Reimagine: A conversation with Artsy CMO Everette Taylor

Keep people at the center of your brand. Embrace the human side of leadership. And understand the democratizing power of technology. These three lessons are critical for any business leader—and they’re what Everette Taylor has kept at the center of his work over the past two years as the CMO of Artsy, the world’s largest online marketplace for discovering, buying, and selling art. Before Artsy, Everette was building an unbelievable resume—he’s held a number of leadership roles at organizations including SaaS company Qualaroo, marketing network platform GrowthHackers, and rental car service Skurt. At age 25, he was the youngest ever CMO for the e-commerce company Sticker Mule, where he led unprecedented growth.

Everette has demonstrated clear foresight in his work, and I was struck by how he’s guiding Artsy to bridge the data and analytical aspects of marketing with human emotion and connection. I recently spoke with him to learn how he’s reimagining the future of the fine art industry and to discuss how a company takes purpose from a page to action.

CHRIS CAPOSSELA: You have an amazing life story, as well as an amazing career story. Can you share a little bit about your life experiences and how they've shaped your perspective?

EVERETTE TAYLOR: The first thing I always think of is how grateful I am to be in the position that I'm in. I grew up in Southside, Richmond, Virginia, and I saw a lot of traumatic things that I didn't realize at the time would affect me to this day. I saw violence, I saw drugs, I saw gangs. I didn’t have positive male influences in my life. And my mother was, and still is, an incredible woman. But I had to raise myself a lot of the time because she worked nights and did whatever she had to do to take care of me.

It taught me to be strong and to be able to overcome a lot of adversity. But it also opened me up to a lot of bad influences. My mother started to see that, and she forced me to get a real job at the age of 14. And that first job ended up being a marketing role. That saved my life because it introduced me to what I believe is my God-given talent, and it allowed me to start to meet people outside of my bubble.

I always say that the analytical, data, and technical sides of marketing can be taught, but what you can't teach is emotional intelligence. There was a time I was homeless as a teenager, and that was such an impactful moment for me because it allowed me to see what it felt like to be at the bottom—you see people at their rawest emotions and the things that truly drive them.

When we're sitting in these rooms and we're thinking about marketing, we're coming up with all these fancy things. And sometimes you have to just understand what humans and people fundamentally want and need.

CHRIS CAPOSSELA: Amazing. Thank you for sharing that. As you think about how you lead your team, how do you feel your experiences have influenced your leadership style?

EVERETTE TAYLOR: A lot of times people say you've got to keep things completely professional—and I think that you can be human and kind to people and still be professional and get the best out of them.

CHRIS CAPOSSELA: That’s fantastic. As I was looking at your LinkedIn profile, I saw you’ve had a wide range of experiences in your career, from working with nonprofits to helping lead marketing and software firms. As you’ve gone from company to company, you’ve had to think about bringing a brand's purpose to life. What's your advice on how to do that effectively?

EVERETTE TAYLOR: It starts with the people you're trying to serve. For many companies and brands, we get caught up in how much revenue we're going to make and hitting KPIs. There has to be a level of selflessness involved at a company level to move away from just the numbers, to move away from the revenue and really start to think about impact. How are we genuinely changing and impacting the space that we're in? How are we genuinely making the world a better place? This isn't tied to money or financial gain. This is something that's bigger. This is legacy, right?

When I think about Microsoft, I don't know what you guys made last quarter, but I think about the legacy that you've had. I think about the impact that you've had, the technology and the people and the leaders. That's what's real. That's what people feel. That's what people remember.

CHRIS CAPOSSELA: Tell us a little bit about Artsy. What have you and the team decided is the purpose of the company and the brand?

EVERETTE TAYLOR: Number one, we’re here to make the art world a more equitable and democratized space. The art world is something that has been very exclusive, vague, and lacked transparency. Our use of technology and influence is opening this space to make it more inclusive.

The second piece of that is supporting artists and business owners. We have thousands of galleries on our platform. So not only are we helping big galleries, but we’re effectively helping small galleries, especially during this pandemic when brick and mortar has become very complicated.

What’s so beautiful about Artsy’s mission is that everybody wins. The artist wins because they're selling their art and they're able to provide for themselves and their family. The gallery owners win because they're able to help their business thrive. The collector wins because now that person has something in their home that they love, which could also be a potential strong investment. And then Artsy wins because we're continuing to provide great support to our galleries and have massive growth within our company.

CHRIS CAPOSSELA: These jobs are hard jobs, they’re very consuming jobs. But outside of work, what do you find inspirational?

EVERETTE TAYLOR: I really do find inspiration through art. Just going to visit an artist in their studio, or speaking to a friend who’s a collector, or talking to a gallery owner we helped—I'm constantly inspired by the reminders of the impact of my work. I don't need individual recognition. I just want to see that the work that I'm doing is having a positive impact on people's lives.

I also really recharge through meditation and reading a good book. That alone time and ability to turn off all my technology for a little while feels really great.

CHRIS CAPOSSELA: I'm sure you get asked all the time, but since you mentioned reading, if we could look at what's on your nightstand, what books might we see there?

EVERETTE TAYLOR: Right now, I'm reading this book called We Are Here: Visionaries of Color Transforming the Art World, which looks at 50 different people from all ends of the art world that are genuinely impacting the space. I love reading about art and artists, so I'm also reading about Purvis Young right now.

CHRIS CAPOSSELA: You're marrying tech and art in a pretty interesting way. A lot of people think of those as very different worlds, but it sounds like you have no problem harmonizing those and bringing them together.

EVERETTE TAYLOR: You’ll hear me preach about art and science—the emotional side to the quantitative side and the data side. I think it’s so important.

Tech allows for innovation and it allows access. Technology makes things possible. If it wasn't for technology, I’d still be in Southside, Richmond. That's what I love about technology—it really has helped innovation and has helped level the playing field a little bit. There's still a lot about being a Black man in this country that’s not easy, but I’m grateful for the tech side of my work and that art reminds us of the beauty and the meaning behind what we do.

With tech, it's like an artist with a blank canvas. You make the product, you give people the canvases, then they paint, and they make beautiful pictures and images and use cases. That's the beauty of technology and art. We build these products and services, and then people use their own creativity to make it special.

And at the end of the day, art is what really differentiates us. This is why marketing is so important. It’s what differentiates you, it's what may make a person choose between your brand and the next. And so, these two things are intertwined and always will be. And when you let go of one, you'll see the other suffer.