Bridging Creativity and Technology: How Ted Acworth is Transforming Mosaic Art Through Innovation at Artaic
In today’s post we interview Ted Acworth, the founder and CEO of Artaic, an innovative startup leveraging cutting-edge technology to revolutionize the art of mosaic design and production. With educational and professional experience spanning academia, engineering, entrepreneurship and more, Ted shares how his diverse background inspired him to establish Artaic and make mosaics more accessible.
Under Ted’s leadership, Artaic has developed proprietary design software and robotic manufacturing techniques to transform the traditionally labor-intensive mosaic creation process. By empowering artists and designers with new flexibility and efficiency, Ted aims to elevate mosaics as a dynamic medium. Through national science grants and early customer sales, Artaic overcame challenges to pursue Ted’s vision of innovative problem-solving.
In our discussion, Ted provides insight into Artaic’s unique value proposition and competitive differentiators. He also openly reflects on important lessons learned around focusing efforts and go-to-market strategies. Ted’s perseverance is evident through his resilience in navigating challenges and willingness to thoughtfully evaluate experiments. This interview offers invaluable perspective for aspiring entrepreneurs on building a successful startup.
- Please provide a brief introduction of yourself and your professional background.
My name is Ted Acworth, and I am the Founder and CEO of Artaic. Prior to founding the company, I pursued various roles as an entrepreneur, educator, scientist, and engineer. I earned an MBA in Management of Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I was a Sloan Fellow in Innovation and Global Leadership. Additionally, I hold a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and both an M.S. and B.S. from Columbia University. My professional journey includes working with NASA on space telescope calibration, teaching Computer Science in China, serving as a Scuba Divemaster in Thailand, and founding a non-profit flight school affiliated with MIT, where I am also a private pilot. Additionally, I spent several years as a co-host and science producer of a television show on The History Channel called UFO Hunters. As for my stance on UFOs, I neither believe nor disbelieve 😉.
- Please tell us a bit more about your business – what does it offer, what problem does it solve, and who is your target audience?
At Artaic, we aim to revolutionize mosaic creation, making it accessible to artists of all mediums and mosaic enthusiasts, as well as designers and architects. Our goal is to enable them to translate their artwork and vision into mosaics that contribute to the creation of meaningful spaces. We utilize proprietary robotic technology and a mosaic design software called Tylist™ to facilitate this process. Our unique manufacturing approach is heavily tech-centric, addressing the design industry’s challenges by increasing design flexibility, reducing lead times and costs, and enhancing the accessibility and usability of mosaics. Artaic’s robots operate in collaboration with craftspeople, creating a symbiotic relationship between technology and artistic skill.
- What inspired you to start your own business? What was the “aha” moment?
I’ve always been interested in innovating, and I liked the idea of designing machines to solve problems or apply creative solutions. I first stumbled upon mosaics in some of the great museums in Southern Europe, namely Italy and Turkey, the heartland for mosaic design. As I traveled, I started looking for more. Crossing paths with traditional mosaics felt like an opportunity to make a beautiful art form more accessible by making it quicker to produce, easier to manufacture, affordable, and more flexible.
- What were some of the biggest initial challenges you faced in getting your business off the ground? How did you overcome them?
The Great Recession hit us just as we were launching our company, coinciding with the 2008 Real Estate collapse, which affected our target market. We survived on National Science Foundation Research grants, which we used to further develop our product and make it more market-ready, coinciding with the market’s recovery in 2012.
If you ask any designer or architect if they know what mosaic is, they’ll say of course. But if you ask if they use it, they’ll say no, because it’s too expensive, hard to customize to their project’s vision, and takes too long. Our mission is to make this medium more accessible and solve these pain points.
- What has been your approach to funding your startup? Did you use your own savings, seek investors, crowdfund?
The best funding for a startup is customer orders. From the earliest days, I worked to sell products to customers—starting the selling process even before the product was ready. However, few businesses, especially those requiring significant technology development, can fund themselves solely on customer orders. I started with my own savings—always good to have your skin in the game—and secured funding from the National Science Foundation SBIR grant program. We also sought a few friends and family investors. Our business doesn’t fit the pattern for Venture Capital, so I didn’t put much effort in that direction.
- What have been some of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make as a founder? Any stand out as pivotal?
There have been several. Deciding on whether or not to manufacture our own tile (we opted not to). Deciding whether we’d handle the installation (we chose not to). Determining which part of the vertical stack to focus on, because you can’t do it all. We focus on where we can offer the greatest differentiation and value—the design and assembly of custom projects.
- How do you stand out from the competition in your space? What sets your product/service apart?
You always seek to find a space where you offer a unique, defensible value proposition. Artaic has become the go-to leader in our niche.
- What have been some mistakes or failures you’ve made along the way as an entrepreneur? How did you recover and learn from them?
Going in a direction with product and sales that didn’t pan out. We’ve left a trail of product and channel experiments that didn’t work out. While trial and error is important, you have to be extremely thoughtful and disciplined about which things you do try, so you can hit success before your funding runs out. I like to say yes to anything that sounds interesting and promising. What’s much harder is the no’s. I’ve learned to choose more carefully where to invest in your business—you can’t do it all.
In aviation, there is a saying that you start as a pilot with 2 buckets, the lucky bucket is full and the experience bucket is empty. Your job is to fill the experience bucket before the lucky bucket runs out. It’s not dissimilar in entrepreneurship… before the funding bucket runs out, you have to be filling the revenue bucket.
- What do you know now that you wish you knew when you were first starting out?
It’s not enough to have a great product; you have to have a great go-to-market plan. You need to know how to sell it, how it will sell, and how that will lead to scale.
- What are the most important skills someone needs to be a successful founder, in your opinion?
Skills can be learned, but traits are generally inherent. A critical trait is perseverance: the ability to compartmentalize. If you’re constantly thinking about your startup 24 hours a day, you’re going to be ground down. Work hard and give it your all, but try not to take it to bed at night if you can avoid it. Optimism and perseverance are key.
- What does a typical day or week look like for you? How do you manage work-life balance?
I get up at 5 a.m. and get my first workout in, then drink my protein shake for breakfast, and head into the office by 8 … Ha. Kidding. I simply try to manage the day-to-day responsibilities of work and family and aim to fit in bike rides for my health, live music for my well-being, and a good night’s sleep to juggle it all.
