritage. In Shots, photos had to be taken real-time, without the use of filters or other editing material and users could not comment on pictures or see how many “likes” other people received. “Your social status doesn’t matter inside Shots. It’s about expressing your feelings in a picture, which is why we don’t allow comments. We never want our users hurt, harmed or bullied by what they read about themselves on social media — it’s about signaling what you’re feeling inside”, Shahidi’s brother John said.

Shahidi was part of the unveiling of the new uniforms of the Golden State Warriors in September 2014. A selfie with Harrison Barnes was retweeted 4,700 times.

Shots raised $15.2 million in funding. Investors included boxer Floyd Mayweather and singer Justin Bieber, who, through involvement in Shots, became friends with the Shahidis. Bieber lost to Shahidi in a drinking contest in September 2015.

In its first 18 months, Shots gained 1.8 million daily active users. Due to the strong competition from other photo and video sharing apps like Instagram and Snapchat, its number of users dropped from 7 million in March 2016 to 2.5 million in October 2016. Notable users included Snoop Dogg, Shaquille O’Neal and future Shots Studios artists Rudy Mancuso and Lele Pons.