Since BostInno reported on Invaluable‘s hefty $33.75 million series D funding round and deal with eBay last year, the largest art auction website in the world has grown by leaps and bounds. In a time when more and more millennials are purchasing artwork online, Invaluable is reaping the benefits.
Based out of New Balance’s old shoe factory in Allston, Invaluable has seen substantial growth in revenue, office space, staff both home and abroad, and number of online auctions hosted all while maintaining a startup culture that may seem counterintuitive to its size and service.
“It’s been a lot of work but also a lot of fun to experience that kind of growth,” Invaluable CEO Rob Weisberg told BostInno. He went on to list Invaluable’s office amenities to reinforce this notion of fun: an ice cream machine, Ping Pong table, Wii gaming system and four kegs on tap.
If Invaluable’s staff plays hard, they certainly work hard to earn that right. The Boston office is home to about 80 with another 40 scattered throughout Pennsylvania, Europe and Australia with an office in the UK. Largely maintained by the engineering and technology teams, the lion’s share of Invaluable’s workforce, the site works by making auction catalogues available to the masses and the bevy of inventories cater to all tastes.
Looking for a Buddha statue cast in bronze? How a 2014 Hennessey Venom GT, unofficially the fastest car in the world? Maybe a 1961 mugshot of Academy Award winning actor Al Pacino is more your style. From a dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in her final film Something’s Got to Give to a portrait of an infant by art titan Claude Monet, the forms and styles of art made accessible by Invaluable is limited only by one’s taste and imagination.
All of the aforementioned, by the way, has been, or will soon be, sold through the Invaluable platform.
“People collect stuff you wouldn’t imagine,” said Weisberg. “Chinese snuff bottles, sports memorabilia, kenyan tribal dolls, Tiffany lamps, the list goes on and on.”
Most recently, Invaluable launched an app for the iPad and iPhone in Q4 2014 and Q1 2015, respectively as the company has seen a 40 percent spike in mobile site traffic.
“They’re world class applications and you have the opportunity to bid in milliseconds from your mobile device anywhere,” explained Weisberg. “If you’re sitting on the T and you have an item you want to bid on, you can.”
He mentioned that a possible Android app is only in the exploratory stages and that iOS was a priority given that a substantial portion of Invaluable’s user base, described as “a little bit older and very highly affluent,” use Apple’s mobile products.
In all, Invaluable serves approximately 3 million unique visitors per month. Putting that into quantifiable success, Invaluable’s user boom has resulted in a 41 percent year-over-year increase for Q1 revenue, 47 percent growth in staff since last year, and 12,000 additional square feet of office space – Invaluable recently took over another high-ceilinged, exposed-brick floor of the old factory.
Walls and desks are adorned with various paintings, lighting, dolls, furniture and signs. Employees are encouraged to make purchases on the site and help decorate with items that appeal to them personally.
Weisberg himself has a soft spot for art, to the chagrin of his wife he tells me jokingly, when describing his own collection.
“I’m pretty eclectic. I don’t really collect one particular type of art or artist,” he said. “There was a book written in the 1920s called the The Assault on Mount Everest. It was more or less an autobiography by a U.K. General who was working on behalf of the army to summit Everest. They were mapping it but it was a failed attempt.”
This, the rock climbing and hiking enthusiast explained, was before the time of supplemental oxygen, the aid of sherpas and Sir Edmund Hillary’s inaugural scaling of the highest mountain in the world.
“I bought it for $730. It was a pretty cool thing to have in my collection.”
Moving forward, Invaluable is anticipating the release of its apps but is no longer seeking venture funding because the company is increasingly profitable. They’ll continue to fill out its Allston location with personnel and art, which given its smashing success could spill out over the walls and into the surrounding neighborhood.
