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Comment by dblock | Hacker News Reader

I am an engineer at Artsy, ask me anything about how things work.

Somewhat off-topic, but I found your talk "Build & Scaling a Test Driven Culture"[1] incredibly valuable as we built out the engineering team at our startup.

It was a major influence on developing the pragmatic approach we've taken to automated testing at ePantry, and is required watching for our engineers. Thanks for creating it!

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvHf94hxzRc

Thanks for the kind words!

It's more of a business than engineering question, but I wonder what factors led Artsy to work within the gallery/show business framework rather than attempting to disrupt that.

The Gallery/Show business provides two things: 1. Reputation/trust (especially for younger artists) 2. Reach to potential collectors The validation required to spend $5,000 vs $1,000 on a work is purely intangible, a reputable gallery and it's experts can make that difference. In terms of an artist selling to the market directly, you have to be a Damien Hirst, or similar, to have the brand in the market to support a direct sales infrastructure.

This has always been in Artsy DNA. We want to bring existing players online, not compete with them. Galleries are very valuable as they establish a primary market for a new artist.

Are you guys hiring summer engineer interns?

As I replied on twitter, I think it's good form to also do so on here: send us an email at jobs@artsymail.com

We get a bunch so it usually takes a bit of time to get through but they all get looked at by someone.

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