Photo via Mountary.
Photo via Mountary.

Mountary, a new San Francisco-based startup that wants to help custom frame buyers save time and money, has launched its service in Seattle.

Mountary offers two ways to get your photo or poster framed. Customers can schedule an in-home appointment with a frame expert, who charges $25 for his or her consultation. After deciding on the right frame, the customer pays via Square and the expert takes the artwork away. The finished product is shipped back to the customer for free within two weeks.

Mountary also lets people order a frame kit online if they want to do the work themselves.

Neil Ayton.
Neil Ayton.

Neil Ayton, CEO, came up with the idea for Mountary after struggling to find an affordable and easy way to frame his posters — both offline or online.

“The ease of ordering was severely lacking from framing,” he said.

Ayton said that Mountary’s pricing is, on average, 33 percent less than a traditional framing store.

“Our main differentiator is that we blend offline and online to make it super easy to frame your artwork,” he added. “We are the only service where all you have to do is schedule a pickup and an expert will come to your home or office. From there, the expert can look after everything else. This is the easiest way to get your stuff on the wall.”

Mountary is already operating in San Francisco and New York City, but Ayton noted that the initial demand in Seattle has been higher than the other two cities. The company employs five and recently graduated from the 500 Startups accelerator in Silicon Valley.

Mountary is similar to Sworl, a year-old Seattle-based startup that helps people frame photos that they’ve taken with their smartphone. Sworl is also seeing strong demand for its service.

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