Entrepreneurial Excellence Award

Josh Chodniewicz
Art.com

Description

Josh Chodniewicz is co-founder of Art.com, the leading direct to consumer e-tailer of prints, posters photographs and custom framed artwork. With distinctive collections and high-quality custom framing services, Art.com offers consumers over 1.4 trillion product combinations in an easy-to-navigate shopping venue. A rare profitable “dot-com” success story, Art.com traces its roots to the initial promise of the Internet. Crediting much of its success to high quality customer service, Art.com is now recognized as the leading worldwide destination to fulfill any wall art need.

Reasons for winning the award

Before starting Art.com, Josh Chodniewicz showed strong entrepreneurial courage when he left Rutgers University at age 19 to take over his father’s building company when his father was sick at the time. His drive to succeed continues today. Behind Chodniewicz’s strong leadership, Art.com has skyrocketed to success since the company was founded without venture backing in 1995. Art.com now ships thousands of products daily, making it one of the top e-commerce sites in the world. Art.com’s revenue growth averaged 400% between 1997 and 2001, and the company achieved a positive cash flow from operations status in 2000, which is rare for an online retailer. During February of 2003, Art.com celebrated their millionth order. Josh Chodniewicz and his Art.com team exemplify entrepreneurial excellence.

Quote

"We’re honored to be awarded the ‘Entrepreneurial Excellence’ award. The incredible growth and success of Art.com over the past 8 years fuels our desire to go further, engage new possibilities, and attain more heights." -- Josh Chodniewicz, CEO

History

From establishing a profitable enterprise selling fresh eggs at age 7 to founding a residential housing development company at age 19, Josh Chodniewicz already had years of business experience under his belt when he co-founded Art.com with child-hood friend Michael Marston. From his parents' home in New Jersey at age 21, Chodniewicz began developing the business model while Marston built the back-end infrastructure between classes at Virginia Tech. The pair spent two years turning concept into reality by launching Allwall.com in 1997 and offering 3,100 products. By the end of 2001, the company had acquired the Art.com name and grown their selection to over 100,000 products. With the 1999 addition of a custom framing service, Art.com provided online shoppers with millions of product combinations offering convenience, speed and value.

Photo courtesy of BP Studios.

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