Author
20 May 2020
As the founder of a company, your work can become all-consuming as you juggle operating the business, securing investment and trying to maintain a work/life balance. For female entrepreneurs, there’s still a stigma around taking maternity leave and temporarily stepping away from your business, and that can cause a lot of anxiety and stress. We caught up with Vastari CEO Bernadine Bröcker to find out about her investment journey and the challenges she faced after discovering she was pregnant. Founded in 2012, Vastari facilitates exhibition loans and tours worldwide, connecting global participants, whether private or public, novice or experienced. Constantly working on building new technology tools to facilitate every step of the exhibition making process, Vastari in 2018 facilitated 456 matches of exhibitions translating to around $1.4 billion worth of content. As with every business, Vastari has had ups and downs on its investment journey. Bernadine explains:
“I’ve basically had a lot of different experiences. I first set up the business in 2012 with some angel investors who were not experienced in investing in tech so we actually made lots of mistakes. I gave away a lot of equity for a little funding. Because the investors came from the music industry, I think they were used to the way that that works. In 2015, I basically had to buy those investors out because that didn’t work anymore. I owned only a very small portion of the company. They were blocking any new investment from coming in and it was just not helpful. It sounds very strategic but it was like a really intense chess match. We started again and I would say that my investment story in this new structure from 2015, is how I would want to do it from now on. Every round of investment, I’ve gone out with a proposal of how much equity we would like to give up, how much we’re trying to raise and setting the terms ourselves, rather than trying to look at what investors would want to offer. That has been so much better for us. We raised a round of £400,000 in January 2016 and we raised over£800,000 more by 2019.”
When looking for investors, Bernadine was looking for more than just the right amount of money. It was important to her to have a panel of different investors that brought complementary skillsets to the table. “We have a huge variety of investors. We have investors that are from the art market that really know the art world very well. We have investors from the technology industry and then we have investors that are more experienced financiers and from the insurance industry, which is one of the areas where we’re innovating. You get investors that come with money and with skills that are helpful to you.”
It was much more about how the company could prepare for this situation, and making sure that we had everything in place. “I like investors who disagree with me in the beginning. One of our investors is actually someone who went on our website and essentially told us, ‘this is a ridiculous idea. I can’t believe that you are doing this. I can’t believe that you’ve decided to structure it in this way. The completely wrong person is paying for this. You’re doing it all wrong’ and I actually ended up having a coffee with him the week after, and then he decided to invest in our company. I like people who have a different opinion and help us think differently but also, then if we manage to convince them, it means we’re probably on the right track.”
With the business in a good place and a good team of investors supporting it, Bernadine had to inform them that she was pregnant in 2019. With there being a stigma around female founders taking maternity, Bernadine felt a little apprehensive before making the announcement. She recalls:
“I told the board first, which includes an investor director. The honest truth was that the board said, ‘we need to prepare for this and we need to prepare for the eventual case that you would be gone for six months if you wish to. As a company we need to be prepared for that but it’s not something that we need to make a huge deal out of’. Of course, they were happy for me but there wasn’t an emotional reaction of like, ‘oh, why have you done that?’ Or ‘that seems crazy’. It was much more about how the company could prepare for this situation, and making sure that we had everything in place. I didn’t take a six-month maternity leave but the company was ready for it if it was necessary.”
Once the investors had shown their support, Bernadine turned her attention to ensuring that the business was in good shape and able to run without her at the helm. In preparation for her maternity leave, she hired a senior staff member to fill an upskilled role. “Doing that meant we could make sure that the management team was well-structured to be able to make it through. That was more expensive for the company but I worked really hard for four months to make sure that the company increased its revenue, so that it would make up for the deficit of having that extra salary. As a result, I took over a lot of the sales processes for the months before they joined, to make sure that that was structured really well, and it was on a growth curve, and passed the business over to them. They worked with me for two months and then took over.”
What was clear is that maternity leave is, in essence, the ultimate “bus test” for a business. Our investors could be confident about the business beyond solely the founder, by seeing that the company proceeded to develop even when she was gone. Luckily it didn’t take an imaginary scenario of getting hit by a bus, but rather a happy occurrence of leaving to have a child, to test whether the business knowledge wasn’t founder-reliant. Going on maternity was at times a strange experience. Having poured her life and soul into Vastari for 7 years, Bernadine had to take her foot off the gas and concentrate on becoming a new mother. That meant she had to stop herself from checking in and contacting people at the company, something she found a challenge. “Just dipping in and out wouldn’t be helpful. I promised myself that when I had ideas I’d write them down but I wouldn’t engage with the team until I was ready to actually follow through and be able to talk to them on a more consistent basis.”
The end of Bernadine’s maternity leave coincided with the start of the global lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing another challenge as she adjusted to returning to work while also being a new mother. She says:
“Nothing was as I was expecting. Museums are closed. Our business is going through a pretty interesting time now. Everything was handled very well. My first investor update when I came bac was about the business and how we were reacting to COVID, and it was like a “PS” my daughter was born and it was great. There was nothing that I needed to justify by saying, ‘Oh, I was on maternity so something hadn’t gone the way that we expected’.”
Looking to the future, Bernadine is under no illusions that things are going to get back to normal quickly. “We’ve decided to take advantage of the Government offers because we think that the problem is not going to be in these next two months, it’s going to be in the long-term meaning the next six months to a year. People will have less funding and clients will have less to spend, and potentially, you won’t be able to plan ahead for exhibitions, because there might be another lockdown. It’s been quite a challenge but what’s interesting is I came back from maternity with a bit of a zoomed-out point of view. I was able to think about innovative things that we could do that might benefit our industry as a whole, that might not be what Vastari is going to be doing in the long-term but that in the immediate future could get us some income or grant funding that can help the business move through this phase.”
As well as the concerns over the money flowing through the business, Bernadine also notes that this lockdown and pandemic is having a huge impact on people’s mental health. She shares:
“You have to find your own balance and your own way of making the work/life experience. It’s not easy. Realistically, we’re going to be working from home, I think until September, so we’re going to have to make sure that everyone gets through it. I think the UK government has really stepped up in helping businesses and I’m optimistic about the Future Fund. Hopefully this will mean that industries will be helped through this crisis.”
Find out more about Vastari by visiting https://www.vastari.com .

