This document summarizes an organization that sources and sells artwork created by artists with disabilities to support those artists and organizations. It sources artwork from 7 partner organizations that provide over 1,000 pieces per month. The art is then curated and around 200 sellable pieces per month are selected. The organization plans to sell the art both offline to targeted small businesses and online through social media and partnerships. The financial projections estimate that selling 168 pieces per month would allow the organization to break even. It is seeking $165,000 in funding for legal and startup costs such as website development and salaries to launch the business.
17. How we solve the problem
1
2
3
Sourcing
Curation
Selling
18. We have partners to help us
source artwork
7
partner
orgs
350 artists
Over 1,000
total pieces a
month
Sourcing
200 sellable
pieces a
month
…and we’re continually adding more partners!
19. Why us?
Sourcing
“I am very impressed with what you do! We
are looking to broaden the sales and visibility
of our organization.”
Pamala Rogers, Director
Pure Vision Arts
New York, NY
“I love the design of your website. We are
very interested in working with you.”
Kendra Schpok, Director
REACH, Inc.
Juneau, AK.
22. Dual-channel strategy
"Love your business
and excited to see
more art!!“
-Greg, Alper Services
Offline
Targeted small
businesses
"You have great art and
so happy to help people
with disabilities“
-Steve, Activation Fitness
Selling
23. How much can we sell?
Offline
Targeted small
businesses
Selling
$740K Annually
24. Extending the reach of each sale
Untitled
Robert Verran
Purchase of this artwork helps support artists
with disabilities continue to create art.
www.
.com
Exceptional Art. Exceptional Artists.
Selling
27. Phase 2 – Focus online
1
Continued offline presence to
generate interest
2
Social media development
3
Alliances with partner
websites
Selling
Online
28. Unit economics
Unit Price: $150 - $1,500
27.5%
Margin
Artists
35%
50% of revenue goes
back to the community
Organizations
15%
Sales
15%
7.5%
Curation
30. Can this team execute?
Needed Skills
A fearless leader
Ali: CEO
Marketing chops to get the
word out
Zach: Marketing
A numbers whiz to keep us
honest
Courtney: Finance
A salesperson to drum up
business
Sam: Sales
A strategy and operations guru
to guide us
Dagan: Operations
31. Pulling it all together
We Need
We Have
Art to Sell
7 Partner Organizations producing over
1,000 pieces of art per month
To Pick the Best
Curators to hand pick around 200
sellable pieces of art per month
To Sell, Sell, Sell
A successful sales pilot and a sizeable
market
Support
You
32. Our ask for you
-Incorporation & legal
$165K
-Website development
-Marketing, management
and sales salaries
36. Competitive analysis
Benefit to Artist and Org
Assistance to
Artists with
Disabilities
Online Art
Galleries
Brick & Mortar
Galleries
Studios for Artists
with Disabilities
SocialCanvas
Broad Reach
Private &
Corporate
Buyers
Benefit to Buyer
Dedicated
Salespeople
Personalized
Curation
Services
LowModerate
Priced Art
Hello. We are SocialCanvas, and we are a not-for-profit art curator and aggregate marketplace. We are here today to talk about how we sell exceptional art by exceptional artists.
Now let us tell you about the <click> artist, Heather. Heather has been <click>passionate about art for as long as she can remember. While at university, pursuing her Art History degree, she fell due to a previously undiscovered heart condition and suffered traumatic brain injury. She still is an extremely talented artist, but now is unable to market and sell her artwork. For many of us, getting work to an art fair or selling online would be a <click>challenge. For her, it is near <click>impossible.That hasn’t stopped Heather from continuing to create amazing pieces of art. And she’ll probably never stop, as is the calling of any great artist. There should be nothing keeping this artwork from being sold, but Heather needs <click>help. And we plan to provide it.<click>SocialCanvas is not just a not-for-profit art curator--it’s an art curator for outsider art.
Now let us tell you about the <click> artist, Heather. Heather has been <click>passionate about art for as long as she can remember. While at university, pursuing her Art History degree, she fell due to a previously undiscovered heart condition and suffered traumatic brain injury. She still is an extremely talented artist, but now is unable to market and sell her artwork. For many of us, getting work to an art fair or selling online would be a <click>challenge. For her, it is near <click>impossible.That hasn’t stopped Heather from continuing to create amazing pieces of art. And she’ll probably never stop, as is the calling of any great artist. There should be nothing keeping this artwork from being sold, but Heather needs <click>help. And we plan to provide it.<click>SocialCanvas is not just a not-for-profit art curator--it’s an art curator for outsider art.
