Bescouted

Bescouted, founded in 2013 and headquartered in Silale, Lithuania, operated as a professional social community platform for visual artists. The company's objective was to create a space where photographers, and eventually other visual artists, could gain exposure, connect for professional projects, and allow new talent to be discovered. It aimed to serve a spectrum of users, from established industry professionals to beginners seeking to learn and build their portfolios.

The platform's core business model evolved to incorporate a token-based economy, specifically leveraging the STEEM blockchain. This strategy intended to shift the paradigm from traditional social platforms where users pay for memberships and features. Instead, Bescouted's model was designed to reward community members with its own SMT token for sharing high-quality content and participating in creative projects. The goal was to create a freelance economy with instant and reliable transactions, eliminating intermediaries and enabling microtransactions. Revenue streams in this model would pivot from user fees to other mechanisms within the token ecosystem.

Historically, Bescouted was a bootstrapped project that later secured funding. It received $27.8K in an accelerator/incubator round in September 2015 and later secured a private investment in a venture round in August 2018. These funds were intended to expand the team, accelerate website and app development for iOS and Android, and improve the user experience. Despite these efforts and its forward-thinking model, the company was reported as out of business as of April 2024.

Keywords: professional social community, visual artists platform, photography community, talent discovery, content discovery, creative projects, token-based economy, STEEM blockchain, freelance economy, microtransactions, artist portfolio, content monetization, peer-to-peer rewards, digital creative marketplace, artist collaboration, social content platform, get hired, creative community, Lithuanian startup, SaaS