2. Arden Scott
HiredArtist
Executive Summary
Recently graduated art students often struggle to find a job in the field they studied.
They lack the professional network that comes with working in a field for a period
of time as well as the professional networking tools that are available to other fields,
such as LinkedIn. In addition, artists often spend a lot of their time posting their
work on multiple online platforms in hopes of getting professional attention. This
takes time away from creating art work. To solve this problem, the company Hired
Artist was started. HiredArtist was founded in 2014 and offers professional
connections to artists looking for work, simplifies the promotion platform and
brings artists together from all types of artistic backgrounds
Business Concept
HiredArtist is a LinkedIn for artists. HiredArtist will provide artists with all of the
tools for their professional needs. We will offer a portfolio tool for artists to show
their work online. We will offer a networking tool for artists to find other artists
within the same location as them or with the same interests as them. Additionally
HiredArtist will offer a job board so that artists will be able to find relevant jobs.
Competitive Advantage
The greatest risks associated with our business today are our competitors. We can
overcome these risks by attracting a varied group of first adopters from different
medium backgrounds and by offering a professional place to network for artists.
Our biggest recognized opportunity is the lack of a professional place for all types of
artists online. In today’s job market online services and capabilities are expected for
virtually every job field but the needs of artists have not been met.
Business Model
We will operate on a subscription service model. Users will be allowed up to five
projects to their portfolio for free, unlimited networking connection and access the
freelance job board without paying. A premium subscription would allow a user
unlimited space for project in their portfolio as well as access to the permanent and
freelance job boards. The premium subscription service would cost $7.99 a month.
3. Marketing Plan
During the first stage of marketing, art school students and recent graduates will be
our target market. After cultivating this pool of talent, marketing efforts will move
towards attracting large companies in need of creative talent. To reach art school
students we will use social media, targeting artists platforms such as instagram and
deviant art. We will also target certain large art schools by attending career fairs and
other school events.
Management Team
The management team is led by and consists of Chief Executive Officer Arden Scott
who founded the company in 2014 after working at the design and art start up
company American Dream House. She is receiving her MS in Media Ventures from
Boston University.
Exit Strategy
To exit, Hired Artist will look to be acquired. There are a few companies that could
be interested in acquiring Hired Artist, but the ideal targets are LinkedIn, BeHance,
SimplyHired and potentially art schools looking to assist their students. If LinkedIn
were to acquire Hired Artist, they could dominate the professional networking
space in all sectors including fine arts. They could also meet the needs of fine artists
and attract new customers. BeHance would be interested in acquiring Hired Artist
to increase their job board features and encourage more networking. Job networks
such as Monster and SimplyHired would be interested in Hired Artist to attract a
new set of users and covering a new job sector. I think art school could see the value
in something Hired Artist because it would lead to networking opportunities for the
school and create a better name for the school.
Revenue Streams
HiredArtist will have a variety of revenue streams. Using the models from similar
sites, such as DeviantArt and LinkedIn, we will rely on a freemium model for users
and job posters. We will also take a percentage of ticket sales made on our website
for the events we advertise.
Customer Acquisition
Business Model
To encourage artists to use HiredArtist we will start with a freemium model. Artist
will have a set number of features for free, and for expanded features they must pay
a small fee. The freemium model has been successfully implemented in our
competitors sites, such as deviantArt and BeHance. This model allows users to use
the site and see the features without a commitment . The idea being, if they like the
4. site, they will pay the fee to post additional projects and have more job
opportunities.
Strategic Partnerships
In addition, to encourage new users to join our site we will also create strategic
partnerships to benefit both the user the company. For example, we could create a
strategic partnership with store where these artists are already attending such as
Blick, Utrect and Guitar Center. We will also reach out to local galleries, venues and
performance spaces to give our users places to display their work. Finally we will
create a strategic partnership with SpaceFinderLA, a unique LA company that find
creative work and practice spaces for artists of all types.
Differentiation
HiredArtist differentiates itself with a few key features. The incorporation of the
events features encourages online and offline networking. This is more effective
than just online networking. This is especially important to the field of artists, where
person to person connections mean more than maybe in other fields.
