Early Euro activity on ImageKind
Oddly, our first few orders are coming from Europe. I’m not sure why but we like it. An up and coming blog called http://eurotechnews.blogspot.com/ gave a good review of the ImageKind site. The author, Steve Kennedy, is pretty well known in the euro tech scene so we really appreciate it!
Soft launch of ImageKind going well
We have purposely chosen to not do any significant marketing of ImageKind during the last week because we wanted to see how the servers and systems would perform. We still haven’t done any real email blasts or other posts around the net but people so far seem appreciative of our efforts. There are a few nice comments and reviews here. More than I can link to but I pulled a couple for a good read.
A quick Google search shows more than I would have suspected at this early stage:
A few sample posts from around the net:
Mashable
AlarmClock
LiquidSheep
Northwest Innovations
Web2.0 Stores
http://alexcastro.typepad.com/
There were too many other links to list and we appreciate all of you! Thanks for the support!
Excerpt from Mashable:
Seattle-based ImageKind, which launched this morning, is a service for creating, buying and selling wall art. The company was incubated at Curious Office Partners and built in six months for less than $300,000. But unlike Cafepress, Zazzle, Spreadshirt, innerTee and the rest, this isn’t about printing tees, mugs and mousepads – ImageKind supplies user-generated artworks printed on paper and canvas. They also provide framing and related services.
As a seller, you get your own store and decide how much you want to mark up your products. There are three account types: “Create”, which lets you print your own images, “Free”, which lets you sell your images within certain limits and “Pro”, which provides unlimited storage for $7.99 per month (although there are bandwidth limits). ImageKind does charge a 5% commission on your prints, but only if you decide to mark them up by more than 100% – otherwise, there’s no commission fee beyond the charge for the materials. Additionally, Pro users earn 5% commission on mats, frames or glazing sold with their prints.
While I can’t comment on the quality of the prints, the site itself is well-designed and the idea is a good one. There are also some nice social features like tagging, ratings and commenting. Over time, I’d like to see them adding more ways for the users to promote their work – widgets for blogs and social networks (MySpace, hi5, Multiply, Piczo) could work well here. All in all, a nice play.
Thanks to thealarmclock for the mention
Thanks much to one of my favorite blogs…thealarmclock for the unsolicited mention of ImageKind.
Great blog and worth putting in your RSS reader.
Gotta love the mention on K10K
I’ve been a big fan of the design portal K10K.net for years. They have been around forever and are one of the most read design blogs on the internet.
Thanks much for linking up ImageKind!!
Wraps taken off version 1 beta of Imagekind
We’re quietly lifting the wraps off of the ImageKind beta tonight. This is the first project spun out of Curious Office Partners…a venture founded by myself and Adrian Hanauer. We’re probably excited about ImageKind for many of the same reasons that John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins was excited about Zazzle. However, we didn’t invest $16 million into what we’ve done so far. In fact, we’ve invested only $300k. We know that consumer services require marketing dollars so we’ll certainly invest more into the company but we believe we’ve found a niche that is unique and we’ve done a decent job with the first version to differentiate ourselves from other products out there.
In a nutshell, we provide a very sophisticated online system for print-on-demand production of fine art (wall art). For now, we don’t make mousepads, frisbees or coffee mugs. Our system is custom designed for those who want to Shop, Create or Sell fine art prints and wall art. That art can be photographic or traditional art that has been digitally captured or digital art originating from a PC (e.g. Photoshop and Illustrator files). And that art can be cropped, matted and framed on our site.
ImageKind expects to be home to hundreds of thousands of digital images from a community of contributors who are artists, photographers, designers, and creative consumers worldwide. Contributors can choose to make their creations public by setting up a free gallery where anyone can browse, comment and connect with others who share their artistic interests. Unlike most other sites just getting into this business, we let the artists keep the profits from their sales. Every artists gets a free gallery. Period.
