Billy Shaw & Josh Stinson | Grafiti

BILLY SHAW & JOSH STINSON

Co-Founders of Grafiti, a direct-to-consumer brand which offers premium, museum-quality art.

Tell Us About Grafiti. What Does Your Company Do And How Do You Do Things Differently?

Billy: Grafiti Home is a home decor brand offering premium, sustainable, and thoughtfully designed products produced by artists and designers from all over the world.

Josh: Unlike most of the brands in the industry, we choose to take a very hands-on curated approach with our artists and designers. Each artist and designer is handpicked by us personally and, many of them are gallery artists, with a unique style and artistic perspective. As a brand one of the things that excites us is that we are able to offer our customers access to these incredible artists, many of whom they would usually not have access to.

Billy: We also pride ourselves on the premium quality of our products. We wanted to build a brand that offers superior quality craftsmanship, values sustainability, and centers around accessible, yet luxurious, home products. This means all of our frames are actually made by hand and our wall art is hand-assembled in our LA studio. Fun fact, while most wall art frames out there are actually made from plastic, ours are made out of FSC-certified mahogany wood.

What Are Your Backgrounds? What Led You To Founding A Company Together, And How Did You Choose This Space?

Billy: So my background is in the tech world, before Grafiti Home I ran a Media Tech startup. We were in the mobile social tech space and built a social network for artists where we worked mostly with amateur artists. But my personal and family background is that of a 3rd generation furniture manufacturing family from Indonesia. That background is in many ways what led us to be questioning how we can improve and tackle the home decor market here in the US.

Josh: Much like Billy, I also come from the tech world, but my roots are in the strategic design space, compliments of my degree from Parsons School of Design and working in auction houses like Heritage Auctions. But before Grafiti Home, I co-founded an Autonomous Vehicle insurance company that worked on manufacturers like Tesla to assess the risk of their autonomous driving systems and take into account the safety benefits of those very systems to more accurately price a vehicle owner’s insurance.

Josh: What led to Billy and I starting a company together? Well, Billy and I are actually college friends. We both attended college in NYC at different schools but we hung out with the same group of friends. While we were both winding down our respective companies we were both in the process of searching for what we will do next…

Billy: And I think that's where really the whole ‘aha’ moment came in. right, if you really think about it, the home decor market in the United States is completely fragmented, on the one hand, you’ve got the entry-level home decor market which really centers around the Ikea, Wayfair, and Amazon’s of the world. They have really taken over that space and hold a strong position there. On the other end of the spectrum, you have the higher-tier luxury market which also centers around 2 or 3 brands, which is the William Sonoma Group, Crate and Barrel Group, and the Restoration Hardware Group. There aren’t very many major players between those two spectrums and we were trying to figure out why it was that way and how do we create a home decor brand that offers premium quality but at a price point that really doesn't break the bank. The home is one of the biggest investments you can make in your life and, you don't want to buy things that you have to throw away next year, especially in art.

What Have Been Both Your Favorite And Least-liked Parts Of Your Entrepreneurial Journey? What Have Been Your Most Challenging And Most Exciting Moments For You And The Company?

Josh: I think the part has been my favorite of this entire journey is the constant challenges. As much as that can be stressful at times, the most exciting thing is that every day that I wake up there’s a new challenge waiting for me. As founders we’re exposed to every aspect of the business, from operations and design, to technical aspects like product development, logistics and supply chain. We’re forced to learn and overcome challenges in each of the areas and, one of the best parts is that we get a lot of exposure to things we never thought we would actually get to do. 

Billy: I think my favorite thing within the entrepreneurial journey is that you're able to think ahead in the future and you get to shape what kind of company you want to be. That means you have this freedom where you’re able to envision what you want to be in the next five years and I always find that to be incredibly exciting.

I think we have a unique position at Graffiti with our roadmap where we can position ourselves in the market where we really win big.

Tell Us About Your Supply Chain. How Do The Logistics Work In Terms Of Getting The Art From The Artist To The Customer?

Josh: So from the art side, we follow our own internal process: we always do our research in terms of the type of categories we need to fill on the website. Then Billy and I go through the current list of artists that we think are interesting, once we’ve outlined the artists that we like we reach out to set up a conversation. Once an artist is signed up, the art that is selected for the site goes to our designer where they create renderings for the product page. Once a piece is on the website, we turn into a marketing campaign whether that's email, online advertising, etc. From there it goes to the production process which is as cut and paste as we can make it.