Beyond the bump: fundraising and maternity leave as a female CEO

Business 10 October 2019
My company, Vastari, is growing. We are a women-led online service that acts as a conduit for various exhibition collaborators to connect more efficiently. Our organization has been facilitating more transactions than ever before: more museums log in every month and more collectors are trusting us with information about their collections. We even facilitated exhibitions at shopping malls, casinos, and a cinema in 2018. And despite all of that success, I am still constantly worried about our growth and whether it will be sustainable. There is a healthy amount of anxiety with running any burgeoning company. Every move seems important and every decision is critical; it's almost always make-or-break. Above and beyond the average responsibilities of running a company, we are also incredibly passionate about delivering a return for our clients, our partners and our investors… It is already a lot to deliver. But there is something else coming over me the last few months, and I am wondering if this is just me being paranoid or if there may be an element of truth to it. Just writing this down feels like giving into paranoia, rather than soldiering on. I just feel this immense need to speak up. What I am paranoid about, at the moment, is whether our growing company is getting stereotyped out of further growth. I started writing this article in late 2018, after a particular meeting made me think that we were being kept out of the loop of critical conversations within our industry. I have decided to finish writing this piece and publish it officially, because of a recent article about the British VC scene that confirmed my suspicions. This article revealed that for every pound invested in venture capital last year only a single pence went to entirely women-led startups. 10 pence went to mixed gender groups, while the remaining 89 pence went to all-male startups. Not only are women given less money, but they are also afforded fewer opportunities; 61% of funds did not consider any all-female teams at investment committee meetings. With women-led VCs being so few and far between, it's no wonder we are all getting put into a box. The box of businesses unlikely to scale, that will likely remain a certain size forever, or that will never reach unicorn status. None of us are being pushed to achieve the full potential of our businesses, and it is simply because there was no precedent for VCs (although it's starting to change). Vastari is preparing for a big investment round later this year to drive growth in our current work with contracts, data science and third-party referrals. It is a really exciting proposition, and I can see what a valuable resource we have been building for years to come. But I constantly feel like I might need some men in the meeting room for people to take us seriously. Should we be inviting our male advisory-board member for things to progress more effectively? I often wonder if people would think differently about a proposal I put forward if we were two male co-founders. And yet all of this only makes me more determined to succeed. I am not paranoid; the numbers prove that the odds are, in fact, stacked against us. There are definitely greater barriers to growth we face compared to a team of male co-founders. But I am truly confident that our data will guide the way. We have the numbers to prove how big our addressable market is and how our growth methodology (ethical, moral and democratic) has been effective. We have an incredibly supportive group of (male and female) investors who are there to help us battle our way to success. Female-led businesses may be fighting an uphill battle, but being a part of the 1% that has attracted investment does feel pretty damn special. Sign up
