Welcome to Incubateme’s newsletter, written by Christina Chao, edited by Alice Zhang.
Follow us on social! Instagram: @joinincubateme, Twitter: @incubateme
Dear all,
Reflecting on the last year, we’ve learned so much about entrepreneurship and the importance of community and connection. While in-person events remain limited, we know we can still continue to expand our knowledge and community through hosting virtual events. So, join us on this entrepreneurial journey by inviting your friends to our upcoming events and hear from an amazing lineup starting with the below:
Danielle Maveal, Ex-Airbnb community builder
Dianna Cohen, CEO/ Founder of Crown Affair, Forbes 30 under 30
Jesse Clemmens, Ex-Facebook and CEO/Founder of Clockwork
Polina Marinova, Ex-Fortune editor, Founder/ Author of The Profile ... and many more!
Also, while we are on the topic of events, this newsletter will discuss the trend and future of virtual events, after its rise in 2020. Our featured micro-business, Artivore, touches upon events as a curated itinerary company based on localized art and cultural happenings. Lastly, If you haven’t already, subscribe to our newsletter HERE and register for our events HERE.
P.S. Whether you are a current business owner, professional, or student, join our micro-entrepreneur community to get exclusive access to resources for building your own business!
The Future of Virtual Events
2020 accelerated the virtual event space, but what does the future hold for this type of brand-building? Based on a recent survey conducted by event professionals, 43% of companies moved all 2020 events to virtual and even scheduled more events than originally planned. With the power of Mar-tech, companies were able to strategically pivot their event programs, while also being able to test and learn from different event types. Also from the conducted survey, 79% of companies now expect to host virtual events in the future, even when in-person activities resume. This shows that the hybrid model of virtual events may be here to stay, which includes a digital event option with an in-person component, and/or vice versa. Read More.
Source: MarTech Today
Featured Micro-business: Artivore
Company/Brand Name: Artivore
Offerings: Curated art and culture itineraries
Founder(s): Melissa Weisberg
Location: New York, NY
Founded in: 2020
️🎨 Tell us about the company you founded.
Artivore is a platform that shares community-written itineraries, serving as inspirational nudges for you to add more arts and culture to life. With a mission to break down barriers to arts participation, all itineraries aim to meet you where you are, suggesting ways for you to incorporate arts and culture in a fun and social way. Users can create a free account to save itineraries for later, making the planning easy.
️ 🎨 What is your background and how did you start Artivore?
My professional background is in non-profit fundraising and public relations for the arts sector. The idea for Artivore came to me when I was getting my Master's in Arts Administration at Columbia University. My Capstone Project, which ended up being a business plan for Artivore, included in-depth research on how the arts can be more agile, digital, and data-driven in order to respond to the shift in what Millennial cultural consumers expect and desire. Our first batch of customers was acquired from our Instagram following. We started building the brand there, which funneled people to our mailing list and then site users once we launched our website.
️ 🎨 What did Artivore do to adapt to the pandemic?
There has been a lot of observing and learning as the arts industry tries to find its way through all of this. We decided to wait to launch the "itineraries" section of the website in the fall when museums were able to open at a limited capacity. We also pivoted to feature virtual and at-home arts and culture activities.
️ 🎨 What is your plan for the future of your business?
The next step for Artivore is launching a machine learning component that understands site users' artistic taste profiles. This is so we can suggest arts and culture activities that fit each user's unique interests. Think Netflix's "98% match," but we match you with things that get you off your couch so you can add some culture to your life! Many arts organizations are seeing a spike in audience engagement from afar (ie: people across the country and world) and hopefully, that will stay!
️ 🎨 Any lessons/advice to help our entrepreneurial community?
My biggest advice is to stay obsessed with the problem rather than the solution. You're always going to need to pivot, and staying obsessed with the problem keeps you open to change.
️ 🎨 Any requests for help from our community?
I would love for the incubate-me community to check out Artivore and join as a site user (it's free!). We're also looking for eager software developers who would be able to donate their time to a pre-revenue startup.
Upcoming Events
Join our community by attending our events featuring an amazing lineup of entrepreneurs. FREE tickets to our events are limited. RSVP on our events page here! The speaker lineup so far is below:
🌟 Danielle Maveal - ex-Airbnb community builder - RSVP
🌟 Dianna Cohen - Founder & CEO of Crown Affair; Forbes 30 under 30 - RSVP
🌟 Jesse Clemmens - ex-Facebook; Founder of Clockwork - RSVP
🌟 Polina Marinova - ex-Fortune editor on Term Sheet; Founder - The Profile - RSVP
What To Read
Virtual Events Came of Age in 2020 but the Future is Hybrid - VentureBeat
What Virtual Events Might Look like Post-Covid - Forbes
Special Partner Offering
Espeland Enterprises is offering a 4-week-live online voice-coaching class starting February 2021. This is the perfect opportunity to improve your voice and executive presence with just a few hours of commitment. If you are interested, CLICK HERE to sign up! Or email hello@espelandenterprises.com with any questions.
👏 You made it to the end! 👏
🥇Stay in touch. Follow us on Instagram: @joinincubateme, Twitter: @incubateme, or email us at joinincubateme@gmail.com