This one is right up my alley, having done my MBA (just one letter off from an MFA, right?) and specialized in entrepreneurship. It turns out Jen Bekman's 20x200 just received $800k in first round start-up financing. Man, I'd kill to get my hands on this business plan.
This leaves me wondering:
a) how much Jen put down and what percentage she retained - $ 200k would net her 20% of her business for example.
b) since when do people invest in art galleries, online or otherwise?
c) how could she really grow this business and what does she need the capital for, when expenses are all post-sale and her "storefront" outside of the gallery space is virtual and seems to run just fine (I'm sure the investors have good answers to this question).
d) Does this mean Hey Hot Shot entry fees will be waived in the future? :)
Speaking of HHS, the deadline is this Tuesday so get editing.
UPDATE: Todd Walker brought my attention to this NYT blog post also. Thanks!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Based on this NY Times blog post, I think the investment is only in 20x200, not all of Jen's other myriad endeavors. They pulled in $1.2MM in 2008. Figure out the payout for the VCs from that.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/for-online-art-gallery-20x200-an-unlikely-investor/
Thanks, Todd - Well, they had revenue of 1.2 - I'd be curious to know what net income was from that. I'm guessing somewhat high - again, because of the low overhead and costs being borne post-sales.
VC's won't get any payouts until Jen buys them out, someone else invests, or they get paid dividends. I'd like to know how much Jen put in herself.
Quite impressive sales figures and print sales in such a short time!
Post a Comment