Now let us tell you about the <click> artist, Heather. Heather has been <click>passionate about art for as long as she can remember. While at university, pursuing her Art History degree, she fell due to a previously undiscovered heart condition and suffered traumatic brain injury. She still is an extremely talented artist, but now is unable to market and sell her artwork. For many of us, getting work to an art fair or selling online would be a <click>challenge. For her, it is near <click>impossible.That hasn’t stopped Heather from continuing to create amazing pieces of art. And she’ll probably never stop, as is the calling of any great artist. There should be nothing keeping this artwork from being sold, but Heather needs <click>help. And we plan to provide it.<click>SocialCanvas is not just a not-for-profit art curator--it’s an art curator for outsider art.
Now let us tell you about the <click> artist, Heather. Heather has been <click>passionate about art for as long as she can remember. While at university, pursuing her Art History degree, she fell due to a previously undiscovered heart condition and suffered traumatic brain injury. She still is an extremely talented artist, but now is unable to market and sell her artwork. For many of us, getting work to an art fair or selling online would be a <click>challenge. For her, it is near <click>impossible.That hasn’t stopped Heather from continuing to create amazing pieces of art. And she’ll probably never stop, as is the calling of any great artist. There should be nothing keeping this artwork from being sold, but Heather needs <click>help. And we plan to provide it.<click>SocialCanvas is not just a not-for-profit art curator--it’s an art curator for outsider art.
You may be asking yourself “how many people are there out there like Heather?”<click>Across the US, there are hundreds of not-for-profit organizations and studios that help people with disabilities just like Heather to create art.
And what happens with their artwork? Some get sold at events. Most sit in storage because the organizations can't devote a lot of time to selling. These organizations create real social value with the help of grants and donations, but not economic value. We here at SocialCanvas use our expertise to help bring this art to market. We infuse money back into these organizations, helping them be sustainable too.
And what happens with their artwork? Some get sold at events. Most sit in storage because the organizations can't devote a lot of time to selling. These organizations create social value, but not economic value. We here at SocialCanvas use our expertise to help monetize this social value and bring this art to market. We infuse money back into these organizations, helping them be sustainable too.
And what happens with their artwork? Some get sold at events. Most sit in storage because the organizations can't devote a lot of time to selling. These organizations create social value, but not economic value. We here at SocialCanvas use our expertise to help monetize this social value and bring this art to market. We infuse money back into these organizations, helping them be sustainable too.
And what happens with their artwork? Some get sold at events. Most sit in storage because the organizations can't devote a lot of time to selling. These organizations create social value, but not economic value. We here at SocialCanvas use our expertise to help monetize this social value and bring this art to market. We infuse money back into these organizations, helping them be sustainable too.
And what happens with their artwork? Some get sold at events. Most sit in storage because the organizations can't devote a lot of time to selling. These organizations create social value, but not economic value. We here at SocialCanvas use our expertise to help monetize this social value and bring this art to market. We infuse money back into these organizations, helping them be sustainable too.
And what happens with their artwork? Some get sold at events. Most sit in storage because the organizations can't devote a lot of time to selling. These organizations create social value, but not economic value. We here at SocialCanvas use our expertise to help monetize this social value and bring this art to market. We infuse money back into these organizations, helping them be sustainable too.
And what happens with their artwork? Some get sold at events. Most sit in storage because the organizations can't devote a lot of time to selling. These organizations create social value, but not economic value. We here at SocialCanvas use our expertise to help monetize this social value and bring this art to market. We infuse money back into these organizations, helping them be sustainable too.
And what happens with their artwork? Some get sold at events. Most sit in storage because the organizations can't devote a lot of time to selling. These organizations create social value, but not economic value. We here at SocialCanvas use our expertise to help monetize this social value and bring this art to market. We infuse money back into these organizations, helping them be sustainable too.
And what happens with their artwork? Some get sold at events. Most sit in storage because the organizations can't devote a lot of time to selling. These organizations create social value, but not economic value. We here at SocialCanvas use our expertise to help monetize this social value and bring this art to market. We infuse money back into these organizations, helping them be sustainable too.
And what happens with their artwork? Some get sold at events. Most sit in storage because the organizations can't devote a lot of time to selling. These organizations create social value, but not economic value. We here at SocialCanvas use our expertise to help monetize this social value and bring this art to market. We infuse money back into these organizations, helping them be sustainable too.
There are three main steps in our value chain:<click>sourcing, <click>curation,<click>and sellingI’ll hand it off to Ali to go into detail.
TRANSITION TO ALI:Of organizations that we’ve reached out to, <click> 7 are currently in discussions to provide us with artwork<click> This represents 350 artists <click>, whom generate over 1,000 total pieces a month. This represents about <click> 140 sellable pieces of art a month.We are constantly in discussions with new studios to add as partners in our cause.
The ones that we’ve talked to; love us and are more than happy to work with us. It’s a low risk agreement for them; we will use drop shipping so they will always have the artwork at their location; we’ll give them a broader audience and hence extra income.