Marketing
We will utilize both on and offline marketing, keeping our reach local to the LA area
to start off with. Because we are targeting art schools, we will look at local radio and
newspaper channels to reach those students. For digital marketing we will look to
Hulu, Pandora and Spotify. Based on our demographic we believe our users will
respond best to ads on these websites because they are already on them. Finally we
will launch an influencer campaign using Instagram, YouTube and Vimeo. We will
find influential talent in the area that use these mediums to promote themselves. We
will offer them a free premium membership in exchange for the use of our hashtag
(#HiredArtist), attendance to one of our events or promotion of our brand in their
posts.
The Market & Proof of Concept
We define our market as fine art professional networking and tool sites. This
includes artistic social networking sites such as DeviantArt, Imgr and Behance. This
also includes professional tool sites such as Wix, Squarespace and SoundCloud. This
also includes professional networking sites like LinkedIn and professional arts
websites like IMDBPro. HiredArtist spans a variety of industries and markets. The
market that HiredArtist reaches is a combination of many pre-existing markets, so
we estimate we will surpass the success of these existing markets after reaching
critical mass of users.
Social Networking Art Sites
Social Networking Art Sites are websites where art is shared with the intention of
communicating and sharing rather than professional networking. These are sites
such as DeviantArt and Imgr.
5. DeviantArt is a visual art social networking site, founded in 2000. It is fee to use and
currently has more than 14 million users. The company has a valuation of $19
million The site has roughly 155,000 art submissions daily and 2.4 million unique
visitors posting 1.5 million comments daily. The company is expected to grow 60
percent this year. They profit from a freemium membership model with a premium
membership costing ($4.95 per month) and a retail shop on the website.
(All numbers taken from Source 1 in appendix)
Professional Tool Sites
Professional tool sites are websites like Squarespace, Wix and Soundcloud that
allow artists to easily post their work with complete control over their platform.
They are meant to provide a service. Squarespace is a professional tool site started
in 2004. Squarespace received $78M in venture capital funding in 2014.Wix went
public in 2013 and raised $123m with a market cap of $713m.
(Numbers taken from Source 2 and 3 in appendix)
Professional Networking Sites
Professional Networking Sites are sites like IMDBPro or Behance. These are genre
specific sites for professionals. IMDBPro serves people in the film and television
industry. Behance is for visual digital artists, mostly designers and animators. It was
founded in 2006. It was acquired by Adobe Systems in December of 2012. This site
has a feature that allows users to create their own professional website, however it
requires you to purchase an Adobe Creative Cloud membership. This can cost up to
$50 a month depending on your membership. IMDBPro costs about $19.99.
(Numbers taken from Sources 4 and 5)
Site Tools
On of HiredArtist’s differentiating features is the variety of tools given. The site will
have different tools for the artist user and the recruiter user.
The Artist
The Artist will have a self-curated portfolio page. This will feature a brief biography
that the Artist will write about themselves. They will be able to upload a profile
picture for their portfolio page. They will be able to tag information about
themselves such as educational background, professional background, current
location and artistic interest and skills. Each of these tags will serve as a way for
other artists to find and connect with each other. For example, a photographer in
Chicago may want to connect with a painter in Chicago or someone who they went
to school with. They will be able to find these people using the tag system.
The free users will be able to upload five portfolio project. A project may be a series
of photos, a few digital image, a short video clip, a mp3 or song file, an animation or
a variety of other forms of art. The idea is to organize your work by theme to show
variety. If you wish to show more than five projects you can purchase the premium
6. plan for $6.99 a month. The user will have to initially upload these files to our
website and from there will be able to push them out on to a variety of social
networking sites. Our site will have a multimedia uploader in order to ease the
process of uploading ones work.
Free users will also have access to the part time job board. This will focus on one-
time short-term paid jobs, such as a time slot to play at a venue for musicians, an
acting role for a commercial or play or a commissioned art piece. If users wish to
view long-term jobs or such as role in a movie, a residency for a venue for musicians
or a full-time photographer position for a company they may purchase the premium
model.
In addition to the job board and portfolio tool, artists will also have access to the
events tool. This will allow them to create and post events within their network. It
will also allow them to buy tickets to events through our website. With a premium
membership, artists will get discounted event tickets.
The Recruiter/Job Poster
For recruiters and job posters there will also be a freemium model. For free job
posters will be able to post up to three jobs per month for free. They will be able to
see the artists full portfolio.
The premium model will allow recruiters unlimited job postings per month. With
this they will also have discounted event tickets
