Colby College startup gains traction with online marketplace for student artists

A new startup out of Colby College, The Cubby, has launched an online marketplace to help student artists and makers get exposure and sell their work.

Josh Kim, the founder and CEO of The Cubby, is a full-time student at Colby College and runs the company with the help of four fellow students. The team came together with the goal of creating a student-based online marketplace where 100% of the sale price goes directly to the artist.

Kim said he got the idea for The Cubby when he dabbled in art himself.

“It was really intimidating at first to put my art out into the world,” explained Kim. “The art world is notoriously hard on new artists. I created The Cubby as a safe and student-friendly space for budding artists and makers to sell their creations and get real-world feedback on their work.”

He added: “By shopping on The Cubby, you are supporting emerging artists, and purchasing one-of-a-kind pieces of art, at an affordable price.”

While Kim is not an art student (he’ll graduate next spring with degrees in psychology and sociology), he found additional inspiration from his artist brother who is a freshman at Colby. The Cubby is his first business and said he enjoys the sense of empowerment entrepreneurship provides.

The company is off to a successful start. The Cubby went live in February and already hosts more than 600 artists from 120 college campuses. The site currently sells between 10 and 30 unique art pieces per week, according to Kim.

The site does not generate any revenue from the sale of student art, and is not yet profitable, but it has generated some early revenue through customized Cubby showcases paid for by university art departments. In addition, Kim plans to partner with student-centric brands to run engaging art-based competitions.

The company plans to build out its revenue streams through 2021 while also attracting all New England-based colleges to the platform, Kim said.

Kim received some working capital in April when he won the Big Gig pitch competition along with the $5,000 grand prize. After the win, he told WABI that the funds would be used “to secure partnerships with galleries, museums and other art institutions to provide our Cubby artists with more opportunities during their time in college and in turn attract new users who are eager to join the Cubby.”

In addition to the prize money, the company received a $25,000 in grant from the Maine Technology Institute and is a finalist for Gorham Savings Bank’s Emerging Business Award, which comes with a $10,000 cash prize, along with another $10,000 of in-kind business and marketing-related services. Join the virtual event on June 1 to see who wins.

Online Marketplaces & Art

Online marketplaces have become big business and current trends favor vertical marketplaces that target a well-defined audience that is easy to reach, according to Codica, a software development consultancy that specializes in online marketplaces.

The Cubby is a niche addition to the crowded arena of online art and homemade good marketplaces where Etsy is the clear leader. Other competitors include, Art Fire and Amazon handmade.

While it might seem impersonal to purchase art online, total sales in the online art and antiques market worldwide roughly doubled in 2020 over the previous year to $12.4 billion of the total $50 billion global art market, meaning that a quarter of all art sold was sold online.

An Artist’s Perspective

Sam Onche, a senior and studio arts major at Colby College, is one of The Cubby’s most successful student artists. Onche is an international student from Nigeria who came to the United States as a high school basketball recruit. He continued his basketball career though his sophomore year at Colby, when he then decided to turn his focus full-time to art.

Onche sells colorful and bold digital art prints, merchandise, and drawings through his Cubby.

“Josh relentlessly encouraged me to join The Cubby in order to reach a broader audience for my art”, said Onche. “I love how the platform is 100% student based. It is much more than a marketplace; it is a supportive community.”

The Cubby will often highlight an artist for a week, and promote his or her work through social media providing greater exposure, while also encouraging engagement between artists. The site also has an art commission portal where customers can make direct requests to a chosen artist for special projects.

According to Onche, the platform is really easy to use. Each artist has their own “cubby” and the company helps artists with shipping labels and logistics.

“Since joining The Cubby, I’ve learned that you cannot always do everything yourself,” explained Onche. “It’s one thing to be an artist and another thing to be a seller who puts the work in front of buyers.”

Onche usually sells between 2-5 pieces per week and said he uses earnings to support future projects and provide him with enough money to be relatively self sufficient.

“It doesn’t yet cover the cost of my Colby tuition,” Onche said with a laugh.

Onche encouraged student artists and anyone interested in art to join The Cubby Community.

“You don’t even have to make a purchase to support aspiring artists. Just sign up for the newsletter to learn about the artists, trends, and upcoming events.”

Student entrepreneurship

While Josh and his team are passionately focused on supporting student artists, they are also a part of a growing trend toward student entrepreneurship.

Student demand for entrepreneurship courses has accelerated in recent years, reflecting their disillusionment with a world created by others, according to the World Economic Forum.

To meet this demand, universities are stepping up with an increase in entrepreneurship curriculum and experiential learning opportunities such as the Saxbys Experiential Learning Platform, a student-centric entrepreneurship opportunity which partners with leading universities to give students the opportunity to run a business, specifically a bustling on-campus café.

Entrepreneurship provides students with an opportunity to build personal traits linked to long-term success including, grit, perseverance, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, time management and problem solving.

When asked how he balances a full Colby College course load with running The Cubby, Josh explained, “It’s not really about balance. It’s more of a constant awareness and reevaluation of what is most important. I’ve learned to just be okay with where I am on a weekly basis.”

In addition, student entrepreneurs directly contribute to the startup ecosystem.

Each year, Pitchbook publishes a list of the university programs that produce the most entrepreneurs that go on to garner venture funding. Unsurprisingly, the 2020 List is topped by Stanford, University of California Berkeley, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Unfortunately, no Maine colleges or Universities made the list.

Programs like the University of Maine’s Foster Center of Innovation, University of Southern Maine’s Center for Entrepreneurship, and Colby College’s DavisConnects are a step in the right direction.

“I received immense support from Colby’s career resource center, DavisConnects,” Kim said. “Lisa Noble (Colby’s Director of Employer Engagement and Entrepreneurship) has been instrumental in connecting me with the broader Maine ecosystem.”

Student entrepreneurs like Josh Kim are an important building block of the greater Maine startup community. However, more needs to be done to support Maine’s student entrepreneurs and provide better onramps to get them involved in Maine’s startup ecosystem.