I remember when I was growing up, my dad would read the local newspaper in the morning with his cup of tea, and a plate of runny eggs and toast. In the evenings, he came home by 6pm and would watch the CBS evening news and help us with our math homework. On some nights when he had dinner meetings, he would come home with leftovers for the next day. But then he started traveling more globally as we grew up, and he would only be back home in a handful of days. And when my dad was home, he was completely disconnected. There was no way for work to get in touch with him. Apart from the occasional moments when the landline would ring with his boss on the other end. As an immigrant, my father struggled to build a great life for my mom, my brother and I. And yet at the same time, he had one enormous luxury I am not sure I will ever truly have. The luxury of disconnecting from work when at home. Because once my first shift ends, my second shift begins. I happily threw work life balance out the window, and readily accepted work life integration. Believing this was the more modern, progressive solution. Except that work continues to slowly seep into my home life, long after Ihave shut off my laptop. "I hate to bother you so let me just text you. Or do you want to FaceTime? How about Blue Jeans or Zoom or Skype? Just make sure you select both audio and video." "I can call you if that's easier- is that your work cell or personal cell? And then I'll email you to recap what we discussed." And as I try to sneak in the video chat, text, or call, or that one last email… one more, and then one more… my husband is screaming, we are out of wipes! And where is my son's gym shirt? Still in the washer. (Why does the school only provide one for the whole year?) My daughter has a meltdown because she can't find the rock she picked on her way from school. My son somehow finds the Ipad and is watching Captain Underpants… again…as I hear farting sounds mixed with laughter, all while I also try to examine if this bread is really expired? I think I can still use this for school lunches. Then it starts all over again, with the 5am wake up from my daughter who has made it into our bed and kicks me in the face. I am exhausted just from typing it all for you to read. But when did being exhausted become a badge of honor? Because if you are not exhausted then you really aren't working hard. And somehow "working smart" and "not working hard" sound like you have gamed the system and taken short cuts to climb that corporate ladder. Surviving not thriving is my way of signaling that I am 'Super Woman'. I am pushing through it all, and I am too cool, too busy, to do yoga or meditate or take a lunch break. Or do a walking meeting. And no, I don't own a fit bit. And when someone says "I am thriving, not surviving" my brain short circuits for a second. There are people who are thriving? While living in a dual career household with children? And so on this World Mental Health Day, I am on my own journey to disconnect. I am trying hard. I am trying hard to recharge my brain. I am trying hard to just have moments of just being. And doing nothing. I don't pick up my phone anymore at 3am to start reading, responding to emails, or watching Netflix. I don't book myself in meetings solid from morning, noon and night. I don't apologize for watching '90 Day Fiance', 'The Other Way', 'Married at First Sight' or other reality shows hidden on my DVR. I don't skip lunch anymore. I don't drag myself into work or log on when I am sick- I take a sick day. Technically you are not supposed to work when you are sick, I think. I still say yes to being available during my second shift. I still check my phone too often- mostly for my work email. I still worry about not responding to people fast enough- and what they might think of me. I still email on the weekends- I try hard not to on Sunday nights. I still think about that email I forgot to send in the shower. I still dislike yoga. And I fall asleep when I meditate. Sometimes my mind is too full of "to-Do" lists to practice "mindfulness." But I am still on my journey to disconnect. It's a work in progress, that's why it's called a 'journey'. So as you think of your own mental health journey, please don't treat yourself like an Uber app. Please don't treat others like an Uber app. Stop acting like you are an Uber app. Because guess what? You are not. Our obsession with being always on, always available, always responsive has consequences. If my Uber App crashes, I just turn my phone off and then back on and Voila! My Uber app is back up and running. Magically reset. Ready to connect me with 8 nearby drivers, ready to take me anywhere I need to go, any time, day or night. But when I crash. When WE crash. It's usually not as easy as hitting that one reset button. I am still chasing that luxury of disconnection. Maybe I should start by adding a plate of runny eggs and toast to my morning routine or at the very least a cup of tea. Hmm. Do we even have a local newspaper? Maybe Apple News will suffice.

