ethanappleby

Well said Jason.

John, thanks for taking the time answer. I know artists are not suspicious but they will come around - thats not the hard part (tho it can feel harder than it should be).

Im not sure your argument that your buyers have not heard of Saatchi is a good thing (you're right artsy is different market). This means its going to take more education and cost for discovery. They should say I looked online and found these four places but dont like them because of X. Then you address X.

MKL this is something as an artist or a platform I would make much clearer. You're right that if you look at materials alone its more than folks are willing to pay. Then there is artists time. You could show like based on materials plus time this artist would be getting paid $10/hr. this may help people to justify costs. However its not necessarily the best measurement (some artists are faster, more experienced are faster)

Ramraj, if you just want it to look good in your room, are you really going to pay several hundred dollars more over time for what you could get a beautiful poster from art.com? This is the challenge all online platforms (not so much galleries) face - people just want something to look good, and that can cost fully framed $120 from art.com. If you're going to spend $400, $1000, $1800, etc you have to care about the artist.

I dont fully agree with this statement, but perhaps the sentiment. I think there are those who are on the fence and doing it monthly can always help. However, I think the bigger struggle is that those interested but not major collectors still get sticker shock whether or not its monthly or not. This is the challenge with all rental models. They advertise "only $25/mo" however when that person says yes I like this, its still $2000 and they are like no thanks.

John, this is an industry with a huge graveyard of failed startups doing the same thing. And the only ones left - Artsy, just went through a huge firing and recapping and I wouldnt give them long. Leaf group is trying to get rid of Saatchi in a fire sale and ArtFinder is barely break even with a team less than a dozen and making money from charging artists.

So given this idea does not seem different than the many before (and far from the 10x YC talks about when the needed improvement of a product to win a space), what am I missing?

Is there an underlying technology, unique community angle, or do you believe the timing wasnt before from the time of Artix to 2019 but 2020 is the year.

I love artists and design, and am shocked this has not happened yet, so Im rooting for you.