Angelo Sotira of DeviantArt- TWiST #299

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Angelo Sotira, Co-Founder and CEO of DeviantArt sits down to talk about his 12 year journey of building a 65 Million member community for artists. He shares his passion for the arts and his plans to fix its broken system.

00:30 Welcome Angelo Sotira founder of deviantART
3:45 Igloo: An intranet you will actually like, igloosoftware.com/thisweekin to enter for a free ipad mini
7:15 What exactly did Michael Robertson say about you on the episode last week?
7:40 When did you start deviantART and why?
9:15 Why were you fascinated with the internet and mp3s?
12:30 So you make the skins for winamp?
15:00 So your server bills were baffling at that time?
16:45 When was the last time you did a major UX redesign?
18:10 What's a deviation?
18:30 How does the giving work?
19:20 When did you put the point/giving system in?
19:45 What impact has it had in the system?
20:24 How many unique pieces are submitted daily?
20:39 How many can you upload at a time? Per day?
21:30 Why is the default display newest pieces not the most popular?
23:25 How do you curate the honest/constructive responses?
24:45 What percentage of users are non signed in vs signed in?
25:45 What is the business of the company?
27:25 Where is your funding at now?
27:45 Go To Meeting: gotomeeting.com click on try it free use the code "Start"
30:45 Tell us your view on funding.
33:50 Have you raised since 2007?
34:25 So you have remained in complete control?
35:00 How is strategic measure of success different from VC?
35:30 What strategy would have an interest in art?
35:45 Does commerce occur on the site?
36:10 What do you get for a premium membership?
37:00 What are the premium membership numbers?
37:25 Do I pay for the cost of the artwork, or the print, or both?
39:00 Can the artist set their own price?
39:20 Who has the most sales?
39:30 Can the artist make a living selling their art on your site?
41:00 Tell me about Odyssey 2?
42:00 And Clive picks what he likes best?
43:00 Is this where creatives come to find talent?
43:45 Can you tell me about "More Like This"?
44:14 How does this work?
47:00 So this is making it possible for anyone to become an artist?
50:20 Is this a life long journey for you?
52:15 You see the prequel to this as training people to become artists?
57:00 Discussion about the importance of design
60:00 The New Site: dreamup.com
61:00 What do you need a lanyard for?
61:30 Let's talk about Angelo's world tour
62:50 How many buyout offers per year?
65:15 Where do you see things that you find innovative/
68:00 Why don't you open a museum or a gallery?
71:40 Thanks for coming in Angelo. Go to dreamup.com type in ihaveadream
72:00 Thanks to Igloo Software and GoToMeeting

FOLLOW ON TWITTER

Jason: @jason
Angelo: @asotira
Igloo: @igloosoftware
GoToMeeting: @gotomeeting

Special thanks to the members of the TWiST Backchannel Program!

Executive Producers

• Louis-Eric Simard
• Benjamin Gifford
• Jacek Artymiak
• Octavian Mihai
• Will Paoletto
• Geoffrey Clapp
• Jeff Hoffer
• Austin Miller
• Rashaun Sourles
• Robb Kunz
• Greg Berry
• Sean Lynch
• Mary Ann Halford
• Jim Joyce
• Morgan Howard
• Margaret Johns
• Kyle M. Brown
• Paul Cole
• Nick Duncan
• Magnus Ingvarsson
• Amir Ayalon
• Carlos Zaidenweber
• Avery Keitt
• Joshua Shipsey

Producers

• Eli Coler
• Ted Inoue
• Radek Rybicki
• Hunter Owens
• Ildar Khakimov
• Matti Hallanoro
• Rodrigo Dauster
• Rodrigo Fuentes
• Anthony Ortenzi
• Daniel de la Cruz
• Michael Hofmann
• John Meneses
• Mike Sunyich
• Sami Rageb
• Michael Lustig
• Alex Deli
• John Davies
• Mark Burcher
• Morgan Howard
• Jeffrey Yan

Associate Producers

• Brad Pineau
• Kat Ganesan
• Nicholas Christian
• Mau Frontier
• Kyle Braatz
• Serena Ehrlich
• JD
• Alex Lotoczko
• James Kennedy
• Benoit Curdy
• Asher Nevins
• Mike Kaltschnee
• William Doom
• David Lee
• Jake Kerber
• Sarp Coskun
• Giuseppe Taibi
• Tyrone Rubin
• Keno Vigil
• Paul Peters
• Jamal Waring
• Nick Ostroff
• Alex Binkley
• John MP Knox
• Bryan McCormick
• Marcos Trinidad
• Allen Cordrey
• Daniel Mich
• Joshua Rosen
• Grant Carlile
• James Smith
• Christopher Rill
• Elliot Myhre
• Nihon Giga
• Nathan Gielis
• Greg Meadows
• Rick Cartwright
• Jacques Struwig
• Robert Ward
• Adam Gering
• Shelley Gaskin
• Jim Shute

Supporters

• Ryan Hoover
• Michael Cranston
• Josiah Thomas
• João Fernandes
• Petrus Theron
• Michael Wild
• Dale Emmons
• Tim de Jardine
• Alejandro Vasquez
• Milan Babuskov
• Chris Rowe
• Nelson Melo
• James Dawson
• Toddy Mladenov
• Daniel Torres
• Chris Macke
• Piotr Zuralski
• Armand Konan
• Brian Vogel
• Paul D
• Jennifer Sun
• David Kolb
• Sue Marrone
• Eugene Granovksy
• Will Blackton
• Ryan Dodds
• Brett Arp
• Jason Cresswell
• Edwin Orange
• Daniel Bradley
• Shawn Daniel
• Priidu Kull
• Patrick Desroches
• Alex Lam
• Paul Secor
• Ryan Urabe
• Madhu R.
• Paul Ardeleanu
• Ian Thomas
• Manny Alarcon
• Charlie Osmond
• Christopher Smitley
• Roshan H.
• Barcy Cordrey
• Matt Beaubien
• Matthew Smith
• Oscar Bueno
• Tim Hoyt
  
• Ian Gerstel
• Taphon Maddison
• John Bradley
• Luigi Armogida
• Dave Ferrara
• Janus Lindau
• Chris Mancil
• TR Ludwig
• Giles Thomas
• Jason Cartwright
• Michael Del Borrello
• Joshua Rosen
• David Karlberg
• Marcus Schappi
• Justin Furniss
• Mike Hauck
• Jess Bachman
• Isaac Hill
• Robert Haydock
• Dan Sfera
• Flaviu Simihaian
• Kiko Cherman
• Chandra Siva
• Kasper Andkjaer
• Zach Woodward
• Chris Galasso
• Chad Olsen
• Michael Grabham
• John Shiple
• Gregory Hoffman
• Chris Rickard
• Eskil Steenberg
• Jay Moran
• Karim Sarkis
• Michael Davidovich
• Petru Marchidan
• Sam Drzymala