fayVen helps small business owners who don’t have a storefront by booking them with those who do.We give mobile vendors and artisans a place to sell their products or services through curated pop-up shopping, dining, and entertainment events at local venues. fayVen is bringing small businesses together for good!
The fayVen Story
After years of dealing with the bureaucratic red tape of government work, April decided to leave her career behind and start a small business of her own. She and her husband Aaron went all-in on a crazy idea that popped into April’s head… The Princess and The Popper, a gourmet popcorn company. Together, they made popcorn for farmers’ markets, downtown events, and private parties, the popcorn was delicious and business was popping! But their dreams were crushed when they planned to open up a brick-and-mortar storefront and start popping full-time. You see, after three opportunities to rent a space were denied, they had to resort to pop-up shops (pun intended) and rely exclusively on other business owners to invite them to collaborative, shopping events. From these tough experiences, April realized that there was an even greater need for a business that connected mobile vendors without storefronts to local venue owners that had spare room for pop-up shops. These events, along with some other, not-so-hot vendor experiences, inspired the creation of fayVen.
The fayVen name
The fayVen logo has a few meanings and symbolism in it – the first being that the “Ven” in fayVen stands for both our Vendor and Venue customers; it is their fayVorite way to connect after all.
The second is the capital V, which stands for the fact that we are a veteran-owned, small business and proud of it.
The third is that our founder’s (April) mother’s name was Faith but always answered to “Fay”. She passed away January 29, 2020, from complications surrounding pancreatic and lung cancer. She was an incredible mother and caretaker who loved all things Science Fiction and Disney (especially Princess Aurora). She is loved and missed deeply.
The fourth is that “lightning bolt” is God’s (not-so-secret) name for our founder, April.
Last and coincidentally, the Urban Dictionary definition of fayVen is, “A beautiful, smart, young girl who always believes in herself and always knows what the right thing to do is.” https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fayven
fayVen is giving opportunity to mobile and home-based vendors by allowing them to choose ideal venues for the customer-base they want to reach. It also allows venue owners to generate revenue by temporarily renting out unused space to these mobile vendors.
fayVen is the online platform that was desperately needed to create connections between vendors and venues and make booking incredibly easy and safe.
We create opportunities for mobile vendors to connect with local venues to increase their collective reach through complementary, collaborative shopping, dining, and social experiences.
For mobile vendors without traditional storefronts and local venues in need of additional revenue streams, fayVen simplifies event coordination and booking, creates community engagement, and helps small businesses garner local support.
A Community Approach
Here at fayVen, we LOVE small business! Unfortunately, many small businesses across the country are struggling to keep their doors open because of increased rent, online commerce, Big Box stores, and the dreaded Coronavirus!!! So, in order to keep small businesses strong, we came up with a creative solution to help one another out as a community.
fayVen’s Mission and Vision Statements
The fayVen mission is to provide mobile and home-based vendors the opportunity to sell their products and services in their communities and beyond by booking them at complementary local venues, generating additional revenue streams for the venue owners and helping them both stay in business for many years to come.
We are super resourceful and prudent; we have had to bootstrap this from the start and along the way, we’ve gone after every available resource, including funding, mentors, incubators, accelerators, programs, conferences, trainings—in person and online, student programs to help us develop our MVP, non-profits that are willing to help us, etc! We know that it takes a community of support to be successful, especially when we don’t have money to throw at our business. We are passionate, and we know how desperately this tool is needed for small businesses everywhere, which is why we won’t give up!
