Everyone in the know is wondering what happened to Carbon. Long story short, they were acquired pre-launch and shifted away from a public offering while they re-scaled the platform. But for those of you that were late for the party, Carbon was (and still is) a next generation resource for crowdsourced digital content that was poised to dominate the mid-range market. Where art houses were concerned, there would be Getty, there would be Carbon and then everyone else a few floors below and people were excited. So, what happened? Carbon Founder & CEO, Tiffany M. Carpenter weighs in.
“The coverage and the buzz in the start-up scene surrounding Carbon generated a lot of late term investor interest and initially we were not open to the idea of any type of partnership. We were extremely proud of the fact that we were able to self fund and develop a commercial platform that traditionally requires bank funding or millions in exchange for equity. The nature of the brand is a bit rebellious and independent to begin with because it is a mirror image of the core group of Designers and Developers from the Thesis camp that brought it to life. It was a really tough call. We’d just received a nomination for a Red Herring, outdoor advertising was in full swing and we were 3 months away from a public launch when we received an offer that most start-ups would kill for. We’d come so far on our own it felt like even considering the offer was selling out. But, after careful consideration, we could see that taking on a partner would ultimately allow us to better serve the creative community and we were not wrong.”
With some additional time to grow Carbon is now a global community of over 300,000 artists that create and submit nearly half a million new photos, videos and design assets each month. Carbon stands apart from all other stock platforms in that all collections and assets are curated by Designers for Designers so they meet both the beauty standard and the more technical aspects of Design in respect to lighting and positioning. From contemporary creative imagery to sports, entertainment, and lifestyle, their curated collections represent the best in visual storytelling. It is pixel perfect.
“We do not sell pictures of women smiling at salads.”
“Initially the creation of Carbon grew out of our own needs at Thesis for images and assets that were both artistic and appropriate for our entertainment and lifestyle clients. Our searches for content sometimes seemed endless and more often than not we were settling for almost perfect, so we decided to start building our own community of content creators in an attempt to get what we wanted.”
“At the end of the day, the collection is a celebration of life.”
“This fulfilled a very real business need, but at a certain point it became a very personal project for me. I hadn't considered what it would feel like to work directly with this many artists and how that would change my life, or what it would feel like to get Christmas cards from 20 countries. We have established shooters in New York and stringers and beginners in places like Cambodia. The settings are subjects are drastically different but in the end it all points in a singular direction. At the end of the day the Carbon collections are a celebration of life. It is stunning and it is pixel perfect.”
Carbon is currently available by private invitation only in advance of its public launch. Stay tuned for news and updates.
For submission and press inquiries please contact Zoe Baker or Grace Keller and don't forget to stop by the Carbon Facebook page for more updates and free monthly resources.
The Wrap
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