Locally-made, artistic Souvenirs...from Vending Machines!
SouveNEAR sells locally-made, artistic souvenirs...from vending machines! We’re making it easy for busy travelers to support local small businesses - artists and makers - and to find mementos they love. We offer a range of products like what you'd find at an indie craft fair: t-shirts, handmade jewelry, body products, gourmet food items, art prints and originals, kids items.
The time is right. So many of us value local, artistic items, yet so many souvenirs are still made far away and just stamped with the city name; airports and tourist destinations often lack gifts that truly reflect our vibrant creative communities. Look for SouveNEAR machines at Oakland CA, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, Kansas City MO, and Newark NJ airports. More coming!
Find SouveNEAR in the Oakland, Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Newark Airports
Our Artists
We currently source from 80-100 artists from Kansas City, the San Francisco Bay Area and New York/New Jersey for our SouveNEARs. They are painters, designers, printers, beekeepers, fashion designers, chocolatiers, chefs, jewelers, textile artists and more! For some their "making" is a full-time gig, for others not. We love getting to know them, and supporting their creative work with purchases.
Where we're going...with YOUR help!
We've proven the business model. Now, it's time to scale SouveNEAR across the country. With
the funds we raise from you, we plan to:
-Staff efficiently to more quickly pursue and launch new locations
-Acquire product optimization expertise to improve product mix, improving average revenue and profitability per machine.
-Purchase new machines and inventory and build our online sales presence
-Take our game to the next level in merchandising, packaging, storytelling and machine ease-of-use
Launched SouveNEAR with one vending machine at Kansas City Airport
Immediate press attention
USA Today, TIME, and Travel & Leisure all dover our launch.
5 machines operating in Kansas City
Launch in Bay Area with 2 new machines
Secured contracts in Newark, NJ and Cincinnati, OH
12 machines in KC, Oakland, and San Francisco
Secured $200K in friends & family round
Launch SouveNEAR Cincinnati
Throughout the year, hire key personnel for faster growth.
Operate in 10+ markets
Let's Make Souvenirs Special
Friends and supporters,
In 2013 the two of us (already friends) sat in a coffee shop and listed out a dozen or so business ideas we had. We had the entrepreneurial itch (and we love a good brainstorm)! This idea quickly rose to the top of the list; it just made sense to us that souvenirs could actually be from the city they represent. We had both been in the "pinch" of airport shopping for souvenirs and settling for things we knew would end up in the back of a drawer. And, we really loved the idea of channeling more tourist dollars toward local artists and makers. It was the idea that inspired us; we felt that our skills and experience were well-suited and that the work would keep us excited and engaged over time. We got our start at the end of 2014, and with some persistence, good advising, help from friends, late nights, great cheerleaders, more coffee and hard work we’ve been able to bootstrap our way into three regions. And indeed we’re still personally excited, engaged, and ready for more! We’ve gotten interest from around the country from people who want SouveNEAR in their city. We’ve simply not had resources to grow as quickly as we would like.
We hope you’ll join us and become a SouveNEAR investor. We’d love to get in to many more airports across the country, to increase our on-line presence, to tell artist stories better and to more people. We need partners to help us make it happen. It’s truly a rewarding endeavor: customers love it, cities are proud to put their best creative foot forward for visitors, airports are happy to offer their passengers something different and fun, and artists and makers are happy for the sales and exposure. We’re very proud of the concept, our team, the items we offer and the artists who make them, and we hope you would feel proud to be involved too.
Here's to creativity,
Suzanne and Tiffany
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