London Business School Alumnus Profile: The Business of Art

Rise Art is a startup in the e-commerce space. Its unique premise is that it allows its customers not just to buy contemporary art chosen by experts, but also to rent and rotate pieces – allowing them to see if they want to live with a piece, or just to borrow it for a special occasion, while avoiding the huge outlay traditionally associated with buying art.

We spoke to co-founder and London Business School alumnus Scott Phillips, originally from the US, to learn how he used his MBA skills to launch this unique business.

You have a background in business development in the technology space in various capacities, what made you decide that it was time to do an MBA?

I was working for a company called Red Herring in Europe, doing P&L [profit and loss] and I realized that in order for me to develop, and fill in my skillset in areas like finance, statistics – different kinds of verticals in which I had less experience; I needed to do an MBA. As well as broadening my skillset, I also wanted to develop my network.

Why did you choose to study at London Business School, as opposed to say an institution in the US?

London Business School is one of the top, if not the top, global programs in Europe – a lot of US programs are US focused, with maybe 10 or 15 countries represented. The other thing I liked about London Business School is the relatively small class size, for me that was important. And the location in Europe, for me, working in France at the time, it just made sense.

How did you find the MBA process itself – what was hard, what was enjoyable, and what was surprising?

The surprise for me was the unknowns I saw; different career paths that I had no idea existed, which I learned about through courses, the recruiting process, and clubs and societies too. It gave me exposure to industries I wasn’t familiar with.

Areas I hadn’t had so much exposure to were difficult, like financial classes, and accounting – things that were outside of my background were a bit challenging – but really interesting.

In terms of things that were rewarding, I did an exchange in Shanghai for six months – that was really fantastic. I did an intensive Mandarin class at CEIBS, did a term there and an asset buyout project. It was a bit of work, a bit of play, and a bit of travel.

Did you want to be an entrepreneur before you started the MBA? What skills did you acquire at business school that facilitated you starting a business?

During the MBA I realized I wanted to be part of a growing business. When I graduated I worked for a company (Rightster) in the online video space. I helped them raise their first round of funding, and ran part of their operations. That experience led me towards starting up my own company, and helped to pay off my tuition debts before jumping ship and starting something on my own.

The MBA gave me confidence in my own ability more than anything. The skillset and classes gave me reference points. Classes I took, like managing a growing business and startup classes, were directly relevant, but even things like the statistical classes I took, and analytical marketing were all valuable as well.

Rise Art is a very different concept to anything you’ve done before – what gave you the idea?

At the online video startup, one of the things I worked on was content-lite communities, around interest groups. This led me to see that art was an underrepresented online segment. The idea came around through my wife and other people I know who are really passionate about the arts. I developed an interest through them. My partner and I wanted to start something in the e-commerce space – and art seems like an interesting one, and one that hadn’t been conquered yet.

The art rental concept is new for consumers, so it required the development of the brand. Well over half our orders are still direct sales. We have other lines – corporate, trade, interior designers, showrooms – in those sorts of businesses, rental plays a bigger role.

What were the biggest challenges of getting an e-commerce business off the ground?

There are so many distractions when you start a business, so really focusing on what’s important and iterating quickly is a very important lesson we learned early on. You have to have a big ambition; we want to be the place where people discover and buy new art which is picked by experts online. We want to delight the customer and help them do something in a low risk environment.

We’ve made progress, we’ve doubled our revenues year on year. There’s a huge opportunity in this e-commerce sector, we’ve established ourselves as one of the leaders in Europe. The challenge is scaling and taking it to next stage, but I’m very excited about our growth – we’re now taking it to the US. 

What have been your biggest successes so far?

We were shortlisted for Investor Allstars awards for art innovation; we’ve received a lot of awards and accolades. But we’ve still got a long road ahead of us, if we want to create a £100-500 million business – but there is an opportunity there.

What advice would you give to other would-be entrepreneurs?

The MBA is an incredible opportunity to experiment with different things in a low risk environment; there are opportunities to network, to meet people, there are plenty of companies willing to extend experience to MBA candidates. You can use an MBA to explore whatever interests you might have. Take advantage over those two years to validate your interests.