Everyone knows that the collision of emerging print-on-demand technologies and the Internet has huge implications. The inception of print-on-demand technologies have created a whole new, way of creating fine art prints called giclees and many galleries have embraced them. Today, giclees are the leading type of prints that art dealers and gallery owners have added to their inventories. Make no mistake about it…put a $10,000 original along side a $200 giclee on canvas–the giclee is so beautiful that few customers will opt for the more expensive product and they will really enjoy the print in their home or office.
ImageKind is simply developing a community where sellers and buyers can come together in a new, dynamic environment. We very well may get into other print-on-demand markets in the future (e.g. gift cards etc) but pratically every wall in every home and office in every major country has something hanging on it and we think that we’re tapping into a very nice market if we develop a reputation for online art reproduction. We want to bring these evolved print-on-demand technologies to the mass market at low production prices.
There are other macro factors involved that I really like about this business. Digital cameras and creative software are turning a whole new generation of individuals into “psuedo artists” and the “pro-sumer” creative market is growing rapidly. And why not? If you can shoot 1000 photos and get 5 good ones and then process those 5 on your PC into veritable works of art using free, downloadable software then one should expect that there will be buyers for this content especially when it is provided for lower price points.
Digital Fine Art Magazine says that fine art “print on demand” is growing at 60% per year! Curious Office has already demonstrated that it can develop sophisticated systems on a limited “web 2.0″ budget. If we can be a leader in the way photographers, artists and hobbyists market their work over the next several years we’ll have a nice hit on our hands. This first version is most definately a beta version. We’re already working on an all new V2.o so the entire platform will be much, must tighter going forward. But, already it is easier to use than Zazzle and easier to access than Art.com (who require that you sign over rights to your work while giving away most of your profits).
For regular users, we hope you’ll think of ImageKind when you return from those family vacations, holidays, special events and sports events. We back every product with a no questions asked guarantee but I am confident that you will be amazed by the work of art that you can create from your own desktop.
Two curious new additions to the team!
We’d like to welcome our new designer Keith Harper and developer Arthur Wyatt to the office of curiousity! Keith actually started last week and he has taken over all design responsibilities from me so that I can focus on the business. Keith was formerly a designer at Write Image but also worked at Engine Interactive and Hornall Anderson Design Works. All are extremely reputable agencies and we’re absolutely delighted to have Keith with us. His personal site is worth a look too. Head over to http://www.workplaydream.com and be sure to check out his award winning personal business cards.
Arthur starts tomorrow and joins us from the legendary Seattle interactive firm Saltmine. Arthur and I will get to spend a lot of time constrasting UK life with that of the US since I lived in London and he’s a native of the place. In fact, Arthur worked at Saltmine way back in 1999 so he’s seen a lot since his graduation with honors in Human and Computer Science from Bournemouth University, UK.
Both Keith and Arthur are cut from a similar cloth and are ideal for our small team here. Firstly, they are extremely good at what they do and they come from reputable agencies. Secondly, they very much want to design and develop cutting edge, memorable online applications. That’s why we’re all here. We want to develop products that really make people happy. We’re all interested in how we can deploy the latest technologies to delight users and while that pretty much means we’re throwing web 2.0 buzzwords around the office all day, we’re mainly wanting to build a real business that has loyal customers and predictable revenue.
Welcome Keith and Arthur!!
Sold our first product without even launching
Pretty funny. We don’t launch until Monday but somebody already bought a Pro Account this morning. An artist in London who must have gotten the password from someone and made a purchase on the site. I guess that means our credit card processing ability and shopping cart functions work ok 
Those are, after all, pretty important components. Thanks Rupert from London!
Launching our first baby next week
For better or worse we expect to launch ImageKind as a public beta next week.
We’ve had a few alpha testers on the site during the last few weeks and overall reaction has been very positive. Of course, there is never enough time to do all the things you want to do but in general I’m very pleased.
