What product or service does your business offer?
ArtForm is an easy-to-use platform, an app for event planners and performing artists with high level customer service support. With a focus on connection, ArtForm aims to bridge the gap between performing artists looking for new opportunities and event planners in need of performers.
How did you come up with the idea for this business?
Born from a class project, ArtForm was founded by Danielle Shubsda, Katrina Chan, and McKenna Woodlan. We all have background in the entertainment sector and event experience with other focuses in hospitality/customer service and tech.
Why did you decide to participate in the HI Hub Incubator program?
With the support of Professor Garland, we fell in love with the entrepreneurial mindset and her Entrepreneurship & Business Development Class encouraged us to pursue ArtForm further.
What do you enjoy most about creating your own startup business?
We are natural problem-solvers and enjoy navigating user journeys to bridge a gap we found in the industry. We find joy in the creative collaborative nature of this project and working towards a common, and bigger goal of lessening pain points in the community.
What advice would you give to someone contemplating founding a startup?
Put yourself out there! It can’t happen if you don’t take the first step. Use your network, there are people all around you that want to be creative - take advantage of that. Letting our network help us has been really invaluable to our journey and ArtForm’s development.
What is something you learned through this process that you wish you’d known before you created your startup?
We’ve learned that the business is never finished. Our initial ideas are still ArtForm’s core, but the product itself is still changing, and will continue to do so. Differentiating between a class project and a business has been a revelation in developing ArtForm as a company.
What does the future of your startup look like in an ideal world?
ArtForm’s ideal future would be positioning itself as the primary platform for event entertainment booking. The hope of ArtForm is to expand beyond New York and enter the global marketplace creating meaningful connections worldwide. Further, to provide unique opportunities for emerging performers and planners globally.
Have you worked with any alumni or mentors on this project? If so, who and what was that experience like?
Professor Garland has been a wonderful resource. Her kindness and advice gave us the courage to move forward with ArtForm and to be bold in our entrepreneurial goals.