Meural

Meural
Type	Private
Founded	August 2014
Founder	Jerry Hu; Vladimir Vukicevic;
Headquarters	New York, New York
Website	www.meural.com

Last updated April 24, 2019

Meural is an American technology company whose principal product is the Meural Canvas, a digital connected canvas built to showcase artwork and photography—both Meural- and user-provided. Through end-to-end production—a combination of proprietary hardware, software, and firmware—the digital frame is designed to look lifelike and textured.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Computer hardware physical components of a computer system

Computer hardware includes the physical, tangible parts or components of a computer, such as the cabinet, central processing unit, monitor, keyboard, computer data storage, graphics card, sound card, speakers and motherboard. By contrast, software is instructions that can be stored and run by hardware. Hardware is so-termed because it is "hard" or rigid with respect to changes or modifications; whereas software is "soft" because it is easy to update or change. Intermediate between software and hardware is "firmware", which is software that is strongly coupled to the particular hardware of a computer system and thus the most difficult to change but also among the most stable with respect to consistency of interface. The progression from levels of "hardness" to "softness" in computer systems parallels a progression of layers of abstraction in computing.

Computer software, or simply software, is a collection of data or computer instructions that tell the computer how to work. This is in contrast to physical hardware, from which the system is built and actually performs the work. In computer science and software engineering, computer software is all information processed by computer systems, programs and data. Computer software includes computer programs, libraries and related non-executable data, such as online documentation or digital media. Computer hardware and software require each other and neither can be realistically used on its own.

Firmware low-level software traditionally held in ROM

In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for the device's specific hardware. Firmware can either provide a standardized operating environment for the device's more complex software, or, for less complex devices, act as the device's complete operating system, performing all control, monitoring and data manipulation functions. Typical examples of devices containing firmware are embedded systems, consumer appliances, computers, computer peripherals, and others. Almost all electronic devices beyond the simplest contain some firmware.

History

Co-founders Vladimir Vukicevic and Jerry Hu, both first-generation immigrants, met at NYU at freshmen orientation. Prior to founding Meural, Vukicevic was co-founder and CTO at RocketHub,^[5]^[6] a leading crowdfunding platform acquired by eFactor. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors at New York Foundation for the Arts.^[7] Hu was a product manager at FreshDirect, and has a background in art as a docent for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

RocketHub is an online crowdfunding platform launched in 2010. Based in New York City, its users—including musicians, entrepreneurs, scientists, game developers, philanthropists, filmmakers, photographers, theatre producers/directors, writers, and fashion designers,—post fundraising campaigns to it to raise funds and awareness for projects and endeavors. Operating in over 190 different countries, RocketHub is considered one of America's largest crowdfunding platforms.

Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over US$34 billion was raised worldwide by crowdfunding.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations founded to support individual artists and emerging arts organizations, with a mission to "empower artists in all disciplines at critical stages in their creative lives." The organization has approximately 30 staff members, including executive director Michael L. Royce.

In August 2014, Vukicevic and Hu founded Meural with the mission of facilitating art discovery and expression. The project was incubated out of Con Artist, an art collective, where they were able to get early feedback straight from artists. The first 12 months of the operation was dedicated to research and development, including: sourcing the LCD panel, developing the ambient light sensor brightness control, creating gesture control language, and designing the digital frames.

The team sold out their first round of inventory in late 2015, and began their next batch in the summer of 2016.

The startup behind the Meural art frame has been acquired by Netgear. The deal was announced during the router company’s analyst day and was confirmed to TechCrunch by a Meural spokesperson. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Netgear Inc. is a multinational computer networking company based in San Jose, California, with offices in about 25 other countries. It produces networking hardware for consumers, businesses, and service providers. The company operates in three business segments: retail, commercial, and as a service provider.

TechCrunch is an American online publisher focusing on the tech industry. The company specifically reports on the business related to tech, technology news, analysis of emerging trends in tech, and profiling of new tech businesses and products.

Funding

Up until March 2016, Meural raised $695k from angel investors and venture capitalists, including Bolt, Jeff Baltimore and Jerry Colonna. In a seed round ending April 2016, Meural raised $2.45 million, with investors including Corigin Ventures, Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners, François-Henri Bennahmias of Audemars Piguet, Elio Leoni Sceti and Bolt.^[8]

An angel investor is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. Angel investors usually give support to start-ups at the initial moments and when most investors are not prepared to back them. A small but increasing number of angel investors invest online through equity crowdfunding or organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share investment capital, as well as to provide advice to their portfolio companies. In the last 50 years the number of angel investors has greatly increased.

Venture capital (VC) is a type of private equity, a form of financing that is provided by firms or funds to small, early-stage, emerging firms that are deemed to have high growth potential, or which have demonstrated high growth. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake, in the companies they invest in. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing risky start-ups in the hopes that some of the firms they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments do have high rates of failure. The start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and they are usually from the high technology industries, such as information technology (IT), clean technology or biotechnology.