At Curious Office we wanted to reinforce the idea that small teams could do great things. In our case, we took that pretty literally. Whether you ever use ImageKind or not, I’d like folks to know a few things about this project:
1) We effectively built much of the Cafe Press/Zazzle infrastructure with 1 1/2 developers and one psuedo designer (me)
2) Real development started during the last week in January so we did this in about 5 1/2 months
3) I’ve always said I like concepts that seem very niche on the surface but very mainstream after a few minutes of reflection
4) Investment in the project was a bit more than a few hundred thousand dollars.
5) Unlike most “web 2.0″ concepts, there is not any site on the internet like this one. It is totally unique. It is a self service platform for creating, buying or selling art. I like to say that Kodak.com is great for printing 5×7 photos but if you want large format, “high definition” art you don’t get it at a photo printing service. And, you certainly don’t get it at a site whose core business is printing tee-shirts and mouse-pads
6) Why in the world do this? Well, there are some interesting macro events taking place. Digital cameras are turning your average consumers into pro-sumer artists. And, a new generation coming up knows how to manipulate imagery with products like Picassa, Photoshop etc. This same generation uses Illustrator, Photoshop and Corel in place of paint brushes and watercolors.
7) In spite of this new generation, traditional artists are learning that one-of-a-kind works can be easily captured digitally via camera and scanning equipment and resold as prints over and over.
Zazzle is interesting. Anyone ever wonder why the most prominent VC (John Doerr) and the most prominent venture firm (Kleiner Perkins) invested in this thing? My prognosis? The collision of print on demand technologies and the internet make for some very interesting implications. Does anyone with a house NOT have something hanging on a wall?
9) Consider this. With these new technologies now in second generation and with marketplaces like ImageKind, is there any reason to take those digital files to your corner framing store? Not for long. At first people will tell you that buying custom art online is foolish but the same said that buying a car online would never make sense. Five years ago. Nobody bought cars online. The idea was that the purchase was “too big” or that you needed to “test drive” it first.
10) Museum quality “giclee” printing technologies are 50% less than they were two years ago.
ImageKind is a big project. There are thousands of lines of code covering basic site functions, member admin and the employee admin that is used by our team to run the day to day business.
I’m very proud of the team and can’t wait to start our next project
The house Nathan Myrhvold wants
If you’ve been playing with video awhile, you know all about Acacia’s lucrative web patents. Shares of Acacia have doubled to 14.70 since December 2004. The company has 47 patents (and counting) and has begun generating revenues from 17 of those so far. In fact, Acacia is expected to earn 56 cents per share on revenues of $90 million in 2007 vs. revenues of $41 million in 2006. No doubt the company has acquired a reputation for hardball tactics, ultimately settling lawsuits against more than 200 companies to protect patents that it says it owns.
Acacia’s activities have brought quite some scorn because of what various Internet rights organizations term as “laughably broad patents.” True enough. Acacia claims to have the patent on compression of video for streaming. Doesn’t matter how the compression happens. If the video is smashed to fit through a small pipe Acacia wants their money. Only one analyst, Harris Hall of Singular Research, rates the company a “buy” with a 12 month price target of 17. Acac.ia has signed 26 patents settlements since March with leading companies like GE, AMD, HGP, IBM, Intel, Nokia and others.
Most call these guys patent trolls.
Paul Ryan, CEO, has a more grand explanation: “Actually companies come to us who have patented technologies but who simply do not have the scale or the experience to license themselves, and they engage us basically on a partnership basis. We go out and perform that function and split the revenues with them. So, we’re not targeting any particular areas, it’s the companies that come to us with their patented technologies and if we feel that there’s significant opportunity for licensing for that company to generate revenues for them, then we will become their partner.”
Nathan Myrhvold seems to like this strategy. His cash-rich firm snaps up thousands of patents but fears emerge that it will become a leader in litigation—not innovation. Guess what? That’s the model! What’s so frightening about patents? Thomas Edison and Eli Whitney are American heros who are the pride of our ancestory. But lots of small companies, disparagingly called trolls, have gone into business solely to own a handful of patents. They make money suing big companies who might be in violation. “Real Business”? You be the judge.
