TheStartupist was recently able to catch up with a cool young entrepreneur by the name of  Jeremy Parker.  Jeremy is the 24 year old president and founder of www.voteforart.com – a new startup backed by the large apparel company David Peyser Sportswear (owner of brands such as Weatherproof and MV Sport). Vote For Art is similar to Threadless but with a collegiate focus.

How did you get the idea for VoteForArt.com?

Last March I was running a high-end t-shirt line called Tees and Tats. We were a finalist at the Cupid’s Cup business competition run by Kevin Plank (Ceo of Under Armor), which was taking place at the University of Maryland. We didn’t win, but after the contest I went to the Maryland bookstore to buy a souvenier and a magazine for my trip back to NYC. Walking through the bookstore, there were no tees that I wanted to buy. They were very plain and simple and it gave me an idea. What if fans and students of the university could design merchandise that they actually would want to wear, and and the same time vote on their favorite designs. For the three hour train ride home , I wrote the business plan to what is now voteforart.com

The t-shirt market is saturated, and therefore originality is key. While the basic crowdsourced design concept has been done a few times already, what drew you to it as a viable business model for your startup?

Are business model is very different than what is currently out there. We focus on college apparel and apparel for licensed institutions. Every university, sportsteam that we partner up with has an already huge community of followers and supporters that are looking for more intresting and more creative apparel choices.

One of the things I like to see companies do is develop products around a community. By targeting colleges you have almost insured that you will have customers. How do you plan convert the potential (large base) of customers into people willing to hand you dollars for your shirts?

All of the winning designs (voted on by the Vote For Art community members) are sold exclusively at the University bookstore. It will be highlited in the bookstore so that everybody who walks into the store will know that this design was chosen by the fans and students of the university.

Describe which social media channels you are using and how you are having, or plan to have, success with them.

We use twitter, facebook and youtube to help us organically spread the word. The partnering university has a huge facebook following and they post news about our contest. We talk with the creators of many facebook groups, ranging from design groups to sports fan pages, and ask them to send an email to their users letting them know about our company. We create different unique youtube videos that appeal to artists, and fans of the partnering university. For instance, we created a video of a guy illustrating the ASU logo by using a paintball gun. The video was put on youtube and within 2 days we had over 25,000 viewers and it was on the homepage of youtube for a day as the most popular video.

Could you talk a little bit about your growth strategy?

We want to partner up with ten or so Universities and really fine tune how the system will work. Make sure each contest goes smoother than the last. Once we are ready, we will launch contests at a more consistent pace. There are many peices that need to be lined up when creating a contest. We have to work with the licensing department at the University and at the same time explain the benefits to the University bookstore. We believe the process will speed up when universities see the success of other major institutions.

What advice can you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?

The best advice I can give to aspiring entrepreneurs is that you need to be persistant. I know it sounds a little cliche, but persistence is key. Things don’t always work out the way you planned, but that doesn’t mean you should give up or stop trying. What I have learned is that many times in business when people tell you “No” they really mean “yes” they just don’t know it yet. And it will be up to you to make them know it.

How can people get involved with VoteForArt?

The best way to get involved in Vote For Art would be to go to the site www.voteforart.com and enter a contest, vote on your favorite designs, give me constructive feedback, let me know other ideas that you have, tell your friends etc. Help us get the word out because I believe that we can really create an amazing community and help artists from all over the world get there work seen and earn huge exposure. I would love to hear any and all ideas.