Jerry Colonna (financier) venture capitalist

Jerry Colonna is an American venture capitalist and certified professional coach who played a prominent part in the early development of Silicon Valley. He is the recipient of numerous awards and a speaker on topics ranging from leadership to starting businesses. Colonna has been named to Upside magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People of the New Economy, Forbes ASAP's list of the best VCs in the country, and Worth's list of the 25 most generous young Americans. He is a co-founder and CEO of the executive coaching and leadership development company, Reboot. He is the host of the Reboot Podcast, which showcases the heart and soul, the wins and losses, the ups and downs of startup leadership. He also serves as chairman on the Board of Trustees at Naropa University.

Technology

The Meural Canvas employs an in-plane switching display that renders over 16 million colors. It also has a low-reflective matte finish and an ambient light sensor for adaptive lighting.^[9]

Besides the Meural app and my.meural.com, users can change the featured image with the swipe of their hand, using the gesture control feature.^[10]^[11]

Partnerships

To obtain their collection of work—which currently includes over 20,000 images^[12]—Meural partners with a variety of institutions, museums, and organizations. Current partners include Sedition, Bridgeman Images, Eyes on Walls, Lomography, 1000 Museums, Con Artist, and Galleray.^[13]^[14]^[15]

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References

↑ "A Connected Digital Canvas of Infinite Art for Under $500". snapmunk. 2016-05-11. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
↑ "Like Tinder for art, this gesture-sensing frame lets you swipe through images". Digital Trends. 2015-04-08. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
↑ Times, Los Angeles. "Digital art frames: They're like Pinterest or Instagram — for your wall". latimes.com. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
↑ "Meural - Modern take on showcasing art - The Tech Bulletin". The Tech Bulletin. 2016-01-26. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
↑ "Vladimir Vukicevic | RocketHub". www.rockethub.com. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
↑ Clifford, Catherine (2015-04-07). "Art-Tech Startup Makes the Digital Picture Frame Super Classy". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
↑ NYFA.org. "NYFA Welcomes Vladimir Vukicevic to Board of Directors". NYFA.org - NYFA Current. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
↑ "Art tech startup Meural raises $2.5 mln in seed round led by Corigin Ventures". PE HUB. 2016-05-26. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
↑ "A Connected Digital Canvas of Infinite Art for Under $500". snapmunk. 2016-05-11. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
↑ "A rotating fine art gallery at your fingertips". PSFK. 2015-04-07. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
↑ Schiff, Steve (2016-03-03). "This Digital Frame Lets You Change The Art And Photos On Your Wall By Swiping Your Hand". Fatherly. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
↑ Ward, Marguerite (2016-05-09). "4 business tips from a man who will put Monet in your living room for $495". CNBC. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
↑ "Experience art. Reinvent your wall". meural.com. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
↑ "This picture frame swaps out paintings with the wave of a hand". Archpaper.com | Serving up news and inside reports to a niche community interested in the built urban environment. 2015-04-10. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
↑ Magazine, Wallpaper*. "Screen time: digital displays bring art to your home at the touch of a button | Art | Wallpaper* Magazine". Wallpaper*. Retrieved 2016-06-20.

External links

Official website

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "A Connected Digital Canvas of Infinite Art for Under $500". snapmunk. 2016-05-11. Retrieved 2016-06-03.

[2] "Like Tinder for art, this gesture-sensing frame lets you swipe through images". Digital Trends. 2015-04-08. Retrieved 2016-06-20.

[3] Times, Los Angeles. "Digital art frames: They're like Pinterest or Instagram — for your wall". latimes.com. Retrieved 2016-06-20.

[4] "Meural - Modern take on showcasing art - The Tech Bulletin". The Tech Bulletin. 2016-01-26. Retrieved 2016-06-20.

[5] "Vladimir Vukicevic | RocketHub". www.rockethub.com. Retrieved 2016-06-03.

[6] Clifford, Catherine (2015-04-07). "Art-Tech Startup Makes the Digital Picture Frame Super Classy". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2016-06-03.

[7] NYFA.org. "NYFA Welcomes Vladimir Vukicevic to Board of Directors". NYFA.org - NYFA Current. Retrieved 2016-06-03.

[8] "Art tech startup Meural raises $2.5 mln in seed round led by Corigin Ventures". PE HUB. 2016-05-26. Retrieved 2016-06-03.

[9] "A Connected Digital Canvas of Infinite Art for Under $500". snapmunk. 2016-05-11. Retrieved 2016-06-03.

[10] "A rotating fine art gallery at your fingertips". PSFK. 2015-04-07. Retrieved 2016-06-03.

[11] Schiff, Steve (2016-03-03). "This Digital Frame Lets You Change The Art And Photos On Your Wall By Swiping Your Hand". Fatherly. Retrieved 2016-06-20.

[12] Ward, Marguerite (2016-05-09). "4 business tips from a man who will put Monet in your living room for $495". CNBC. Retrieved 2016-06-03.

[13] "Experience art. Reinvent your wall". meural.com. Retrieved 2016-06-03.

[14] "This picture frame swaps out paintings with the wave of a hand". Archpaper.com | Serving up news and inside reports to a niche community interested in the built urban environment. 2015-04-10. Retrieved 2016-06-03.

[15] Magazine, Wallpaper*. "Screen time: digital displays bring art to your home at the touch of a button | Art | Wallpaper* Magazine". Wallpaper*. Retrieved 2016-06-20.