Kyle
If you could have the ultimate interior design online platform you would probably want features like, the ability to pin interior design pictures from the web, adding plans to your interior design, drawing right on top of the plans and pictures, collaborating with designers, getting feedback on your plans online from friends and family, and add comments. The ultimate interior design platform would be Pinterest meets the furniture catalog, Asana, meets Google Wave meets Facebook. Well guess what? That platform is here.
New York startup Marqueed has all of those features in a smart, graphically rich UI that also keeps all of your visual projects together in one organized place. Marqueed can be applied to just about anything visual. You could use Marqueed for do it yourself projects, recipes, landscaping, home alterations, heck even automobile customization.
The core set of functionality behind is a communication and collaborative platform around images. In the interview below with co-founder Zerna Karian she’s quick to point out that Marqueed isn’t about project management, but if enough users like it for that they would integrate with Asana or Basecamp. Karian’s other co-founder is her husband John. Both of them are career long creatives and it shows in the crisp UI and easy to use functionality.
Check out our interview with Karian below:
What is Marqueed?
Marqueed is an online app that allows people to collaboratively discuss images over the web.
As design and imagery play an increasingly significant role in our lives, the tools available to discuss them haven’t quite kept up. This is the gap that Marqueed aims to bridge: Simplifying the process of sharing and discussing images.
In layman’s terms, how does it work?
To take an example: https://www.marqueed.com/
collections/2956
An interior designer creates a collection of images in Marqueed with floor plans and bookmarked furniture samples. She shares this collection with her clients by entering their email addresses. Her clients join the collection, access the images and give their feedback. They can draw right on top of the visuals to talk about what they like, or what they’d like to change. They can add general comments or questions for the designer, and can also add their own inspiration images. The designer gets an email notifying her of activity on the collection, and can respond immediately.
Its simple: Add Images – Share with Collaborators – Discuss
This is our core functionality, though we are constantly adding features that expand on and complement the basic idea.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
John Karian comes from an award-winning design and animation background. He has worked in some of New York’s best design and post-production studios. Most recently he was Director of Animation for Design at Charlex Inc, one of the premier commercial post-production studios on the east coast where he helped spearhead their experimental film Shapeshifter https://vimeo.
com/18439821 .
John’s wife, Zerna, also comes from a creative background as a photographer and digital retoucher. She manages the small marketing team, bringing to Marqueed an in-depth understanding of creative workflows across various industries including design, photo production and retouching.
Where are you based?
Brooklyn, New York.
What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?
The NY Startup scene is vibrant and growing fast. Sometimes we take a break from the studio and work at cafes in Manhattan; it seems like every second person there is working on, or talking about, startups. Being in the midst of a nascent dynamic community is very exciting.
But what’s really great about New York (and very relevant for Marqueed) is that besides the tech scene, it also has vibrant art, photography and design communities.
How did you come up with the idea for Marqueed?
In 2010-11 we had a bunch of creative projects on our plates – redesigning our portfolio websites, decorating our new apartment, and continuing to work on freelance design, animation and retouching jobs. The larger the teams, or the longer the projects got – the greater the pile of emails, making keeping track of the attachments & the creative process a chore. It seemed archaic to be accumulating feedback like this.
How did you come up with the name?
Our friend Rich came up with it during a “name-storming session” on the R train. John liked that it echoed the act of making a “marquee” on an image, which is one of the core functions of the site.
What problem does Marqueed solve?
Marqueed makes it easier to collaborate with others on visual projects.
To take an example:
A designer emails two clients with some designs for their review. Each client views the images individually and responds with their thoughts. If specific critique is needed, the clients download the images, bring them into photoshop, mark them up, save them and then reattach to an email.
The designer now has to compile the responses, write back with any questions, and mediate if there are differences of opinion – and all of this is just for one round or iteration. The process just isn’t as quick and intuitive as it could be.
What’s your secret sauce?
We keep it simple. Its clear what the app does and its very easy to use. People get the value in it quickly. We are a communication tool and we focus on doing just that really well. We’re not interested in task or project management, and if enough of our users wanted that functionality, we’d consider integrating with tools like Basecamp or Asana.
What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the startup process?
Hiring is always a challenge. As a designer, I’d rather spend my time building apps and working with a team that can translate my designs into awesome interactions. We now have a kick ass team in place but are still actively hiring for front end designers as we have much in the pipeline that we want to accomplish. If you are a developer reading this, please reach out to us!
Who are some of your mentors and business role models?
Business Role Model: We model ourselves after consumer internet companies like Dropbox. They’ve done a great job of targeting individuals at a company, that then introduce the service to others. We’ve also been referred to as the Yammer for image collaboration, which makes sense as we have a feed and make it super easy to add people to a discussion around websites or images.
Mentors: John says, “My dad was a pioneer in Indian advertising. He taught me about the importance of being earnest and respectful with everyone I work with. I also have a great respect for John Lasseter, of Pixar, for his unrelenting faith in 3D animation as an art form. If the field of 3D animation were a startup then Toystory would have been its MVP.”
What’s next for Marqueed?
Thats a loaded question!
Mobile – is a massive opportunity that we want to pursue.
More integrations – Dropbox, Google Apps etc.
More features – our users have been great at sharing feedback with us, and helping us determine what features should be added next. Up next is image history so you can easily flip through previous iterations of a design.
Pro accounts – will be going live within the month (in addition to our forever-free accounts of course).
Linkage:
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