Website www.minted.com Founder Mariam Naficy Headquarters San Francisco Type of business Private | CEO Mariam Naficy (Apr 2007–) Founded 2007 Number of employees 125 | |
 | ||
Industry E-commerce, Crowdsourcing Products Stationery, wall art, home decor, holiday cards, wedding invitations, party decor Profiles | ||
Minted s visually stunning office tc cribs
Minted is an online marketplace of independent artists and designers. The company crowdsources art and graphic design through monthly challenges. The public votes for the winning entries, and Minted produces the winning work as stationery, wall art, and decor.
Contents
History
Minted was founded in April 2007 by Mariam Naficy to sell high-end lines of stationery and adopted a crowdsourcing model when it realized that designs by independent artists were outselling those of established brands. Minted has raised nearly $90 million from investors, including Norwest Venture Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures, Benchmark Capital led by Peter Fenton, IDG Ventures, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, and Eventbrite founders Kevin and Julia Hartz.
In 2012, Minted expanded outside of its core stationery market by launching wall art prints and party decor.
It partnered with Every Mother Counts, a maternal health nonprofit organization led by Christy Turlington Burns, in which a part of the proceeds from selling customized children's art would go to benefit the organization.
Minted Local, a pop-up store in San Francisco’s Union Square shopping district, was opened in May 2016. The store's “Stylist Bar” provides access to a Minted expert by appointment for help designing wedding stationery, birth announcements, holiday cards and more. A percentage of the proceeds from Every Mother Counts' Orange Rose collection sold at the physical location are also donated to the organization.
Crowdsourcing
Minted holds regular design challenges that are open to artists and designers. Thousands of independent artists participate in the challenges. Visitors to the website vote on the design submissions and the winning designs are sold on the website. The winning artists are paid a cash prize and earn an ongoing commission on sales of their designs.
Awards
In October 2014, Minted was named #5 on LinkedIn's 10 Bay Area startups that are most in demand by local techies.