Why Am I Paranoid That My Company Is Getting Stereotyped Out Of Growth?

Email this article to a friend
To send a link to this page you must be logged in. Down to business
When did you set up the business, and how did you think of it? Vastari was founded in January 2012. CEO Bernadine Brocker had been managing a gallery in Mayfair where she was often approached by important collectors who wished to find out how they could communicate with curators to have their pieces included in important exhibitions. She soon realised that the only way to do so was through a third party – usually an auction house or a dealer – who would have a vested interest in the piece. The website was launched a year later, in January 2013. How are you funded? From day one, Vastari was funded by a group of private collectors who had identified the problem, had a background in tech and media and understood Bernadine’s vision. In April 2014, Vastari closed a significant second round from a private investment fund. What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve been given? Know your customer, and test every idea with them before you build. The worst thing is spending a lot of time building a new feature only to find that no one will use it. And, make sure you have an amazing team. What was the hardest thing about setting up your start-up? The business model we are employing has been tried and tested, but the industry we are working with (the art world) is still very stuck in their ways of doing business. New companies like Artsy, Paddle8, Auctionata and Artfinder are bringing the sale of art to the 21st century, but the relationship between collectors and museums still remained disjointed. The only way to change people’s perceptions has been time. At the end of the day, people want to trust that you’ll be around for another 10 years. How can people work with you? We have strong partnerships with important players in the art world to help curators access more works of art and collectors access more museums, as well as providing our members a variety of benefits alongside their memberships. Companies looking to work with Vastari or offer our members their services should get in touch with Francesca Polo on Francesca@vastari.com
Founded by Bernadine Brocker, Angela Roldan, Marta Olszewska, Francesca Polo and Micky Kumar, Vastari was launched in early 2013, and recently closed a significant second round of private investment. They spoke to London24’s Hot London Start-ups about bringing the sale of art to the 21st century:
What is Vastari? Vastari is an online platform that connects private collectors with museums for exhibition loans. Who is it for? Vastari is a two-sided marketplace; It is a tool for any art owner (from big collectors, to those who inherited a few pieces from family) who is interested in raising the profile of their works or sharing their pieces with the public. It is also an important tool for museum curators and professionals who are preparing exhibitions, looking for exclusive and exciting pieces that have been held in private hands. What does Vastari do? It eliminates the need for middlemen when collectors and curators want to work together. Through Vastari, collectors simply register their pieces to an ultra secure platform only accessible to verified and accredited museum curators. Likewise, it saves curators time and resources when searching for new pieces as all the information is in the same place and the curator can rest assured that collectors have a predisposition to lend. What’s so great about it? Vastari is great because it allows art owners to share their art with curators who will research their collections and put the works into art historical context, and in the end to share with on the walls of the world’s best museums what would usually remain at home or in storage. What does it cost? The first five pieces you upload will always be free. If you want to upload more than five pieces, the service costs £499 for a one-year membership, £3000 for a ten-year membership or, for a limited time only, £5000 for a lifetime membership. •To find out more see Vastari
Related articles


New online art platform Vastari connects collectors with curators

Vastari is an online platform to help private collectors of art and antiques to connect with museum curators for exhibition loans.Museums need exhibitions:Museums plan thousands of exhibitions a year, and need content. These shows are the big revenue-earners for public institutions beyond public and private sponsorship, and as governments cut back on funding, more shows are needed for museum to survive.Collectors want to lend:Collectors are proud to show their works to the public at a revered institution. Lending works of art to museums helps collectors validate the value of their possessions, and also place it into context with other works in public collections.Currently, the entire networking process for museum exhibition planning and research is offline, or via third parties with a commercial interest. Vastari is a secure, anonymous and global network that helps the process be much more efficient.

Wells Fargo Success Story

3M Success Story

Platform Overview

Vastari

Work for Vastari?

Compete with Vastari?

Work for Vastari?

Discover the right solution for your team