Can you tell me a little about Clarion List and why you started this site? I started The Clarion List to address an age-old problem in the art market: lack of transparency and access. The Clarion List replaces secretive lists and word-of- mouth referrals with a transparent and easy-to- use database of art service companies that is searchable and sortable, complete with reviews and ratings from the community. This enables collectors, artists, advisors and aspiring collectors to find the resources they need, with reviews from others in the art world to guide their choices. What do you consider to be your number one feature for Artists? I think the best feature for artists is the review component! We are providing a platform for artists to share information with each other about what it's actually like to work with an art business (framer, gallery, private dealer, insurance broker, law firm, accountant and more) so artists can make more informed hiring and business decisions. Please tell me a little bit about your background and what led you to start Clarion List. My grandparents are artists and I studied history of art at Yale, but it wasn't until my career led me to an executive position at Christie's that the idea for The Clarion List was born. I'm passionate about preserving art for future generations by helping artists and collectors find the best expert service provider. What has been your feedback from Art Consultants using the site? I've received overwhelming positive feed back from Art Consultants. Not only are many thrilled to be listed and even paying for our advertising opportunities, but also they are using it as a resource to find companies for their clients where their personal rolodex is lacking. For example, a veteran NYC art consultant used our site to source a framer for a client moving to Denver. If you had to name one feature that makes this site easy to use what would that be? Our "Advanced Search" feature enables a User to quickly enter their project parameters (category, specialty, years in business, number of employees, location) and even search by radius from their zip code. How long has The Clarion List been in business? We beta launched in NYC in May 2015 and formally launched January 2016 after adding a few more markets and refining our product. Since then, we've expanded to 24 US Markets (including Boston!) and 30 European markets and have 6,000 listings. What new features do you plan to add in the near future? We plan to add badges to listings that work with trade organizations, showcasing the credentials of our listed companies. We have already started introducing this feature through our partnerships with AAA, AWAD and ISA. What does it cost to advertise on the site? For our listed companies, plans currently start at just $20/month. What was your favorite success story from someone using the site? One of the art installation companies on our site thanks me for her many business leads and for delivering much more qualified leads than Yelp or other resources. How many subscribers do you currently have using the site? We've had over 35,000 unique site users since our launch. How many different types of services to do promote on your site? We have 38 art service categories and it's growing. We added Forensic Art Analysis and Condition Report Specialists & Software just this month! Have you found the user experience feed back to be positive? Absolutely! I have not had any complaints, only suggestions for improvements such as new categories or new geographic markets to grow to. Do you currently have mostly advertisers from the US or are they global? At the moment, the US. We launched our London database in April and the other 29 markets in August, so there is much awareness about our platform to be done in Europe! Would you consider this resource something that is not available anywhere else on the Internet?Yes, we are a very unique resource because we're a) comprehensive and b) enable reviews. Our business model is to list all the companies doing business in each of the 54 markets and 38 art service categories we serve. We do extensive resource to build this one-stop database with 6,000 companies. And we provide the art world a platform to share information with each other via ratings and reviews. When you began with this idea, did you have any idea it would be so successful? I certainly hoped so! When we beta launched in NYC, we were hopeful it would be received positively but there was always the fear that the "opaque" art market wanted to stay that way. Instead, veteran art professionals and established collectors alike praised our work. It has been so successful that we had to pivot our initial business plan somewhat to keep up with demand we have used our resources to focus on rapid database expansion. How many employees do you currently have working for you? We are a co-founding team of two! We're supported by freelancers who help on certain projects. Are you profitable yet? We don't disclose our financial data. Did you develop the software to do this yourself? I am not a technical co-founder, so we work with a technical team to develop the platform. What has been the greatest success in your life so far? Career-wise, The Clarion List of course! On a personal level, marrying my wonderfully supportive husband who is The Clarion List's biggest champion. If you could do anything in the world and money was no object what would you want to be doing? Honestly, I'm working on The Clarion List because I believe in the mission to make a more transparent and accessible art market. If that weren't an option, my answer would have to be the clichéd "travel the world" response! What was the most interesting place you have visited in the past 3 years? I went to Italy this summer and visited the Borghese Gallery, an almost "hidden gem" in Rome. The museum in general is a welcome respite from the overwhelming tourist crowds elsewhere (they only let in a few dozen people at a time) giving everyone the space to truly enjoy the Caravaggio, Raphael and Titian on display. Seeing some of Bernini's finest sculptures in person was unforgettable. When you think about your business, what is the first thing you would like to fix? I would like to see more reviews from our users! I hope your readers will share their feedback of one of our listed companies it takes just a minute and helps create a more efficient art market. (Details here) I know we will eventually reach critical mass where its commonplace for clients to write reviews like they do on Yelp; we're less than a year old and that takes time! When you think about your business what do you consider to be the is the most successful part of the website? I think the participation by the listed companies with their listing has been very successful and greater than we anticipated - we have over 14% of listed companies managing their listing, and we're still working on making sure each company is even aware of their listing! And I'm constantly fielding requests from art businesses who want to be added. Do you have thoughts of doing this type of content for any other industry? Not at the moment - I have my hands full!