Meet Joey Flores | Y Combinator-backed Entrepreneur and Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joey Flores and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joey, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Since I was a kid, I have lived and breathed art and creativity, and I know how difficult it is as an artist to find success. I’ve founded two businesses, a streaming music startup called Earbits that was aimed at helping bands with marketing, and Inversion Art, which helps visual fine artists with investment and operational support. Both of my startups were trying to solve problems that I have had personally as an artist, and that I saw other artists struggling with. There are too many artists and creators out there with great talent and products who struggle to navigate the business landscape.

From 2006 to 2010, I had a band with my good friend and we found that all of the tools that were available for musicans were just online versions of marketing tactics that had never worked very well offline. I had been working at an advertising network for several years, successfully selling hundreds of products and services of varying kinds, and my bandmate and I wondered why the same tactics that were working for those products weren’t available to artists. We decided to combine online radio, which was great for discovering new music, with Google Adwords, which was a great marketing tool for small businesses. I probably would not have ever thought to start a business like that, but I had been part of a successful startup and saw people just like me start and build a great business, so doing so felt like a real possibility.

We started the company, and ultimately got into Y Combinator, an exceptional program for entrepreneurs that includes investment and operational support. It changed our trajectory, and my life personally, and was pivotal in our ability to build the company to serve 15,000 bands and 600 record label partners before selling it in 2015.

In 2020, after dedicating two years of my creative time to painting, I began to explore the possibility of building a Y Combinator-inspired program for visual artists, I think that artists ought to have access to the same kinds of tools, services and opportunities that other types of entrepreneurs and businesses have, and I’m proud of the work we have done at Inversion Art, investing in and supporting the careers of eight incredible fine artists, including a Guggenheim Fellow and the creator of the first NFT, among others.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’ve been creating art since I was a child and, although it’s never been my profession, I always approach creativity with ambition and passion. I have been a spoken word artist performing at top venues in Los Angeles, the frontman of a 10-piece band with the privilege of opening for two-time Grammy winners Arrested Development, the creator of a children’s book, a painter, and most recently, a board game designer. None of it has been something I pursued for the money, though I believe my board game has tremendous commercial potential.

Pursuing creative projects is never easy, whether it’s professionally or not. There is a lot of learning that goes into creating great art, and people often misunderstand the value of art by assuming that a painting that took 10 hours of time is only worth 10 hours of compensation. Getting to the point of making a great painting in 10 hours takes years of practice and study, so it’s really the culmination of much more than the time spent putting paint on canvas.

When I have tried to commercialize my art, I have found it so difficult that, in both music and visual art, it led me to start a company to help other artists with the problems I experienced. I generally put my own art on the back burner in order to build these companies, so very rarely am I able to push my creativity forward as a career opportunity for myself. Much like a lot of artists, I suppose I always hope that one day the things I create will be “discovered” by someone who sees fit to elevate me, because the truth is that self-promoting as an artist is both difficult, awkward, and often unsuccessful. In the meantime, I will continue to create things I am proud of and support other artists in whatever way I can.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Well, I spend most of my time these days in Oaxaca, Mexico, where I would love to take people to see the hundreds of murals around the city, as well as the rural artisans creating hand woven textiles, painting Alebrijes sculptures, distilling the world’s best mezcal, and any other number of rich cultural experiences this area has to offer.

But, in Los Angeles, I love to show people just how diverse the city can be. Most people who visit stay in one neighborhood or go to tourist locations like Hollywood, and leave disenchanted. LA is so much more than Hollywood and Sunset Blvd. There aren’t many places in the world where you spend one week and go walking along a beach like Malibu, see the seedy and incredible boardwalk in Venice, drive through the hills of Topanga Canyon, explore the nearby desert in Joshua Tree, head up the mountains for skiiing, and then come back to the city to visit some of the country’s best museums, comedy clubs, music venues, restaurants, and bars. If you can bear the traffic, you could spend every night in Los Angeles doing something world class, while eating some of the best food in the entire United States. For as much as people like to make fun of LA, there are few cities in the US where you can experience as much diversity and do so in nearly year-round perfect weather.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many people that I could thank for supporting me, my career, and my entrepreneurial endeavors over the years. First and foremost, I would thank my co-founders, Yotam Rosenbaum, Benjamin Bryant, and Jonathan Neil, for taking a risk to swing for the fences with me. Second, I would thank a few of my mentors, including Avichal Garg, Marc Randolph, and Matt Simpson. Third, I would thank everybody who has invested in both of my startups. And last, but absolutely not least, my family, for providing the love, support and safety net needed to take risks that not everybody is privileged enough to take knowing there is always a place to go home to.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joeyjflores

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeyjflores/

Twitter: https://www.x.com/spelingchampiun

Other: Check out The M.O. Podcast at https://inversionart.substack.com