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How it starts: Four guys in New Orleans decide DIY needs an extreme makeover

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How it starts: Four guys in New Orleans decide DIY needs an extreme makeover

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With the rise of Pinterest, it's not hard to find examples of beautiful homemade crafts. What most people don't realize is that the process is not as simple as it looks. Crafting can be expensive and often requires several trips to the hardware store, only to create tons of leftover materials. Doorstep Crafts hopes to solve these pains by shipping easy, build-it-yourself craft kits to your home.

The new company was founded last summer by four twenty-something friends from Washington, DC who relocated to New Orleans after college.

"People are intimidated by fabricating things -  like big pieces of plywood - to make relatively simple things," Daniel Galvez, CEO, observed. "We’re trying to serve a slow, painful, expensive process and make it more efficient and cheap."

When they got started, none of the founders had much experience with decor or art. What they did have was time on their hands. "The story goes, I was clerking [Daniel's in law school], Dave was working, and Sam was in a job transition. It was a slow summer, so we wanted to start a business," he said. "We came up with ten plans a week for a month. We landed on Doorstep Crafts (formerly CraftDIY). We had seen Pinterest and Etsy pop up and thought we could have an impact in that space."

From L to R: COO Sam Olmstead, CFO David Perez, CEO Daniel Galvez, and Head of Biz Dev Trevor Gopnik.

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Daniel, Trevor, Dave, and Sam knew they'd need some help (not to mention funding) to get their idea off the ground. Last fall, they were accepted into an accelerator program called IdeaVillage, which, according to its website "works to identify, support, and retain entrepreneurial talent in New Orleans."

The program lasted for twelve weeks. Daniel says it was invaluable to the young company's progress. They met with advisors and attended events, and began a fundraising program that started in January. On December 13, they attended a demo day where they pitched their idea to about 100 investors.

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The Idea Village works to identify, support, and retain entrepreneurial talent in New Orleans.

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The founders started testing their crafts out with friends and family in early 2017. They made the first three products available in March.

Getting the word out
The business will be completely e-commerce, so online marketing is huge for the four founders. Part of Doorstep's marketing strategy is a weekly newsletter. Currently, they're sending it out to close friends and family. They use Mailchimp - probably the easiest mailer software out there.

As for social media, they have accounts on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.

"Instagram has been getting a lot of people to our website, so that and Pinterest have gotten us the furthest," Daniel observes. "Our big selling tool will be Pinterest, since you can now click to buy direct."

The business model
Customers will buy a product from the website and Doorstep will send them a box of raw materials and instructions. Each box is currently priced at $20.

Where they get the goods
Most of the craft materials come from Home Depot, Michael's, Ace Hardware and Lowe’s. The four founders buy all the materials themselves.

As for scaling, Daniel says things could go two ways. "We want to find either local sources and locally source from the [New Orleans] area, or go the other way and keep prices really low."

How long it takes to make a craft
One to two hours, Daniel says. "The bulk of the work is going out and finding everything. We do that for you, so the work goes fairly quickly.

We’ve had so much fun building these little things, and that’s what people are paying for. Instead of watching Netflix, you build a nice little piece of home decor. And it’s creative and social and works your brain."

You can shop the collection at https://www.doorstepcrafts.com.

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Doorstep Crafts sells high-end, DIY craft kits with all of the materials, tools, and instructions to make the perfect craft at home with zero hassle.

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Daniel hopes that eventually, the customers themselves will come up with their own designs, and the Doorstep Crafts team will help them source materials.

"We want someone to come up with the ideas, whether through a collaborative space, or direct submissions. We’d love to get outside inspirations," he said.

"Ideally [the customer] would put up an idea, and then we can get back to you and say, 'here’s our version of it.'" Hm. I think we know just the platform for that!

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Problems solved: cutting wood, and costs

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Problems solved: cutting wood, and costs