Folio: Consignment & Artist Payout Management for Independent Galleries and Craft Co-ops

The Idea

Folio is the operations backbone for independent art galleries and craft co-ops — it tracks consigned inventory across multiple artists, calculates revenue splits automatically, generates monthly settlement reports, and pays artists out via Stripe. It replaces the spreadsheet-plus-Venmo-plus-paper-ledger workflow that almost every small gallery and co-op runs on today.

The Problem You Solve

Independent galleries and craft co-ops operate on a consignment model: artists bring in work, the gallery takes 30–50%, the artist keeps the rest. Simple in theory. In practice:

• Inventory across 15–30 artists is tracked in a shared Google Sheet that nobody trusts
• When something sells, someone has to remember to update the sheet and calculate the split manually
• Monthly settlements involve emailing PDFs to every artist with their breakdown — if it happens at all
• Artists have no visibility into what of theirs is on display, what has sold, or what check to expect
• There is no audit trail, no automated anything

This is not a niche edge case. It is the default operating mode for thousands of small galleries and co-ops across the US, and it causes friction that loses artists and strains relationships.

Core Features (MVP)

1. Artist/Maker Roster — Add artists, set their consignment split percentage (individual or gallery-default)
2. Inventory Intake — Log incoming work: title, artist, asking price, date received, medium, photo upload
3. Point-of-Sale Integration — Mark items as sold (with sale price), split calculated instantly
4. Settlement Dashboard — Running ledger per artist: sold items, gross, split owed, cleared/pending
5. Monthly Settlement Report — Auto-generated PDF per artist, emailed on a schedule
6. Stripe Payouts — Optional: pay artists directly via Stripe Connect ACH transfer
7. Artist Portal — Read-only link artists can access to see their own inventory status and earnings

Pricing

• Starter — $49/month: up to 10 artists, 300 inventory items, settlement PDFs
• Studio — $99/month: unlimited artists and inventory, Stripe payouts, artist portal links, show/exhibit tracking
• Annual discount — 2 months free on either tier

No per-transaction fees. Flat SaaS subscription.

Tech Stack

• Next.js + TypeScript — web app frontend and server
• Supabase — database, auth, file storage (photos)
• Stripe Connect — artist payouts via ACH
• Resend — transactional email for settlement reports
• Vercel — deployment
• pdf-lib or Puppeteer — settlement PDF generation

How to Build MVP

Week 1–2: Artist roster + inventory intake form + sold/unsold status. Core data model done.

Week 3: Settlement calculation engine. Mark item sold → auto-calculate split → update each artist's running ledger.

Week 4: Settlement report PDF generation + manual email send. This is the moment galleries will pay for.

Week 5: Stripe Connect integration for payouts. Optional at launch but high perceived value.

Week 6: Artist read-only portal (shareable link). Soft launch to 5 beta galleries at $0 for 30 days.

Week 7–8: Fix beta feedback, add photo uploads, polish. Convert beta users to $49/month.

Total build time: 6–8 weeks solo, weekends and evenings.

How to Get First Customers

• Direct local outreach — Walk into 5–10 local craft co-ops and independent galleries. The problem is visible the moment you ask "how do you track your artist payouts?" You will see a spreadsheet.
• Pottery and ceramics guild newsletters — National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), state pottery guilds, local guilds. They have email lists and most members know at least one gallery.
• Instagram DM campaign — Search #ceramicscoop, #ceramicsgallery, #craftgallery. DM gallery accounts with a 2-line pitch.
• Craft fair booth — Staff a table at a local artisan market. Gallery owners attend. Hand out cards.
• Reddit — r/pottery, r/artbusiness — answer questions about consignment management, mention Folio.

Revenue Math

Customers	MRR
50 @ $49	$2,450
100 @ $65 avg	$6,500
150 @ $75 avg	$11,250
200 @ $75 avg	$15,000

200 paying customers is the target. There are an estimated 5,000+ small commercial galleries and 2,000+ active craft co-ops and pottery guilds in the US. Penetrating 3% of that market hits the goal.

Expansion revenue: upsell larger galleries to Studio tier. Annual plans improve cash flow.

Why This Is Different

Existing consignment software (SimpleConsign, ConsignCloud, Ricochet) targets resale shops, thrift stores, and antique malls — they are priced for retail ($100–400/month) and built around POS hardware and barcode scanners. They are dramatically over-engineered and overpriced for a 20-artist pottery co-op.

Folio is purpose-built for the craft gallery world. Simple, web-native, priced for a small operation, and designed around the artist relationship — not the retail SKU.

Path to Quitting Day Job

• Month 1–2: Build and launch to beta (free)
• Month 3–4: Convert betas, reach 20 paying customers (~$1,000 MRR)
• Month 6: 50–75 customers (~$3,000–4,500 MRR) via guild newsletters and word of mouth
• Month 9: 120 customers (~$8,000 MRR) — conference season (NCECA in spring, local fairs) accelerates this
• Month 12: 175 customers (~$12,000 MRR) — sustainable replacement income

Risks & Mitigations

Gallery owners are not tech-forward — Mitigate by keeping onboarding to under 10 minutes and offering a free migration call. The alternative is a spreadsheet, not a better app.

Small market ceiling — 5,000 galleries sounds modest, but $10k/month is achievable at 3–4% penetration. Market is less competitive than dev tools, meaning lower CAC and higher retention.

Seasonal revenue — Gallery sales spike around holidays and show seasons. Mitigate with annual billing incentives.

Generic alternatives — A determined gallery could use Airtable or Notion. But Folio already has the settlement PDF, Stripe Connect, and artist portal built. The switching cost from Folio to a DIY solution is high once data is in.

Why This Works for You Specifically

You have been in the ceramics world long enough to know exactly how pottery co-ops, guild shows, and gallery consignments actually work — from the artist's side. You understand that the frustration is not the math, it is the lack of a reliable paper trail that artists and gallery owners both trust. That empathy lets you build exactly what the market needs, not a generalized inventory system.

The tech stack is entirely in your wheelhouse. Supabase + Next.js + Stripe Connect is a weekend prototype. The distribution channel (pottery guilds, ceramics communities, local outreach) is one you can access directly without paid ads.

First Action

Find one local pottery co-op or small gallery within 10 miles and ask the owner: "How do you currently track what each artist is owed at the end of the month?" Record the answer. If the answer involves a spreadsheet, a notebook, or the phrase "it's kind of a mess," you have your first beta customer. Ask them to walk you through their current process for 30 minutes in exchange for 3 months free.