Artseeka is ankle deep in an experiment to make the art world more open, social and fun; and seeking a technical lead and co-pilot. Feedback on the idea has been phenomenal, with Web + iPhone MVP’s 90% done. If you’re bright, cool, hard-working and love disrupting stubbornly entrenched markets, then keep reading.

BACKGROUND
Art can be an amazing, powerful, and positive force. Yet, much of the world’s art is trapped inside a semi-permeable bubble of exclusivity, rendering it inaccessible to many. My solution was to create an open, unfiltered interface to art that anyone can interact with, despite his/her education level or social status. Artseeka is about transforming art discovery into an adventure, a worldwide dialogue, and awakening a new set of art enthusiasts.

Think of it as Foursquare or Foodspotting for art, where members can share their art “Sightings” (photos of art + info), from museums, galleries, the street, or even a friend’s living room. Sightings are geo-tagged, making the pieces locatable within a block, or on the other side of the world. Members will be able follow the activities of artists, curators, galleries, museums, collectors, friends and taste-makers in a completely open way, whether acquainted or not. This is the foundation, but the vision is to extend the experience to deeper layers of engagement.

Arts-tech is hot, with startups like art.sy raising $7Mil+ pre-launch from the likes of Jack Dorsey and Eric Schmidt. In the past year, art e-tailers seemed to be springing up weekly. But, while other companies focus on revenue through art sales, Artseeka will offer services, for both consumers and professionals, simply focused on connecting people to art, in fresh ways.

Working with freelance devs, I funded a near-complete MVP, covering the basic mechanics of adding and viewing sightings through the site and app. Based on that, I’ve already had major press interested in our story. The next step is building the team, testing our hypotheses using lean methodologies, adding key layers of engagement, and launching the beta. Once critical traction is achieved, accelerator programs and funding options will be evaluated.

ABOUT YOU
• You’re an architect at heart, but can code like nobody’s business.
• You have deep experience in 1+ Web language, including Ruby on Rails.
• You understand lean startup principles
• You can work nights and weekends, for equity only, until we’re funded.
• Bonus points if you know your way around Heroku, GitHub and Pivotal Tracker.
* Bonus points if you live in NYC

ABOUT ME
• I’ve been an early stage-r in three startups.
• I’ve built and managed both technical, and marketing teams.
• I love closely-knit, politics-free environments where the focus is on delivery.
• I gravitate toward org development, product dev, promotions and operations.
• Creative problem solving.
• Once trust is built, I get out the way.
• Proud Brooklynite

WANT IN?
Send the following to jonathan@artseeka.com:
• Links to your online profiles (blog, tumblr, linkedin, twitter, etc…)
• A few reasons why you could be passionate about Artseeka.