How We Started
Blog Launch & Art Research
Ebonique Boyd launched a blog about her art collecting hobby and gave herself a yearly budget of $5000. She used the money to travel to different galleries, read books on art collecting, and pay for some research help.
Low Tech Ideas
Ebonique thought that if she could lower the price of art advising, she would have less difficulty finding pieces that she liked. She created several low tech ideas including writing a small journal.
COVID-19
Ebonique picked up her younger sister Anya Ellis from college and they quarantined together for a few weeks. Anya was a computer science junior at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Anya thought that artificial intelligence could offer some of the services that Ebonique wanted at a lower price. Ebonique asked how and Anya asked for equity, they both got what they wanted.
Founder Gym
Ebonique attended Founder Gym to learn more about venture capital from the perspective of other black women.
Closed App Launch
Submitted Patent
Applied for LegalCorps who helped us find a pro-bono patent attorney at Fredrikson & Byron.
First Adviser
Referred to Tobias Boonstoppel by another founder in AllRaise. He helped us realize that what we were doing could lead to bigger things in the future.
Great Lakes i-Corps Customer Discovery Program
This National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored program helped give us the funds to attend conferences where we met museum officials to learn more about the ecosystem.
Stanford's BlackAIR
Helped give us the funds to launch the app in open beta and the insight to craft better more inclusive tests for the app.
Fiverr's Future Collective Grant
Fiverr's grant helped us to pay for an attorney to help with some business development goals. The grant also helped supplement our small team by using in-kind grants.