Plovist.com is an online platform dedicated to visual artists and art lovers. At Plovist, people can create their online portfolio which can be maintained by them and people interested in their services can contact or hire the artists directly through their page or buy their artwork. The name is an acronym for 'PLatform fOr VIsual artiSTs'. Suhaas Kaul and Nikhil Manhas left high paying jobs to start this in April 2013. In a conversation with them, we learn about the journey of their startup.
We asked Suhas why he thought such a platform was needed, and he said "Currently the companies out there even in art are focusing on either e-commerce, selling of paintings and prints or just a photo sharing app. What makes us different is our platform approach where we give a platform to artists to create their portfolio, open up a virtual shop and share their art for the world to see. What we are creating is a one stop solution for artists and art lovers."
"Our efforts started showing results when an artists named Prakash G Nayak, a very profound artist, who was not able to sell his works for past few years. After contacting him and making him understand the potential of the platform he uploaded some of his artworks on our site. As a result of this the event organizers of Genslar saw his paintings and set up an exclusive exhibition featuring him in collaboration with Plovist and many of his paintings were sold to clients from US. That is the power of our platform," says Nikhil.
They conduct art events, exhibitions and online photography competitions in collaboration with organizations. "We recently conducted a photography competition with Capital One and exhibitions with Genslar, a global design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco, California," he adds.
They have built in house Algorithms to calculate the Artists Scores which depends on popularity of the artists, artwork uploads, likes on artworks and followers. Their 6 people team works out of Bangalore to make Plovist a synonym for Online Art. They look to acquire more users and make their platform better helping the artists to tackle major problems faced by them.
"When we started, this idea was alien for painters. The fear of somebody stealing their art, copying it, were major concerns they had. We tackled each issue by not allowing picture downloads, and making them understand that internet is the only way they can become famous and their work will reach to a global audience, which is never possible in a gallery exhibition," says Suhaas. "It has been a journey of a life time from that time. Whether it be talking to artists, whether it be going to Karnataka chitrakala parishath, briefing students about our platform, conducting exhibitions. Each and every moment has been so surreal," adds Nikhil.
As a message for future entrepreneurs, Suhaas says "Figure out your what you are doing and why your are doing it. It is very necessary because it will keep your boat sailing in hard times."
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