StartupRealities

Startup No 185 - StartupRealities 2020 series GardenPackaging is a garden architecture company which wraps entire gardens and lawns under a giant tensile awning to reduce the intensity of sunlight in the summer and create an artistic visual effect. CEO QUOTE "I was inspired by environmental artist Christo Javacheff  and architect Frei Otto to start this company. Christo and Jeanne-Claude focused on wrapping famous landmarks in their art installations. While I thought: 'Shouldn't someone democratise this beautiful mix of art and architecture and bring it to the people?' This is how my company was born: by the people, for the people!" - said GardenPackaging founder and CEO Garda Packer . Tensile canvas structure in a Park (image source: Wikipedia )

StartupRealities No 164 CeilArt is an interior design company which has developed specialist equipment and frames that allow attaching paintings to the ceiling of a house. This makes it possible for home owners to utilise the empty space that a ceiling typically offers, while also creating art appreciation opportunities, especially for paintings displayed above the bed in a bedroom. TECHNOLOGY The company installs two perspex (transparent acrylic sheets) on the front and the back of every paining, irrespective of the strength of the frame and the canvas. The back perspex sheet helps attach the painting to the ceiling and also provides protection against damage from leaking water pipes from the floor above. The front sheet helps reduce the weight of the canvas and the pull force it produces on the frame, and protects from falling pieces in case the canvas gets torn. CEO QUOTE " We have had painted ceilings and frescoes in churches and palaces for centuries but ironically th...

StartupRealities No 136 HistoryBuffer is an international art dealership that buys controversial or discarded art works and later auctions them off to willing customers, galleries and museums. Examples include buying religious objects in countries with a different religion; or buying statues of slave traders brought down during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. CEO QUOTE "We are not arbiters of history. We just save history for posterity." said company founder and CEO Hisham Buffalo. The Thinker by Auguste Rodin in Copenhagen (image source: Wikipedia )

StartupRealities No 125 Storypedia is an online publisher which produces collections of the world's most interesting non-fiction stories. The company has a range of publications of the format "Top 100 Most Fascinating Stories in ...": History, Nature, Science, Art, Politics, Business; as well as of a similar format: "Top 100 Hidden Stories in ...". A key part of the successful storytelling format is the length of each story, which does not exceed half a page. CEO QUOTE "Everybody knows Cinderella and Snow White. Which is why we don't include banal fiction stories like this in our collections. We aim to educate and inspire our readers, not bore them to death. However, we do incorporate some mythological stories where the line between history and fiction has been blurred. Our primary objective is to surprise you, to tell you something new, to reveal a world of wonder," said Storypedia founder and CEO Stormie Pedralbes. Medieval encyclopedis...

StartupRealities No 122 NudeTheatre is an arts and events company which runs a combination of performing arts centres and art galleries at the same venue. When at NudeTheatres, all performers, staff, audience and visitors are naked on its premises. CEO QUOTE "Nudity is liberating. This applies to our artists, actors and performers as much as to our guests and patrons. Traditionally, people used to go to faraway naturist beaches or secluded places to undress and be naked. NudeTheatres bring nudity to the world's major cities, as there is nothing to hide when you are naked... the pun intended!" - said company founder and CEO Nunzia Theaker. Lucien Freud painting (image source: Wikipedia )

StartupRealities No 96 ShakespeareCube is a musical and movie production company which develops modern productions by merging three classical works of the same author into one. The company's first production was an agglomeration of Shakespeare's Hamlet (set in Denmark), Othello (set in Italy) and King Lear (set in Britain) into an interconnected plot. This gave the name to the company. The resulting plot was a modern trans-European movie under the invented portmanteau title Hamothlea (Hamlet-Othello-Lear). CEO QUOTE "Our movies and musicals help introduce the younger generation to the classics of world literature. We intertwine the original plots creatively, so that there is smooth flow between characters and locations from the three original works. My big inspiration for this model is the 1999 ABBA musical 'Mamma Mia!'  The real challenge for us are authors who have left fewer than three major works, e.g. Harper Lee with 'To Kill A Mockingbird' and ...

StartupRealities No 88 SushiMovement  is an art gallery that displays its exhibits on a winding kilometre-long conveyor belt that resembles those found at sushi bars. Visitors and patrons can view the moving artefacts while sitting at the cafe, sunbathing on the terrace or even swimming in the gallery swimming pool. The works of art are locked securely in glass cases attached to the conveyor belt. An automated system randomly selects objects for display from the full set of art held in the storage depot of the gallery. CEO QUOTE "Museums and galleries are tiring places to visit, especially for the elderly. SushiMovement provides a unique experience that is customer-centred, not object-centred. Our visitors leave inspired and well-rested after sipping a latte at the cafe and viewing paintings for an hour. No other art institution in the world offers such an unforgettable experience," said company founder and CEO Sushmita Moverley. Sushi bar (image source: Wikipedia ) ...

StartupRealities No 74 ArtistsGuild is an art wholesaler which organises artists into guilds so that a group of artists work under a common brand and develop recognition for the brand faster than individual artists could do under their own brand. The company owns the brand but shares revenue from branded art sales with the artists under an 80:20 revenue-share scheme, retaining 20% for the company. CEO QUOTE "The old proverb Unity is Power works similarly in the art world: unity is brand awareness. When you have 12 or 25 artists working for a brand, the brand has 25 ambassadors. A mountain which has 25 peaks would be more visible than a mountain with just one peak," alluded ArtistsGuild founder and CEO Archie Gielgud. 12th century painting by Wang Ximeng (image source: Wikipedia )