{"id":1551,"date":"2019-09-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/blog\/artkive-case-study\/"},"modified":"2021-03-05T06:57:13","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T06:57:13","slug":"artkive-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/blog\/artkive-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"How small businesses can become more efficient with their time: A conversation with Jeff Lipp from Artkive"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

When you\u2019re running a business and wearing 15 different hats on any given day, nothing is more precious than time. We spoke to Jeff Lipp, cofounder and COO of Artkive<\/a>, a service that helps busy parents conserve their kids\u2019 artwork, to learn how he spends less time on unnecessary busywork and more time growing the business.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\"Artkive<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Try a startup accelerator<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Between meeting with investors and due diligence, fundraising<\/a> can quickly turn into a full-time job. That\u2019s one of the reasons why Jeff decided to raise money through Amplify.LA<\/a>, a startup accelerator.

Startup accelerators don\u2019t just funnel money into your business\u2014they also spread the word about your business. \u201cAmplify was how we found most of our other investors in our seed round. It streamlined the initial fundraising,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Make your employees feel like owners<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

According to the Society of Human Resources<\/a> (SHRM), it takes an average of 36 days and $4,425 to hire. Having to constantly replace employees isn\u2019t a good use of time or money, so make sure your employees are invested in their work.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One way Artkive does this is by offering equity to its employees. \u201cWe want everyone to act and feel like an owner<\/a> so we can trust they\u2019ll do the right thing. Equity definitely plays a part because it\u2019s easier to think like an owner if you actually are an owner.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Pivot when you know something\u2019s not working<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One of the scariest but most important things you can do for your company is to pivot as soon as you know something\u2019s not working.

Artkive originally started with an app that allows parents to create a sortable and shareable digital library of their kids\u2019 artwork. It was very popular\u2014nearing a million downloads\u2014but sometimes user growth isn\u2019t enough to build a sustainable business. People were using the app but not paying Artkive to turn the artwork into books. \u201cWe were solving a clear, massive problem, but we weren\u2019t solving it in the right way.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Instead of continuing to throw time and money into a product that wasn\u2019t sustainable, they tweaked their model and introduced the Artkive Box<\/a>, which allows parents to throw all of the artwork into a box and let Artkive do the rest\u2014photograph and sort the pieces and create the book.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Today, Jeff\u2019s biggest advice to other companies is \u201cif you\u2019ve discovered a way to solve a problem but you\u2019re not creating a viable business, don\u2019t throw it out. See if there\u2019s another angle you can take\u2014if there\u2019s another service your customers would be willing to pay for.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\"Artkive<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Trust your employees to do what they\u2019re good at<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When Artkive launched their Artkive Box, sales quickly took off. For a second everyone panicked\u2014\u201cwe actually weren’t really prepared at that moment.\u201d However, Jeff and the rest of the leadership team were comforted by the fact that they had a team who could step up and handle the volume. \u201cThese are the moments when you see you have the right team members who are going to do everything they can to solve the problem.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The less time you spend micromanaging, the more time you can spend growing your company. It\u2019s understandable to want to check in constantly, but you hired your employees for a reason\u2014trust them to do their job instead of doing it for them.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Use software to automate unnecessary work<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Software is one of the best ways to free up time. Jeff used to have over a hundred versions<\/a> of Artkive\u2019s cap table and would have to constantly consult with their attorney to make sure everything was correct. He calls moving over to cap table software<\/a> through Carta \u201ccathartic\u201d\u2014now he has a single source of truth.

Even better, Carta has freed up countless hours that Jeff can now spend investing in Artkive\u2019s operations and customer experience. \u201cI\u2019ve got to imagine I\u2019ll save tens of thousands of dollars cumulatively in the years to come. Carta is such a time saver, saving me from countless hours of interfacing with investors and trying to source information.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

To learn more about how Carta was able to help Artkive, download the case study.<\/em> If your company has 25 stakeholders or less and has raised up to $1M, you can get started with our Launch plan<\/a> through one of our partner law firms for free<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n
\"artkive<\/figure>\r\n

Download the case study<\/h3>\r\n

[marketo-form form_id=”5383″]

<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n\r\n

DISCLAIMER: This communication is on behalf of eShares, Inc. dba Carta, Inc. (\u201cCarta\u201d). This communication is not to be construed as legal, financial or tax advice and is for informational purposes only. This communication is not intended as a recommendation, offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. Carta does not assume any liability for reliance on the information provided herein.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners in the U.S. and other countries, and are used for identification purposes only. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply affiliation or endorsement.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We spoke to Jeff Lipp, cofounder and COO of Artkive, to learn how he spends less time on unnecessary busywork and more time growing the business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":2119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37],"tags":[115,22,116,113,117,118,119],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}