After more than six months in stealth mode, Kelly Smith is officially launching his next Internet project. It's called Inkd, and Smith describes it as "The World's First Marketplace for Original Print Design." Users of Inkd can search for more than 800 designs of business cards, brochures, letterhead and envelopes.
"Every person who has ever started a small business knows that design is an expensive and time-consuming proposition," said Smith, who previously created ImageKind. That business, which sold to CafePress last year, followed a similar model to Inkd. It created an online marketplace for original artwork, and acted as an online retailer of frames.
Founded last year under the name Pressplane, Inkd is launching with more than 800 original designs. Users can download those designs and customize them in a matter of minutes. Prices vary from $29 to $99 per design.
Inkd raised $1.7 million from a who's who Seattle investors last year. They include Mika Salmi (MTV President / AtomFilms founder), Rich Barton (Founder, Expedia / Zillow), Erik Blachford (former Expedia CEO), Andy Liu (BuddyTV), Alex Algard (Founder of Whitepages), Geoff Entress (Voyager), Andy Sack (Founder's Co-op), Adrian Hanauer (Seattle Sounders co-owner) and Dough Rowan (former Corbis CEO).
UPDATE: I got a few more details from Smith, who says the company employs five full timers and has enough cash on hand to last through the year. In terms of competitors, Smith noted that Stocklayouts.com and Brandoozie are playing in the space.
Smith compared Inkd to stock photo agencies such as Corbis (note that the former Corbis CEO Rowan is an investor) and Getty Images, just replacing the images with graphic design products such as envelopes, letterhead and brochures.
"Really, nothing quite like this has been tried so we are kind of curious what to expect going forward," he said.
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