From Berlin, Bringing Art Auctions Online: Auctionata CEO Alexander Zacke (Part 5)

Sramana: What is your commission structure? Alexander Zacke: Our standard fees are 20% from the seller and 20% from the buyer. Our fees are negotiable, depending on the value of the consignment. The overall commission we receive will likely be less than 30%. Sramana: You said that you raised some money to build this company.

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From Berlin, Bringing Art Auctions Online: Auctionata CEO Alexander Zacke (Part 4)

Sramana: How do you manage the courier service? Is it your own service or do you use a commercial service? Where are you having the paintings shipped to? Alexander Zacke: We pick up the merchandise as soon as we obtain an auction contract. We then catalogue the item and run it through our in-house services.

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From Berlin, Bringing Art Auctions Online: Auctionata CEO Alexander Zacke (Part 3)

Sramana: Did you expand Auctionata to include other auction house functions once you had verified market interest through valuation services? Alexander Zacke: From there, everything progressed very quickly. We did 400,000 valuations in our first year. Sramana: How did people find out about the site? How did they know you existed and that you offered

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From Berlin, Bringing Art Auctions Online: Auctionata CEO Alexander Zacke (Part 2)

Sramana: What did you learn from watching eBay’s struggle with art auctions? Alexander Zacke: In the mid-2000’s, it became clear that the peer-to-peer marketplace model, although extremely powerful and scalable, did not work beyond a certain price point. The fine art world will begin at $1,000 which was 20 times the price point of eBay.

Building Fat Startups: Nasuni CEO Andres Rodriguez (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What happened next in your history? Andres Rodriguez: After we sold Archivas, we had all the top venture capitalist wanting to fund the next project. Sramana Mitra: I’m sure. What’s good with being an entrepreneur is, capital follows you. Andres Rodriguez: Success breeds capital. Sramana Mitra: However, let’s talk about the investment pieces

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From Berlin, Bringing Art Auctions Online: Auctionata CEO Alexander Zacke (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Auctionata is a professional online auction house. We’re about to encounter the online version of Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Read on … Sramana: Alex, let’s start at the beginning of your story. Where are you from and where were you raised? What are the roots of your

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Bootstrapping Eloqua, Crowdfunding Influitive: Lessons From Mark Organ’s Entrepreneurial Journey (Part 7)

Sramana: When did you start Influitive? Mark Organ: I left Singapore in early 2010 and I started Influitive after I returned to Toronto. I was able to get a great team together. The goal was to help companies grow faster by leveraging their fans and advocates. We think this is going to be a huge

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Building Fat Startups: Nasuni CEO Andres Rodriguez (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What were the mechanics of Abuzz? Was it a venture-funded company? Andres Rodriguez: Yes, it was a classic Series A venture funded company. It was funded by SoftBank, Brad Feld, Solstice Capital, and Flatiron Ventures, which is no longer around. I was very lucky to have good guys. They were especially good with

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