2012-07-17T13:11:00Z

Scott Belsky and Matias Corea spent the past five years bootstrapping a startup, Behance.

Like LinkedIn, Behance is a great way to surf for professional talent. But instead of posting resumes, it lets creative people post their portfolios of work.

Companies like Apple use Behance to target and poach designers; designers use it to push out their work and get noticed.

Behance users upload their own creations for the community to browse and review. "Your work could appear on 12 different sites as soon as you hit publish," Belsky explains. Behance also powers websites for a bunch of publishers including advertising agency Leo Burnett and the Rhode Island School of Design.

While most of the uploaded content is images, Behance is also becoming a hub for Sound Cloud files and film projects. Pinterest is one of Behance's top 15 traffic drivers; 95% of the traffic comes from non-members who just want to peruse.

In addition to helping companies find talent and artists find gigs, Behance is a powerful search engine for creativity. If you want to look for the lead game designer behind Zelda, for example, you could search for that on Behance.

"Everything we consume is made possible by creatives," says Belsky. "You can get granular in our site's search. We're going to be like Bloomberg for the creative industry."

Behance has grown to 30 people and it recently raised $6.5 million to continue its mission to become a container for everything people design.

Since its site relaunch last year, Behance's traffic has exploded. Belsky tells us 1 million projects were published in the last 6 months; it took four years for the first 1 million to be uploaded. The 2 million published projects have been viewed more than 1 billion times on Behance; 75 million views occurred in just 30 days.

We met Belsky and took a tour of the New York City office.

The Behance office is done in classic Soho startup style. Wood floors, high ceilings, and some red piping.

Welcome to Behance.

A small waiting area featuring some funky and comfortable chairs.

They are into visual creativity and this book fit right in.

This is the main meeting room. And it is in use, there is Behance Co-founder and CEO Scott Belsky meeting with Business Insider's Alyson Shontell.

At the head of the meeting room is a giant 99% sculpture. The company believes that creative success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

Behance is all about making a platform for creatives, so it has a lot of inspiration on its walls.

Here, Behance co-founder and Chief of Design Matias Corea works with an intern.

We've often wondered this ourselves.

Jackie Balzer is the Senior Front End Developer at Behance and has been with the company since 2010.

She has this cool toy on her desk.

As we walked through the office we noticed this bell. It only gets rung when a big accomplishment has been achieved.

But today was just hot and everyone was focused on work.

To beat the heat, Behance handed out Popsicles to employees.

ice pops, icecream, snacks, cool down, behance, july 2012, bi, dng

Everyone in the office enjoyed the snack.

And for the voyage outside, Behance sunglasses come in handy.

There are books throughout the office. Belsky authored a book, Making Ideas Happen, so Behance has a few copies on file.

Words we live by.

To fuel all that creativity, plenty of caffeine is needed.

And a fully stocked fridge.

Oscar Ramos Orozco is the lead curator at Behance. He is also a skilled graphic designer. He curates the Behance collections displayed on over 18 websites. It is a demanding job and involves going through tens of thousands of items posted to Behance daily and choosing the best ones to feature.

The only way to get things done.

Alex Krug is Vice President of Behance.

The office is humming as we make our departure.

But we stop to say goodbye to Behance cofounders, Matias Corea (left) and Scott Belsky (right).

scott belsky, matias corea, behance, july 2012, bi, dng

Want to check out another creative space?

bre pettis, makerbot, june 2012, bi, dng

MakerBot Has The Coolest Office We've Seen In A Long Time >

Meet Behance: It's Like LinkedIn For Creative Professionals And Apple Uses It To Poach Designers

The Behance office is done in classic Soho startup style. Wood floors, high ceilings, and some red piping.

Welcome to Behance.

A small waiting area featuring some funky and comfortable chairs.

They are into visual creativity and this book fit right in.

This is the main meeting room. And it is in use, there is Behance Co-founder and CEO Scott Belsky meeting with Business Insider's Alyson Shontell.

At the head of the meeting room is a giant 99% sculpture. The company believes that creative success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

Behance is all about making a platform for creatives, so it has a lot of inspiration on its walls.

Here, Behance co-founder and Chief of Design Matias Corea works with an intern.

We've often wondered this ourselves.

Jackie Balzer is the Senior Front End Developer at Behance and has been with the company since 2010.

She has this cool toy on her desk.

As we walked through the office we noticed this bell. It only gets rung when a big accomplishment has been achieved.

But today was just hot and everyone was focused on work.

To beat the heat, Behance handed out Popsicles to employees.

Everyone in the office enjoyed the snack.

And for the voyage outside, Behance sunglasses come in handy.

There are books throughout the office. Belsky authored a book, Making Ideas Happen, so Behance has a few copies on file.

Words we live by.

To fuel all that creativity, plenty of caffeine is needed.

And a fully stocked fridge.

Oscar Ramos Orozco is the lead curator at Behance. He is also a skilled graphic designer. He curates the Behance collections displayed on over 18 websites. It is a demanding job and involves going through tens of thousands of items posted to Behance daily and choosing the best ones to feature.

The only way to get things done.

Alex Krug is Vice President of Behance.

The office is humming as we make our departure.

But we stop to say goodbye to Behance cofounders, Matias Corea (left) and Scott Belsky (right).

Want to check out another creative space?

MakerBot Has The Coolest Office We've Seen In A Long Time >

nproxy.org

Meet Behance: It's Like LinkedIn For Creative Professionals And Apple Uses It To Poach Designers

The Behance office is done in classic Soho startup style. Wood floors, high ceilings, and some red piping.

Welcome to Behance.

A small waiting area featuring some funky and comfortable chairs.

They are into visual creativity and this book fit right in.

This is the main meeting room. And it is in use, there is Behance Co-founder and CEO Scott Belsky meeting with Business Insider's Alyson Shontell.

At the head of the meeting room is a giant 99% sculpture. The company believes that creative success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

Behance is all about making a platform for creatives, so it has a lot of inspiration on its walls.

Here, Behance co-founder and Chief of Design Matias Corea works with an intern.

We've often wondered this ourselves.

Jackie Balzer is the Senior Front End Developer at Behance and has been with the company since 2010.

She has this cool toy on her desk.

As we walked through the office we noticed this bell. It only gets rung when a big accomplishment has been achieved.

But today was just hot and everyone was focused on work.

To beat the heat, Behance handed out Popsicles to employees.

Everyone in the office enjoyed the snack.

And for the voyage outside, Behance sunglasses come in handy.

There are books throughout the office. Belsky authored a book, Making Ideas Happen, so Behance has a few copies on file.

Words we live by.

To fuel all that creativity, plenty of caffeine is needed.

And a fully stocked fridge.

Oscar Ramos Orozco is the lead curator at Behance. He is also a skilled graphic designer. He curates the Behance collections displayed on over 18 websites. It is a demanding job and involves going through tens of thousands of items posted to Behance daily and choosing the best ones to feature.

The only way to get things done.

Alex Krug is Vice President of Behance.

The office is humming as we make our departure.

But we stop to say goodbye to Behance cofounders, Matias Corea (left) and Scott Belsky (right).

Want to check out another creative space?

MakerBot Has The Coolest Office We've Seen In A Long Time >

Read next

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know

nproxy.org