Antiques + Internet = GoAntiques

High-tech and low-tech have combined to net a Baton Rouge antiques dealer $3 million in venture capital for his new online company.

That may be just the beginning, because Ken Buhler, president and CEO of GoAntiques, is using the Internet to tap into the vast network of antiques dealers nationwide.

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The Stanford Group, an international investment banking firm, has secured private placement investments from 11 states and three countries to back the company founded last November.

Buhler's idea is a Web site creating a virtual showroom of antiques inventory for dealers to shop from or advertise in, and it more than met expectations even before it was launched.

The site, www.goantiques.com, chalked up nearly 120,000 hits from June, when it was no more than a "check back later for more information" site, to its actual launch on Sept. 15, Buhler said.

GoAntiques boasts 413 members, 198 letters of intent for membership and a sign-up from an Ohio antiques mail representing 300 more members, he said.

Buhler hopes to draw in a further 500 or more members at an upcoming antiques dealers' event, bringing his theoretical membership total to a possible 1,500.

None of this, not the membership, not the venture capital nor anything but the idea existed at this time last year, and a few years before that Buhler knew nothing of the Internet at all.

"About three years ago, I sat in my office with an employee and told him, 'Trust me, the Internet will never affect the antique business,' " Buhler said.

David Day, who handles Buhler's pubic relations, was also a witness to the nouveau e-entrepreneur's lack of computer experience.

"He didn't have a computer in his office a year ago, and 11 months ago he didn't know how to send an e-mail," Day said.

Part of the reason GoAntiques succeeded in getting venture capital, where so many dot-com companies have failed, is because the company business plan came from someone with a background in a more traditional business than the New Economy, Buhler said.

"I'm not a computer geek that decided to sell antiques; I'm an antique geek that uses computers," he said.

Buhler has done quite well by antiques geekery, having been rated among the top 75 antique dealers in the United States, among an estimated 35,000 to 50,000.

Buhler, a Baton Rouge native, has dealt in antiques in the area for 18 years, a qualification that he believes will serve him well in his Internet venture.

"We've found a real niche. I know what dealers need," he said. "I've experienced all the problems they face every day."

GoAntiques is aimed at getting a share of the national antiques industry, the size of which runs from 'estimates of $12 billion to more than $20 billion a year.

The GoAntiques site, itself, is not a traditional auction site, such as eBay, though it does offer auction services, Buhler said.

GoAntiques is intended to be a resource for certified dealers and interior designers to use in expanding their inventories. Certified members of the service can buy and sell products using GoAntiques as a virtual warehouse, Day said. They pay only the $149 a month cost of membership and a transaction commission.

"They can build their business out of their bedrooms," he said.

The transaction commission is 6 percent of the first $200 of a sale, 4 percent of the next $800 and 2 percent of every dollar over $1,000.

The site is broken down by categories, and subcategories of antiques, from which members can choose particular items to view descriptions, prices and pictures taken from several angles.

Day stressed that the site does not compete with local dealers, but actually augments their collections.

"Now their inventory is virtually unlimited," he said. "It just levels the playing field for dealers and collectors alike."

The idea has gotten early momentum since the site went live.

"We're already making sales," Buhler said. "We've yet to notify anybody that it's live. It's kind of exciting to watch the 'Sold' signs pop up."

GoAntiques was offering 3,000 items for dealers to consider within five days of going live, he said.

The early returns have a pleasing ring to Rocky Stein, a senior vice president for the Stanford Group.

"We feel very comfortable with Ken and we believe it's going to be quite an excellent investment," he said.

GoAntiques is the first-ever Internet company the Stanford Group has sought investment for. Buhler's idea, his pitch and his presence won Stein over from their first meeting.

"What he did was very impressive. He knew the industry," Stein said. "It was a very fragmented industry. He's doing a roll-up, able to control the inventory with very little expense."

Buhler put together early funding of about $500,000, raised through the traditional start-up avenue of family and friends, before approaching the venture capital companies.

"Being here in Baton Rouge, you're always told I they don't do Internet, they don't have money," Buhler said. "We went out seeking money before we had to have it."

Buhler is doing so again, already negotiating for a second round of funding before the first round has begun to be spent.

He credits his business model and experience in making such business models for his success with venture capital. "We're not a typical dot-com company; we're a centuries-old industry that uses the Internet to expand."

That business plan calls for the company to make an initial public offering in the 18th month of operation.

"We've built our business model now as though we were a publicly traded company," Buhler said.

He also has an eye toward branching out farther along the IT trail, possibly to the point of helping fund and build a new data center in Baton Rouge.

He has already begun a site selection process and an investigation into the possibility, because he is not sold on the planned data center at Bon Carre, at least not at the lease fees Bon Carre is asking.

Concerns about information storage are also fueling Buhler's thoughts about relocating GoAntiques, because he is not completely satisfied with the current Internet infrastructure here.

Buhler hopes to be able to put a partnership together to take care of his data storage worries for himself.

He said he has commitments from a half-dozen companies to try and make a go of a tech center, but is not yet ready to commit to a timetable.

For now, he is making a priority of expanding GoAntiques on its current platform and branching out by finding more clients. Buhler is currently in negotiations with an antiques group from Latin America and is looking to take GoAntiques global.

"What I tell the dealers is whether you like the Internet or not, it's here to stay," he said. "What we've done is harness the power before it rolls over us."