Curation is an essential value proposition for our business. <click>Although there are many sellable pieces of artwork created by individuals with disabilities, just like with any art <click>—there is a lot created that simply would not sell. Our value proposition is that we hand-select the exceptional art to offer so our customer can save time and effort. We will be hiring curators to pick out the best art possible. They will earn money and serve their community. They will also set the price range of the art based on comparables, quality and style. <click>Our first curator, Catherine, is an artist and designer who has already <click>curated a few dozen pieces.{Blouse department store example if people ask}
We plan on having a dual-channel go-to-market strategy, with an extremely targeted approach.<click>On one side, we will conduct an online awareness strategy of <click> partnering with disability-aware websites, <click> pushing our story through targeted blogs (such as disability and art-related blogs) and <click> engaging with interested parties through social media. This is a push strategy designed to drive traffic to our website and generate e-commerce sales.<click>On the other side, we’ll have an offline strategy. This will include <click> selling through a sales force to a targeted list of small business who have indicated they are interested in disability-issues, as well as selling at <click> art fairs and <click> silent auctions.
TRANSITION TO ZACHAnd where are we now?We’ve implemented a pilot approach working with <click> small businesses. We have one part-time salesperson, who has seen tremendous success. Using a targeted list of “disability-aware companies,” we have seen a 6% conversion rate from cold-calls to sales. <click>We’ve also begun to develop our social media presence, but it is currently in it’s infancy.
Each SocialCanvas piece of art will include a plaque stating what the art is and who it supports. This helps increase the value of the artwork for those who purchase and wish to signal their community involvement; and, for businesses, their corporate responsibility.This also brings awareness to any individuals who see this artwork. It encourages them to visit our website and potentially purchase some themselves.Dagan Comment: Everyone ok with removing “continue their craft” from the plaque?
These two focused strategies are what will allow us to access the <click> socially-conscious mainstream consumer.
Through our learnings in our first phase of selling, we plan on moving more towards and online marketing effort. This is where we feel we will be able to achieve scale. We will have had 6 months of experience in the market before we make our shift.
Through our learnings in our first phase of selling, we plan on moving more towards and online marketing effort. This is where we feel we will be able to achieve scale. We will have had 6 months of experience in the market before we make our shift.
ALI TO JUMP IN HERE:<click>Our art will have a large range, from $150-$1,500. This range is set from the curator through their knowledge of the market and quality of the art. It will also allow us to reach low-end and high-end consumers.<click> Half goes to the organizations that they then share with the artists. <click>Of the half that goes to social canvas, we provide commissions to the salespeople and curators, leaving a 27.5% margin to cover fixed costs.
It will take a few months for us to establish our selling patterns. We’re asking you to help us fill this gap until we can build traction and scale. <click> We foresee break even point at about 135 units/per month and feel we can reach that point in mid-December.The model conservatively assumes no online sales. Any success in that market will help us reach break-even sooner.
Zach, our Chief Marketing Officer, has experience in media planning and activation rounded out with expertise in social media. In addition, he works as a creative arts instructor.Courtney, our Chief Financial Officer , brings a wealth of financial knowledge from her years as a financial analyst.Sam, our VP of Sales founded a successful wine eCommerce business, Dagan, our Chief Operation Officer, has a wealth of experience in the strategy space from his years at Chrysler. To bring together this awesome talent, we need an excellent leader and for that we have me. In addition to being an amateur artist & photographer myself, I’ve managed teams at technology startups and consulted non-profits in the disability arts space. Furthermore, our four other co-founders, Courtney, Dagan, Sam, and Zach will continue to moonlight on this venture as they all have an affinity towards art, entrepreneurship, and helping those less fortunateI’d also like to add that 3 of our team have led or are leading the Philanthropy Club here and have done project with Local Optima, a pro-bono consulting team for non-profits.Furthermore, our four other co-founders, Courtney, Dagan, Sam, and Zach will continue to moonlight on this venture as they all have an affinity towards art, entrepreneurship, and helping those less fortunate
Over the next 6 months we will require seed capital of $120k for initial startup costs including incorporation, legal support, further website development and initial salaries. We plan on incorporating as a non-profit primarily to establish credibility, but also to signal our social values and to access grants and foundation money.
TRANSITION TO ZACHWith your help, you will not just be investing in a successful business. You are investing in helping individuals get their life’s work to market. You will be directly impacting the quality of their lives by helping provide sustainable income for themselves and their studios and validating that their talents mean something to the rest of the world. So please, we ask you to help people like Heather.But if you don’t want to do it for Heather, do it for Benji. Or Kathy, or Jean, or Alex or any of the countless artists with disabilities who we want to bring to market.Thank you.
We’ve divided our competitors into 3 broad categories; online art galleries, brick & mortar galleries and studios/galleries which work with artists with disabilities. Our major differentiators are the fact that we work with artists with disabilities, have a broad reach that is comparable to most online galleries AND provide dedicated curating and sales services.