Art Project of a New Era

We talked to Christina Akopova on how Pixeos developed technology for art and collectibles and here is what she said about it.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times?

Christina Akopova: COVID-19 has surely affected some aspects of life, for instance, because of the travel limitations it’s hard to impossible to visit the family, not to mention the risk to affect the wellbeing of elder relatives. The pandemic surely brings certain positive changes as well showing that enterprises and governmental structures are able to process with remote work power, but it took COVID for them to admit it and implement those changes.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Pixeos.

Christina Akopova: I have a Master’s Degree in International Relations. 10 years of experience in Business Development and Sales in different corners of the IT industry, from HW giant HP to the biggest blockchain media – Cointelegraph. Pixeos was founded in 2018 by our CEO Fred Nogueira, who I met while still working for my last employer. The idea of Pixeos started with a combination of the team’s passion for art and the opportunities to improve the industry provided by still new blockchain technology. I joined the core team full time at the beginning of 2020 sharing responsibility for company partnerships, the business side, and investor relations with our CEO.

How does Pixeos innovate?

Christina Akopova: Pixeos developed technology for art and collectibles; our main product, for now, is a marketplace that generates a provable Certificate of Authenticity about any unique asset-backed by blockchain. So users can make money even with digital art, buy provably unique art-pieces or collectibles, and secure lifelong royalties.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business and how are you coping?

Christina Akopova: Pixeos is a global online business. In fact, our solution is designed to provide people access to art even in case of extreme events like the ones that we have faced in 2020. However, the pandemic has significantly affected our plans in terms of raising the investment process. Some of the VCs we have been talking too whether to put the funding on hold or take more time than usual.

Did you have to make difficult choices and what are the lessons learned?

Christina Akopova: The most important lesson is to even stop the development process, sacrifice for the project you believe in, and don’t let the obstacles affect your determination. 

What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to navigate this crisis?

Christina Akopova: As our main challenge during the pandemic is related to fund-raising, it’s hard to say that there were some special tools that we used. However, some websites with access to a lot of investors and accelerators were definitely in handy (e.g. gust).

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Christina Akopova: Our competitors are ‘crypto-art’ projects, mostly focusing on a relatively small audience of blockchain-savvy people. We are cheaper, faster, and have developed our own tech. We also envision a greater plan to consolidate all services in one ecosystem with the automation of verification of authenticity and ownership no platform yet achieved and will find a hard time to catch up with what Pixeos already have in store. Moreover, we have a solution for physical assets that is not presented on any other platform.

Your final thoughts?

Christina Akopova: With an industry prevalent with a lack of ownership fakes and scams, Pixeos is positioning itself as a place where artists are able to safely create, transact, and take financial and legal custody of their creations and purchases. As NFTs begin to become more and more popular, the future of art is becoming increasingly digital.

Your website?

pixeos.io