WorkshopKit: The All-in-One Platform for Independent Craft Instructors

The Idea

WorkshopKit is a focused platform that lets independent craft and maker educators sell workshop seats, optionally ship supply kits, and build recurring student communities — without cobbling together Eventbrite, Venmo, Google Sheets, Mailchimp, and Etsy.

The Problem You Solve

Independent craft instructors are running real businesses on a stack of mismatched consumer tools. They're ticketing on Eventbrite (which takes 6–8%), invoicing on Venmo, tracking supply kits in Google Sheets, promoting on Instagram, emailing from Mailchimp, and selling take-home kits on Etsy. Every booking requires manual coordination across 4–5 apps.

WorkshopKit collapses all of that into one dashboard built specifically for the maker/craft instructor workflow: booking pages, Stripe checkout, supply kit bundling (with or without shipping), student roster, automated confirmation emails, and a simple community space for students to share their work post-workshop.

Core Features (MVP)

• Instructor profile + public workshop listing page (shareable link)
• Workshop seat booking with Stripe checkout
• Supply kit add-on at checkout: either "bring your own" or "ship me a kit" (with shipping cost)
• Automated confirmation + reminder emails (n8n or Resend)
• Instructor dashboard: attendee roster, revenue summary, kit fulfillment checklist
• Post-workshop student gallery (simple photo share, no social network complexity)

Pricing

Instructor plans:

• Starter (free): 1 active workshop, 5% transaction fee
• Pro ($49/month): unlimited workshops, 2% transaction fee, supply kit shipping tools, student gallery
• Studio ($99/month): multi-instructor (small studios), branded subdomain, waitlist management, recurring class subscriptions

Students pay no platform fee — instructors absorb or pass through costs.

Tech Stack

• Next.js + TypeScript (frontend + SSG for public listing pages)
• Supabase (auth, database, storage for student photos)
• Stripe (checkout, connect for instructor payouts)
• Resend or n8n (automated emails)
• Vercel (hosting)

How to Build MVP

Week 1–2: Landing page + waitlist. Reach out to 20 pottery/ceramics/craft instructors on Instagram and Reddit (r/Pottery, r/weddingplanning craft circles). Offer 6 months free for first 10 instructors.

Week 3–4: Build instructor onboarding flow, workshop listing page, Stripe checkout with seat limits. Deploy to Vercel.

Week 5–6: Add supply kit checkbox at checkout (instructor marks what's included/shipped), automated confirmation email via n8n, basic attendee dashboard.

Week 7–8: Student photo gallery post-workshop, instructor payout via Stripe Connect, public beta with beta cohort.

How to Get First Customers

1. You have direct access to pottery communities — post in r/Pottery, r/Ceramics, local maker Facebook groups, and Instagram under craft hashtags.
2. Cold DM independent instructors whose booking flow is clearly broken (Eventbrite link + "DM for kits" in bio = pain signal).
3. Offer to set up their first workshop free. Once they earn money through the platform, they convert.
4. Partner with a local pottery studio to be the "featured launch partner" — gives you a real case study and testimonial.

Revenue Math

Scenario A (transaction fee model, Starter instructors):

• 200 instructors using free plan × avg 2 workshops/month × 10 seats × $65/seat avg = $260,000 GMV/month
• 5% take rate = $13,000/month

Scenario B (subscription model):

• 50 Pro instructors × $49 = $2,450
• 30 Studio instructors × $99 = $2,970
• Transaction fees on remaining volume: ~$4,000
• Total: ~$9,400/month

Realistic 9-month path: Start with 10 beta instructors free → convert 40 to paid → grow to 80 paid + transaction volume = $8,000–$12,000/month.

Why This Is Different

Eventbrite and Airbnb Experiences are generic ticketing tools. They don't understand supply kits, skill levels, material lists, tool requirements, or post-workshop community. Mindbody is built for fitness studios and is overkill + expensive. Kajabi and Teachable are for async online courses.

WorkshopKit is the only tool purpose-built for the live, in-person craft workshop flow with physical supply kit logistics baked in. That specificity is the moat — and the user is personally embedded in the pottery community, which gives authentic distribution and product intuition that outside founders can't replicate.

Path to Quitting Day Job

• Month 1–2: Build MVP, onboard 10 beta instructors free
• Month 3–4: First paying instructors, validate pricing
• Month 5–6: 30–50 paying instructors + transaction volume = $3,000–$5,000 MRR
• Month 7–9: 80+ instructors, referral loop active = $8,000–$12,000 MRR
• Month 10–12: Add supply kit marketplace (instructors buy standardized kits through WorkshopKit at wholesale) — new high-margin revenue layer

Risks & Mitigations

Risk: Instructors are small operators who resist paying SaaS fees. Mitigation: Free tier with transaction fee is zero-friction entry. They only pay when they earn.

Risk: Low volume per instructor limits transaction revenue. Mitigation: Volume comes from quantity of instructors, not individual workshop size. The long tail of indie craft instructors is very wide.

Risk: Stripe Connect complexity for instructor payouts. Mitigation: Stripe Connect Express is well-documented. Can launch with manual payouts (weekly bank transfer) for beta to avoid upfront complexity.

Why This Works for You Specifically

You are already inside the pottery and craft world — you understand the actual pain (juggling Eventbrite + Venmo + Instagram DMs for a 10-person glaze workshop is genuinely annoying). You can build the tech stack with tools you already know cold. You can be your own first customer. And the community trust you have in craft circles gives you a direct sales channel most founders would have to spend months building.

First Action

Post in r/Pottery and r/Ceramics: "I'm building a tool specifically for pottery and craft instructors to manage workshop bookings + supply kits without using 5 apps. Who's currently teaching workshops? Would love 10 minutes to hear how you handle booking and materials." — collect 5 real conversations before writing a line of code.