posted by Alyssa Rose and Kiera Maloney from Radiate. Hello, this is Alyssa Rose and Kiera Maloney from Radiate! We are so happy to have been chosen for the 2015-2016 launch of the Good Mornings! breakfast series organized by students Christine Phelan and Eugene Wang. We are both juniors at Fordham College Rose Hill. Alyssa studies Anthropology and Spanish. Kiera studies Economics and Peace & Justice. Our idea for Radiate began our freshman year as we both went on GO trips and other immersion trips to developing regions. We continuously discussed the grand amounts of spending power we have as American teenagers in relation to these workers we met throughout our travels. We realized that if we harnessed some of that spending power and redirected it to artists, with businesses, families, and communities, that we could make a big impact with our purchases. This is when Radiate really came together.
Our ideas continued to grow and develop through the rest of freshman year and into our sophomore year. By the summer after sophomore year, we had fundraised seed money through an Indiegogo, Kiera had designed our website, and Alyssa had reached out to her connections in the Dominican Republic and set up a list of artists to visit. Over the course of the summer, we spent time with each artisan and developed systems of supply. On July 1st we launched the marketplace, which is now the hub of our business.
In the months since the launch, most of our work has gone to growing our customer base because the more we are able to grow as a business, the more we are able to be for each of our artisans. Many of our customers are college students like ourselves, who are aware of the terrors of mass consumption and looking for more ethical ways to buy the things they need. Because of this, we have tailored our growth to work with this rising generation. We use Instagram as our main mode of communication where we post pictures of our products, as well as the regions and people we work with. We have a following of over 12k now!! We also use an ambassadorship program to encourage others to spread our message. Anyone can sign up to be an ambassador, receiving a 10% off coupon which they can share with friends and family. The more that is bought using their code, the more rewards they can receive in the form of store credit. Through Instagram and ambassadors, we have been able to grow a community of conscious consumers who choose to radiate peace and prosperity.
Learn more at www.radiatemarket.com or www.instagram.com/whatwillyouradiate/
