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Ever received a comment on one of your Instagram or social photo posts that said something like, "wow, that should be a postcard" or "I'm definitely stealing that"? Well, Twenty20 has created the perfect marketplace to actually turn your iconic photos into cold hard cash.
Co-Founder and VP of Product, Todd Emaus, got the idea when he was moving to California. Todd was looking for some beach art with his wife in order to fill his new home. He saw that the designer he was working with had posted some amazing pictures on Instagram and asked if he could purchase one to blow up and frame for his house. Todd then got the idea to create an online platform for artists to upload their best work for others to see and purchase.
"People who take photos and upload to Instagram or other social channels don't expect to get anything beyond the share value", said Emaus. "Twenty20 strives to go beyond that and give those artists or photographers the ability to share their art with the rest of the world, as well as give consumers the ability to purchase these works of art for their own purposes."
Twenty20 launched with their test site in 2012 and started building a community around these works of art a month later. The platform allows for individuals to upload photos directly from their phone to their peronalized store front online with unique URL. If something sells, Twenty20 gets a portion of the revenue and takes care of the printing/shipping, which they have been doing globally since day one. Twenty20 keeps the community engaged through daily art challenges based on a topic or theme, they put on live gallery events, have judges for photo contests, and are releasing a coffee table book with 600 of the best work examples.
Emaus said they started with a core team of 4 employees in Santa Monica, have grown to 14 currently, and expect to hit 20 employees by the end of this year, which may land them in new West LA offices. They have supported Twenty20 on an initial Seed Round of $1.7 million so far and don't have plans for a Series A quite yet.
As for this year, Twenty20 will be focusing on the large community that surrounds these photos, releasing several social media features for their site such as comments, likes, and ability to follow artists. The platform currently supports a few hundred-thousand artists and has been growing steadily by 20% month-over-month so they will continue to push that growth through 2014.
