Silicon Valley has been rocked by revelations about the mis-treatment of women. But one female founder is navigating entrepreneurship’s tricky shoals and has gotten traction in converting a problem she had ordering picture frames into a business with 150 employees that just raised $16.8 million in funding from investors including Crate and Barrel’s founder, Gordon Segal.
The founder in question is Susan Tynan, an English major who graduated from University of Virginia, took a position as a consultant at Accenture, and went on to earn an MBA from Harvard. From there she spent time managing investments for Steve Case’s Revolution Health, worked as a performance and management advisor in the Obama White House, and served as general manager at Living Social.
In January 2014, she founded Framebridge, an online custom framing service that Tynan says, “has tackled the painful, inconvenient and costly process of custom framing an item, replacing it with an experience that places the customer first. Customers can order online in minutes, with the ability to preview their piece in different frame styles. Customers can upload their item on the website or app, or mail physical items using prepaid packaging from Framebridge.”
She continued, “The company handcrafts a custom frame within three days of receiving the piece and ships it to the customer, ready-to-hang. Its preset pricing is based on the size of the art and ranges from $39 – $189, plus free shipping. Production is powered by proprietary technology, with manufacturing facilities based in Kentucky and Maryland led by experienced operators from Amazon, PepsiCo, and Zappos”
As Tynan explained in a July 17 interview, “Before starting the company I bought four national park posters for $40 apiece and paid $400 each to get them custom-framed. After paying the $1,600 bill I vowed next to do that again. I knew there must be a way to streamline production and lower costs” so that people could get custom-frames at a lower price. “I took a custom-framing course and went to trade shows and realized that it could be done for much less.”
Framebridge is growing fast in the $4 billion custom-framing industry. As Tynan said, “We got started in 2014 and by 2015 had gotten everything together and started selling. We have headquarters in Georgetown and production facilities in Maryland and Kentucky. In 2015, we had 10 employees and we have 150 now. Our sales tripled between 2015 and 2016 and are likely to do the same in 2017.”
Such rapid growth can be explained in part by Framebridge’s lower prices and excellent service. “We charge $99 for the order I paid $400 for. We can do that because we have improved the process. Typical local framing companies don’t hold inventory — they buy it. Our material prices are lower because our growth has given us the bargaining power to pay lower prices. We also batch similar jobs together in our production process. As we scale, our gross margins rise,” she explained.
This growth helped the company attract more funding. On July 13 Framebridge closed a “$16.7 million in Series B funding. New investors include retail legend Gordon Segal, co-founder of Crate and Barrel and Beth Kaplan, former President & COO of Rent the Runway. Existing investors also participated including New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Revolution Ventures, and SWaN & Legend Venture Partners.”
Segal liked the logic behind this investment. As he explained, “Framebridge brings a much-needed service to the multi-billion dollar market that is framing. While I’ve worked with many retailers over the decades, Framebridge stands out, having built in a few years’ time a robust customer-centric business that people love. I’m very excited to invest in Susan and her talented team and look forward to working with Framebridge to help take the business to the next level. It’s amazing that one third of Framebridge customers have never framed before and that the majority are millennials. Based on these and other trends, I agree with investors and analysts alike that the potential size of the framing market is much greater than advertised.”
Indeed when it comes to raising capital, Tynan argues that size matters. As she said, “When you are trying to raise capital, it won’t work to tell investors how much volume you can do in the next 18 months. You have to have swagger and who them the really, really big picture. You have to paint for investors a picture of what the business will look like when it’s successful. And it has to be based on real data — I love asking investors if they want to see our results.”
Not surprisingly, pitching to investors also requires the development of a thick skin. “You need to get a warm introduction to potential investors — cold calling them won’t work. And rejection is emotionally tough. You have to be prepared for it. What I’ve learned from doing investor pitches is that you have to be prepared to show the assumptions underlying your growth metrics,” she advised.
And when it comes to managing Framebridge’s growth — which she hopes will reach $100 million in sales, Tynan believes that women have an advantage, noting “Women are great multi-taskers.”
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