What would a venture capitalist say about an artist relying on third-party galleries for revenue?

No venture capitalist would ever fund that model. If you told them your revenue comes from third-party galleries and you don’t own the customer base or have any way to contact buyers directly, they’d immediately pass. That’s not your customer—it’s the gallery’s. You have no asset, nothing you own, no return for your hard work. You’re building nothing sustainable. It’s exactly like when Facebook changed their algorithm and no one saw posts anymore despite people paying for likes. You can’t build a real business when you don’t own the customer relationships.

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Asked by an artist evaluating their gallery relationships · Answered by Nick Friend · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-06-16