summary
With $2,000 and a small, 600 square foot apartment, Adrian Salamunovic and Nazim Ahmed now make over $1 million a year selling highly personalized DNA, fingerprint and lip-print artwork.
dna 11’s success story
- Over a glass of wine, web consultant Adrian Salamunovic came across a DNA imaging brochure that his friend, molecular geneticist Nazim Ahmed, had brought with him. Adrian felt the DNA images were a piece of art, and asked Nazim to image his own genetic code.
- Several weeks later, Adrian’s DNA art was ready and he promptly hung it on his wall; surprisingly, all of his friends wanted one too. Seeing a good business opportunity, the two friends partnered together with only $2,000 and started DNA 11 in Nazim’s small 600 square foot apartment.
- A year after starting operations, DNA 11 made over $1 million in sales and continues to grow. Their company has been seen on The Today Show, HGTV, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal, and was even featured in an episode of CSI:NY.
- DNA 11 now also offers customized Fingerprint and KISS portraits. With partnerships with MOMA and numerous art galleries, design stores and contemporary furniture stores, DNA 11’s future looks bright.
did you know…
- … All production is kept in-house? DNA 11 now has 10 employees and a 3,000 square foot studio that handles printing. They only outsource DNA imaging to a secure, multi-million dollar laboratory.
- … DNA samples are regularly destroyed for customer privacy? Even the final artwork does not present any genetic information that could be used to uniquely identify the customer.
- … DNA 11 regularly gives back to charities? These include the MAC AIDS Fund, The Humane Society and Lance Armstrong Foundation.