Who wants this?

I’m really excited to be part of @OrbitalNYC Bootcamp this summer as I figure out how to bring Kollecto to market. This week, I made significant progress in gauging whether there is scalable interest in a project like Kollecto.

Background on the Project:

Kollecto is a service that helps people become art collectors. Before Kollecto existed, personal art buyers cost ~$100/hr and required a minimum budget of $10,000. As young professionals with limited budgets, we wanted to disrupt this model. We liked art, but didn’t have time to negotiate prices or comb through hundreds of galleries & exhibits.

So we built Kollecto, a service that gives you affordable access to your own personal art buyer (fancy, right?) and the ability to become an art collector.

Who wants this?

Well, I do!

In the past year, I’ve started building a modest art collection. I couldn’t have done it without the help of 2 gallerists who took me under their wing (Mariane Lenhardt and Diane Venti). Both Mariane and Diane coached me through the process and over time, I stitched together some basic knowledge of what to buy, where to buy, and for how much. I wasn’t looking for anyone to coach me, but once I found their help, I was eternally grateful. 

Does anyone other than myself want a personal concierge to teach them how to buy art…and scour galleries nation-wide to find pieces for them… and then handle all the price negotiation?

This week, I tested the waters to find out. My hypothesis was that a great target market for Kollecto would be recent MBA/JD/college graduates. They are moving into new apartments with white walls, have disposable incomes, and are eager to impress their friends with cool art on their walls. 

So I reached out to 10 people in my Management Leadership for Tomorrow network, inviting them to participate in a beta version on the program. While several people messaged back, complimenting me on such a cool product, no one signed up. 

I’m taking this with a grain of salt. My sample size was small. I only messaged 10 people, so if 1 person had signed up, I would’ve had a 10% acquisition rate (which is really high for an unknown startup + I’m actively trying not to target my friends).

But maybe, I’m targeting the wrong audience. Maybe my goal shouldn’t be to turn regular people into art collectors. Maybe I should be trying to find people who (like myself a year ago) are already interested in buying art and need help. I don’t have all the answers on how I’ll market to these people, but I have some ideas up my sleeve. Stay tuned! 

Other Wins/ Learnings this week: 

1- I wanted to figure out whether people with deep art industry knowledge would be interested in joining our team as Personal Art Buyers. We messaged 6 people on LinkedIn and got referrals from friends. The great news is that people wrote back and were interested in our project! We’re starting some interviews & have confirmed that art buyers & curators want this!

2- I also wanted to figure out whether galleries would be interested in having access to our client list. While I will not share client names, I’d like to build a revenue model where galleries/ artists subscribe to a regular list of the types of pieces our clients are looking for. If a gallery has art that is right for a client, they can submit it, and Kollecto will show the client! One day, we may charge for this service, but for now, we messaged 10 galleries & 10 artists with an offer to participate for free! We got great responses and have confirmed this is something galleries & artists want as well. Plus, I’m really excited about the concept of creating a hyper targeted ‘ad’ for art