AN ARTFUL RISE
ABQ startup Etkie grows into new space with workforce, sales on the rise
Etkie, a Native American art and jewelry business, is moving into the company’s “first grown-up space” to better display its wares, CEO Sydney Alfonso says.
The nearly 2,000-square-foot space is at 1216 Fourth NW. Previously, Etkie operated out of much smaller quarters at the Keshet Dance and Center for the Arts on Cutler Avenue.
The company began in 2014 with the aim of selling jewelry and Native American arts. Etkie was the first company to go through Creative Startups, a local business accelerator.
Alfonso quickly found that her company could become much more than a craft vendor. She began hiring bead and loom artists from To’hajiilee, a Navajo reservation chapter 35 miles west of Albuquerque, where the unemployment rate hovers around 50 percent, according to Etkie’s website.
In New Mexico, Native American art is a big deal, and Alfonso viewed it as an industry that was not benefiting the artists as much as it could. The company hires its artists, many of whom were previously unemployed, and pays them an average annual salary of $33,000.
In its first year, Etkie brought in $35,000 in revenue. Three years later, it has grossed over $645,000 in sales.
Alfonso said Etkie, which is Turkish for “impact,” is on the rise, and she owes it all to her artists and the support of the local community and businesses.
“One of the reasons that we wanted to keep a presence in the city is the outpouring of support from the local community,” Alfonso said.
The move comes with more than just a new space. Alfonso plans to add four more artists to her eight-person workforce. She said she is going on a “mad hiring spree” and needs artists who can do beadwork and run a loom.
In addition, the company plans to shift toward a cooperative model in which the artists can become owners as well as employees. Alfonso said she is committed to creating good jobs that aren’t defined solely by pay but also by a sense of ownership and pride.
“Building a long-lasting community where everyone essentially has the same stake in the game is the business model of the future,” Alfonso said. “It’s definitely something that is core to our values and who we want to be.”
Alfonso said she wants to promote women in business as well as help Native American communities, and she sees Etkie as being central to those causes.
“There is definitely a demand for what we do, not so much from the products we make as the elevation of Native American art and artists,” Alfonso said.