Platform to Find Creatives and Funding

Building a sustainable creative career often comes down to two problems that never fully go away: artists struggle to find each other locally, and artists struggle to find funding without jumping through hoops. On the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast, founders Erik Abel and Philip Gomez describe how those pain points pushed them to create All The Artists, a cross-discipline artist platform designed for practical discovery and real financial support. Their arts entrepreneurship approach is grounded in a simple belief: if artists can easily connect by city, zip code, and medium, then curators, clients, venues, and collaborators can also find the right talent faster. That improves opportunity flow for visual art, music, literary work, and performing arts alike, which strengthens the creative economy from the ground up.

A major theme is how broken “search” can feel for working creatives. Social media can surface great work, but it is not built for structured local discovery, and Google results often reward SEO skill more than artistic skill. All The Artists is positioned as a practical alternative: a directory and community where a user can look for a local band, a ceramicist, or a niche performer with clear filters that match how creative work is actually hired. This kind of artist networking solves a real market failure by reducing friction for collaboration and commissions. It also supports artists who do not have the time, money, or technical knowledge to compete for attention online, which is a common challenge in building a creative business.

The most distinctive feature is their funding model. Instead of traditional arts grants that require long applications, project proposals, and judging panels, they commit to putting about 40% of paid membership revenue into a collective fund. Members pay roughly $3 per month, and recipients are selected randomly in a sweepstakes-style structure, with eligibility tied to being an active artist who can show their work via a website or social profile. The goal is fairness at scale: one member, one chance per month, rather than systems where people can buy thousands of entries or where gatekeepers decide whose creativity is “worthy.” They also emphasize unrestricted funding, meaning artists can use money for studio rent, tools, transportation, or anything that buys back time to make art.

The conversation also highlights the unglamorous infrastructure behind creative platforms: legal constraints, privacy, security, and automation. They explain that “just giving money away” is surprisingly hard to do legally, which forced business model pivots and careful compliance work with attorneys. They also address user data protection with a dedicated team focused on secure storage and responsible handling of information. On the operations side, Gomez describes building “click-click go” systems so the platform can run with low overhead, keeping more dollars available for artist funding rather than administration. For artists searching for funding for artists, artist grants alternatives, and a scalable arts entrepreneurship model, this episode offers a clear case study in designing for simplicity, trust, and fairness.