Selling art for all
When Jen Bek ma n landed on the New York tech scene i n 2007 with affordable art startup 20x200, she didn't have a splashy concept or a huge pile of venture capitalist cash to build buzz.
Instead, armed with a passion to make art as accessible as possible, she bootstrapped her brand the old-fashioned way — leaning on the wide network of well-connected friends she'd built over the years and her background as an art gallery owner and Internet entrepreneur to get it off the ground.
“I just reached out to people I knew and said, ‘I don't have the money to do this right now but I really believe in what I'm doing, and I know it's going to work,’” Bekman said of the early days of her site, which lets customers buy limited edition fine art prints in a range of sizes and prices starting as low as $24.
Her gut feeling and hard work paid off, as 20x200 will celebrate its fifth anniversary on September 5, beating the odds and bringing in serious revenue — an estimated $7 million in 2012 alone.
“I call it the gateway drug of the art world,” Bekman joked. “We give people a taste of the good stuff and that gets them hooked."
The startup's success is inspiring for those just getting started, since Bekman proved she could beat obstacles such as the economic meltdown that hit shortly after launch, as well as the widespread misperception that buying art is a hobby only the wealthy can enjoy.
“Most people, their experience of art is in museums because galleries are in many ways intimidating,” she said. “People are surprised that it's really simple human emotion and connection that drives engagement with a piece. You can buy a piece of artwork if you like it — that's a good reason to get started.”
On a mission to change the idea that you need “some secret handbook” to get involved in the art world, Bekman launched the site with the tagline “Art for everyone.”
“The art that I live with in my home makes my life richer,” she said of why she thinks everyone should have access. “I really want art collecting to be a much more mainstream pastime than it is.”
The strength of her business model led investors to fund the company with a total of about $3 million since 2009. 20x200 plans to raise additional money in the next six months to a year.
“That evolution into being a venture-funded startup really made a big difference in terms of continuing to grow,” Bekman said. Her company now has a staff of 18, and its customer base has nearly tripled since 2010.
Of the over 185,000 prints sold so far, quite a few can be found hanging in the homes of highprofile fans of the site, including Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley and fashion stylists Rachel Zoe and Robert Verdi — not to mention on the walls at Vogue and on set at HBO's “Girls” and NBC's “Smash.”
“It's really cool to see it popping up,” Bekman said.
With signs that the economy seems to be stabilizing, she sees an even brighter future ahead.
“Things are improving, people are moving into new homes, decorating, getting their houses together,” she said, citing an uptick in their sales of framed prints as evidence. “I think that speaks to a kind of confidence.”
And Bekman still feels as energized as she did on Day 1, even though she's now something of a veteran in the startup world.
“It's nice to be five years into something and still have it feel fresh and that there's so much more to do,” she said. “I really believe in what we're doing. I feel really driven to make it into a big thing.”