CREATE
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2018 Grants Challenge

Farmers Market Delivery

Idea by Natch

We make it easier for all Angelinos to sell or shop locally, by creating a Farmer,s Markets app where anybody can have their craft products delivered across the city.

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Please describe the activation your organization seeks to launch.

We want to enable thousands of Angelinos from across the city to start their own business. By making it easier for any Angelino to locally sell their craft, we aspire to formulate a strong regional economy where millions of people in Los Angeles can have access to and support locally made products.

Which of the CREATE metrics will your activation impact?​

Employment in the creative industries

Jobs per capita

Minority- and women-owned firms

Will your proposal impact any other LA2050 goal categories?​

LA is the best place to CONNECT

LA is the healthiest place to LIVE

In what areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?​

Central LA

East LA

San Gabriel Valley

San Fernando Valley

South LA

Westside

City of Los Angeles

How will your activation mobilize Angelenos?​

Encourage businesses to change practices

Influence individual behavior

Help Angelinos support local businesses

Describe in greater detail how your activation will make LA the best place to CREATE?​

Creators in Los Angeles have never struggled in being creative. However, it has become increasingly hard for creators to derive wealth out of their creative value.

There are many barriers for creators to economically succeed, especially creators from underprivileged communities. These barriers include financial resources, experience, business resources, marketing apparatuses, connections, and the increasing challenge of oligopolies monopolizing every industry.

Creators find it difficult to sell the things they create, because there are startup costs, and it takes infrastructure. Generally one needs to have a facility, which means high rents, and this does not favor well for small businesses or non high earners looking to economically move up. It is increasingly hard for these mom and pop shops to compete with big businesses as well.

Natch wants to remove many of these barriers by making the business industry more accessible for creators. Supporting local businesses is currently hard for both shoppers and sellers. By creating our online marketplace we create a network of local businesses, where shoppers can more easily find and receive locally made products. So we make it easier for these creators to market their products. But we also make it easier and cheaper for them to deliver their products too. By handling the fulfillment and delivery, sellers do not need to rent out retail space, nor hire expensive drivers to transport their goods. They also do not need to worry about developing their own website and driving traffic. We simplify many of the difficulties behind creators starting their own business, and we make it cheaper.

By enabling sellers to sell directly to consumers we also ensure that they receive the financial value from most of what they produce. By removing middle men when it comes to manufacturing, distribution, and retail, the creator can once again become an owner of what they produce.

Natch believes that by empowering creators, and giving anybody in LA a chance to compete with bigger businesses, local spending will be channeled away from the hands of bigger corporations and directly into the hands of the people in the city.

This engages LA in multiple ways. It helps spread wealth across the city. It helps empower diverse communities of creators to play a part in the everyday lives of all Angelinos. And it gives access to people around Los Angeles to the different things creators produce. We aim to improve the quality of life for Angelinos by giving them the opportunity to connect directly with other Angelinos through the food they create.

How will your activation engage Angelenos to make LA the best place to CREATE​

Historically, economically underprivileged communities have been left out of the entrepreneurship ecosystem. As bigger companies began to consolidate, it became increasingly difficult for small businesses to compete and many were wiped out.

We aim to regrow the small business ecosystem, by giving local individuals a mechanism to compete. We are giving individuals a way to sell the products they make, and we are making it easier and cheaper for them to sell and deliver those products. In this new internet age, this will make small businesses competitive once again.

By running our app across LA, we give a chance for locals in communities of all economic backgrounds to engage in the entrepreneurship movement. So far not a lot of tech has emerged that has created economic opportunities for diverse communities. With Natch, starting your own business will be more accessible, and these business will get more visibility as opposed to traditional brick and mortars which are limited by geographic barriers. Also by delivering these products, we give access to Angelinos from across the city to a diverse range of healthy and locally made goods.

The aim is create an economic environment where most of our money is spent locally and goes directly to the creators. By diverting our spending from big to small businesses, we might be able to have an impact on income inequality.

Please explain how you will define and measure success for your activation.​

2 metrics: how many shops have been created in our marketplace, and how many local monthly shoppers there are.

We aim to have over 1000 Angelinos running a shop to sell their products on our app within 2 years. We also aim to have 50,000 local shoppers within that time.

Where do you hope this activation or your organization will be in five years?

We hope that thousands of Angelinos have started their own business on Natch. We also aspire to have these sellers become a pivotal fragment of the food industry, and hope that these local products can secure a large share of the food market where millions of Angelinos can be engaged in the local food shopping economy.

By moving local spending into the hands of smaller business, we hope that can make an impact on local wealth inequality.