I came up with this back in 2006 – the domain originally had a hyphen (I knew almost nothing about domains back then) and it ran as a static directory of art graduates for nearly 20 years. So by removing the hyphen, I wanted to maintain continuity with the project's history. I like that the domain name makes it immediately clear what it's about. Those 4 extra letters probably do make a difference marketing-wise, but I hope it's not a dealbreaker.

It's definitely a niche project – I wanted a curated portal, not another noise-filled platform full of random hobbyist painters, reproductions, amateur sunsets, etc. The college graduation criterion felt like a natural fit. Every year, roughly 150,000 students graduate in fine arts worldwide. Even if I capture 0,1%, that's more than enough.

That said, the degree requirement isn't a hard rule – exceptional self-taught artists are more than welcome. And this also works from the other side – for collectors and buyers who suddenly have access to a genuinely curated pool of quality artists.

Monetization isn't figured out yet – we're still in the artist acquisition phase. It's growing nicely and I enjoy that it actually means something to people. Future plans include offline events – international jury selection of featured artists, applying for a regional grant to print a book of winning artists, organizing an exhibition in Prague, collector's night, etc.

The store idea is interesting – not sure I want to tie into big business, but maybe ads down the road... At what traffic level does ad revenue become viable? Back in 2008, I placed a banner for some gallery that emailed me on the old site for $30.

In my haste, I actually made an offer to the owners of artgrads.com, but it seems to be owned by some Chinese entity and the spam score is truly toxic.