We hunt. We don't promise.  ·  Read the working prospectus

Business plan · Working draft v0.5 · Figures illustrative

The Prospectus.

A content-driven art dealing business, and eventually a national network, where the audience rides along on sourcing trips, claims finds before they've been bought, pays to have art hunted, and learns to trust its own taste. This page is the whole idea, with the numbers. In a hurry? Read the 5-minute Simple Prospectus →

Design lockedFees locked · 7% pass-throughOn Your Wall prototype live

01 · What we're building

Three surfaces, one machine

The public site

Story-first store, live drops, taste quiz, education. Scarcity mechanics that are honest because every piece is one of one.

The user account

Want lists, Room Profiles, hunts in progress, Your Eye, the style profile that sharpens with every interaction.

The field app

The vendor's phone: post a find in five minutes, run the claim engine, log hunt visits, push to social, from the store aisle.

02 · Why it works

Six structural advantages

1 · Zero-inventory-risk dealing

A claim while the vendor stands in the store means buying knowing it's sold. The discount pays the buyer for removing the risk.

2 · The hunt is the content

"Found for $12, worth $300" is inherently viral. One session feeds listings, clips, and stories simultaneously.

3 · Real scarcity

1-of-1 inventory makes claim windows and bid wars honest, a luxury almost no e-commerce business has.

4 · Taste education compounds

Buyers who know why they like a piece buy art forever, and Your Eye automates that education per person.

5 · Owned audience

Site + SMS + email own the buyers; social platforms are only the funnel.

6 · The network grows free

The quiz recruits users at zero cost, vendor codes recruit vendors, and every vendor makes every want list easier to fill.

03 · The core mechanic

Field Claims & Bid Wars

1

Posted live

Photos, dims, grade, story, with Field and Studio price side by side.

2

Claimed

A claim is a card authorization. No card, no claim, ghosting can't exist.

3

2:00 contest

A public countdown in which any second buyer can contest the claim.

4

Bid war (if contested)

Five minutes, soft close, card-authorized bidders. The runner-up gets credit toward the next find.

5

Bought & confirmed

Vendor buys at the register; any condition surprise triggers a penalty-free confirm-or-cancel.

Unclaimed finds the vendor buys become Studio inventory, and every listing carries its field history ("went unclaimed live at $95").

04 · Unit economics

One find, four prices

05 · Revenue mix

Where the money comes from

06 · The fulfillment ladder

List, Watch, Hunt

Want List

Free

  • Up to 5 wishes, matched when any vendor happens on them.
  • Broadcast to every vendor in range, the free tier is the network effect.
  • 15-minute head start on matches.

The Watch

$20 · 45 days

  • Rides every session's active field list; the vendor deliberately digs.
  • Weekly "where we looked" updates, auto-generated from session logs.
  • 30-minute head start on matches.

The Hunt

$75 · 4 logged visits

  • Four dedicated visits in 45 days, with per-visit field reports.
  • In-store exclusive window on matches.
  • Capped at 5 concurrent per vendor, quality, scarcity, price discovery.

The no-guarantee terms, in six lines

  1. You're paying for the search, not the art. "Not found" is never a refund reason.
  2. Refunds happen when we fail, missed visits or missing updates, measurably, not when the art does.
  3. Every request is vetted in 48h with a feasibility rating; declines auto-refund, Long Shots get a walk-away window.
  4. "Found" means it matches your spec, subject, style, medium, size, budget ceiling. Mood notes guide, never bind.
  5. You never have to buy, but decline two spec matches and the paid search becomes a free want list.
  6. If it works, it was free, buy a matched piece in-window and the full fee credits toward it.

07 · The tech moat

Your Eye & On Your Wall

Your Eye, taste, learned

  • The 2-minute quiz mints a named, shareable style profile, the viral loop.
  • Every rate, save, claim, and decline reweights it; the Daily Five habit manufactures training data.
  • AI vision auto-tags every find at posting, the catalog matches itself.
  • "Why this fits you": a per-person explanation on matched pieces, in the vendor's voice. Nobody else in the market can say why you'll like it.

On Your Wall, placement, solved

  • Any find rendered on a photo of your wall, to the inch, calibrated, not guessed.
  • Frames and mattes swap live in the preview, where the framing attach rate is actually won.
  • Hanging rules encoded: 57" eye height, art at ⅔ of furniture width.
  • Working prototype today: try it →

08 · The vendor network

A picker in every city

Vendors join free, run the same playbook under enforced standards, and keep roughly 90%. The platform takes a flat 7% with processing passed through at cost.

The rules that keep it clean

  • Standards as code: the app won't post a find without verso photos, a condition grade, and approved attribution language.
  • Vetting: portfolio → video call → certification quiz → 10-sale probation with delayed payouts.
  • Stripe Connect Express: vendors are merchants of record; the platform never holds their money.
  • No signup fees, no territories, commission-only keeps this a marketplace, not a franchise.
  • One strike for intentional misattribution.
Live picking sessions Content everywhere Audience & want lists Reverse picking Zero-risk claims Margin & trust THE FLYWHEEL

09 · The build

Four phases, each gated

Skipped

0 · Prove it

Woo + Stripe + SMS, manual claims via payment links, first Watches and Hunts sold into a spreadsheet. Bypassed: the real claim engine below shipped directly, no spreadsheet detour needed.

Partial

1 · The engine

Claim engine with contest + soft close is live (no payments yet: settling is a conversation). Still open: field app (photo checklist, price calculator, voice-to-listing), request board, visit logs, segmented notifications.

Now

2 · The moat

Your Eye, On Your Wall, and "why this fits you" head-start matching are live. Room Profiles and membership still open. Embeddings and AR only after tag matching proves engagement.

Gated

3 · The network

Stripe Connect onboarding, vendor profiles and codes, certification, cross-vendor matching, marketplace-facilitator tax. Opens only when vendor №1's numbers prove the engine.

One architectural non-negotiable from day one: every record carries a vendor_id. Single-vendor features, multi-vendor data.

10 · What we measure

The numbers that matter

Audience

Quiz completions → signups · SMS/email growth · want-list items created

Commerce

Claims per session · claim→capture rate · 30/60/90 sell-through · margin multiple · framing attach · repeat rate

Fulfillment

Watch/Hunt sales · fill rate (matched and bought) · fee-credit redemptions · renewal rate

Tech & network

Daily Five completion · preview→claim conversion · vendor GMV · take-rate revenue · dispute rate

11 · Risks, named

What could break, and the counter

RiskCounter
Ghost claimsA claim is a card authorization, never a comment.
"You never found it" disputesNo-guarantee terms, 48h review gate, logged deliverables.
Vendor misattributionStandards enforced in code, certification, probation, one strike.
Platform algorithm shiftsSMS and email own the audience; social is only the funnel.
Shipping damageAcrylic swap, corner protocol, local-first launch.
One-person burnoutEvery field workflow ≤ 5 minutes; recaps and updates generate themselves.

Open decisions: the name (Sleeper is a working title) · transparent cost basis · volume-tier thresholds · launch radius · bid war vs. sealed best-offer pending the state auction-law check.