Nathan says he’s opposed to patent litigation. In response to charges that he is a predator, Myhrvold describes himself as an entrepreneurial financier, somebody who is devising new ways to fund innovation. Here I think he’s being dishonest but I respect him as a businessman. Patent aggregation is ABOUT LITIGATION. Think otherwise and you’re just smoking the ganja. I too am persuing patents. I highly doubt I’ll get rich charging HP millions for the use of my patents but I suspect if I did make any money from the patents it would only be because I HAD to sue and not because an infringer volunteered an unsolicited check in the mail.
I’ve got news for smart entreprenuers. Get patents. Learn the difference between a utility and a design patent. Get your provisional application which establishes a filing date but does not begin the examination process. It provides the inventor with a one-year period to further develop the invention, determine marketability and seek licensing agreements. It’s inexpensive but can be a great deterent. At a greatly reduced cost, you can have “patent pending” on your basic idea/invention while still preserving your right to a non-provisional application, thus obtaining a degree of invention protection. The less detail about your patent you provide, the more the attorney will charge to help you get the details right. It comes down to how you value your time.
This is the age of patents. If you really do have a concept you believe in, most patent attorneys will give you a free consultation. Above all else, expect to mostly waste money on your patent so play it smart. Most patents DO NOT make inventors money. A good attorney will tell you what they really think about the viability of your patent concept. Here’s a little side tip: most good patent lawyers outsource the discovery process. You can search your own patents for free. It comes down to how you value your time. But it can be done. Remember, a US patent is for USA only. There is no such thing as a worldwide patent.
If you are serious about your patent here’s my advice. Do your own search. Document AS MUCH as you can about the patent. Then, engage the best patent specialist you can find. That will give you good quality service and will save you thousands. Great patent attorneys are not on every block so look for good referrals. I’ve got some if you need them.
Flog that start-up
Want to Flock (err, flog) that code base you worked so hard on? Awhile back I wrote a brief post about selling your web 2.0 start-up on ebay. Looks like Tim Oren is seeing more of this too. I expect to see a lot more of this kind of thing in the next few years. No, I’m not kidding. Watch what is going to happen. If Serbian developers can make a reasonable clone of Basecamp because they thought it would be an interesting experiment, I can assure you that eBay will become a forum for selling software start-ups.
What the investors think
Over the last few weeks I’ve had various coffees and lunchs with folks in the Seattle venture community. Some are old friends who are new to the venture game and some are people that I’ve only recently met. I was reflecting today on some of the similar kinds of comments that I heard from each. Do these VC’s all talk to each other? Or, do they just all think alike? My perspective is that each has a different philsophy about what makes their firm special but they all seem to share some basic notions about what is going on in the Seattle tech scene right now. In no particular order, here are a few sound-bites I’ve been hearing from multiple venture folks:
1) “There is way more money than there are really great deals to invest in.”
2) “We realize we need to start finding bright entrepreneurs and their start-ups earlier in the process.”
3) “There is a Web2.0 bubble and most ‘typical’ Web2.0 companies won’t last.”
4) “Too many start-ups claim a likely exit is to be bought by Yahoo or Google and that makes us nervous.”
5) “Quite often, we meet a start-up CEO and like them more than the business that they are pitching and we wish they were pitching something else.”
6) “Some markets, like podcasting, are clearly growing but we’re not seeing enough differentiation in some of these new growth spaces.”
7) “People don’t think we do seed stage deals and that’s not true.”
“We’d rather see a start-up CEO with a business sense than one who thinks technology will win for technologies sake.”
9) “Development resources really aren’t as hard to find as people think. Good CEO’s who can build a real business are hard to find.”
10) “Unusual, niche or seemingly goofy concepts don’t scare us. We see too many projects that sound like the last we just heard anyway.”
11) “There are too many start-ups building products for saturated markets.”
12) “We’re getting more into the concept of ‘incubating’ new projects in-house and expanding our EIR (entreprenuer in residence) efforts.”