Billy: What's interesting from a product supply chain standpoint is that all of our frames are made by hand and they come from Indonesia where we use real mahogany wood. Each frame is FSC sustainably certified, meaning that for every tree that is cut down to make our frames, one is also planted in its place.  It also means our frames don’t come from illegal logging or deforestation and all the other nasty stuff that is happening out there. Once the materials are gathered, each frame is then made by hand and shipped to LA. From there, in the production process each piece is assembled by hand. So there's a lot of care and attention that is being put into every single order thanks to our team of expertly trained technicians that have had decades of experience.

As A Certified B Corporation, What Are Some Endeavors Grafiti Does By Way Of Corporate Social Responsibility And Environmental Responsibility?

Billy: As a certified B Corp, we really focus on our environmental responsibility. The number one way we do that is we only source sustainably. All of our suppliers are FSC certified and for every tree that is cut down we plant a new tree. We also work to reduce our use of plastic as much as possible, from our packaging to making sure our frames are not made of plastic as well. 

What Was The Inspiration Behind The Company Name?

Billy: So interestingly, I came up with the name Grafiti when I was on Abbot Kinney in Venice, and just seeing all the art murals out there and I was thinking, “Wow, those graffiti art murals they’re not only really cool, but these are extremely artistic.” That’s when the word “Grafiti” came up as a brand name for us, because it’s really emblematic of who we are; a name that pays homage to our LA roots, but also conveys the strong and bold nature of our brand. That’s the kind of brand image and impression that we want to convey through the name Grafiti.

Any New Products Or Initiatives That Will Be Launching Soon?

Josh: We have a few new categories that we will be launching in the coming months, that we are very excited about, but, we can’t necessarily give specifics on. All we can say at the moment is that we’re working with some very exciting designers, across multiple industries that will be helping us launch new products. One of the things that is really interesting is the way we’re collaborating with these designers, it’ll help redefine how brands are thinking about product development in our space in the future.

How Do You Think Your Industry Will Change Post-COVID?

Billy: So interestingly the home decor industry has not been actively hit by COVID, unlike other retail sectors. The home decor sector actually has been growing and fairly stable as an industry. I think that’s due to the fact that people are working from home more and people are realizing that, “Hey, if I’m spending so much time at home, I want to make sure that my home is the best that it can be.” People want to make sure that their home is comfortable, well furnished, and as aesthetically pleasing as it can be. So that’s why you’ve been seeing companies like Wayfair and, at the opposite end of the spectrum, Restoration Hardware seeing their shares shoot up during the pandemic. Unfortunately, I think what COVID has created in the economy is worrisome as a whole: people are doing more transactions in e-commerce, but people are spending less in general due to lowered incomes. 

Josh: One of key challenges that we face as a brand right now, especially during COVID is trying to steer where the business is going and adapting to the rapid shifts in customer behaviors. We’re constantly assessing where we’re pushing our products, where we’re choosing to not push our products, assessing the viability of a return to physical retailers in the future (because right now physical retail is essentially dead in the water). So with all that said, what we’ve been focusing on is, primarily our owned online presence and expanding that while also constantly looking at other online channels to see what makes the most sense for us. Being a digitally native brand gives us an advantage right now over some of the legacy brands, because every viable channel that is out there during COVID is still within our wheelhouse to execute on. We can look at all the various online channels that currently exist or are quickly popping up and find unique ways to push the product out into the world since we’re not as reliant as other brands that are tied to physical spaces for getting eyeballs on their products.

What Are The Most Important Skills A Modern Day Entrepreneur Needs In Order To Be Successful?

Josh: I don’t know if this is necessarily a skill but more so a character trait, but the first one would be grit.

Billy: I think attention to detail is super important. Especially with direct-to-consumer brands,  you want to make sure that what you're selling isn't just a pretty website but, you’re actually selling a really good product.

Josh: One of things that most direct-to-consumer brands are missing these days is that key element of the whole customer experience, that is another “skill” you could say that is absolutely key. Learning how the whole ecosystem works and how it impacts your customers experience each step of the way.