Rise Art Meets The Crowd

In ‘X Meets The Crowd’ I talk with entrepreneurs in the middle of their equity crowdfunding campaign. What’s the story behind their project? What are they looking for in an investor? Why do they think they stand out and what do they offer investors? Find out everything you want to know here, on our HelpTheCrowd Blog.

Art can be anything you want it to be. Beautiful, touching, or even provocative. Knowing what kind of piece you’re looking for is one thing, but where do you get if from and how do you know what price you should be paying for it? This is where Rise Art comes in. Ris Art is an online marketplace for contemporary art, hand-picked by experts, which allows art lovers to easily buy or rent artwork. I spoke with Scott Phillips, co-founder of Rise Art.

HTC. What was your first piece of artwork and what’s the story behind it?

Scott Phillips. The first artwork I bought personally was a Glen Brown print. I have always loved Brown, but as a well known contemporary artist, his unique paintings were always out of my budget. This gem was released a number of years ago by the Tate, and still is hung in my house. We’ve been lucky enough to get one on Rise Art as well.

The most recent work I purchased was from a new street artist on Rise Art, Kef.

HTC. Why did you decide to start Rise Art?

SP. The original idea came about because we wanted to help artists sell work beyond their own network, and help them professionalize their operations, fulfilment and understand their audience better. We created the curated marketplace to help professional artists while making discovering art easy, fun and risk-free for customers.

HTC. How do you select the artists you work with/have on the platform?

SP. Any artist can submit to Rise Art. We have a team of insiders who help us pick the top submissions on the site. The insiders add editorial and a few need to knows around each artist before they go live for sale. This helps our members understand a bit more about the artists, why they are collectible and other insights that often aren’t available for first time collectors.

HTC. Why did you choose Crowdcube for your crowdfunding campaign?

SP. When you start a business it is all about building a great team. We met and researched a number of funding initiatives. Not only does Crowdcube have an incredible database of investors, but the team worked hard alongside us to get the pitch ready to go live. They are a good group of people and we could tell even before we signed up that it was going to be a great fit.

HTC. How could investors help you reach your goals other than by investing?

SP. The Crowdcube fundraise has been great for investment, but also for driving awareness and support. We love it when investors help spread the word, introduce us to interesting partners, potential artists or other opportunities. And every investor becomes a sounding board. We love the feedback they can help us with on the site, and new features. We’ll be going to them first with new ideas, and give them a sneak preview of new releases for their feedback.

HTC. What are going to be the next steps for Rise Art?

SP. The investment round we have closed, and are finalising on Crowdcube, will allow us to build both sides of the marketplace faster. We are focused on making the experience pain free for artists and are building out the platform to give them enhanced analytics and services. We are also working on CRM to improve how new and returning customers experience the site and our rentals service. Finally, we are actively developing out our mobile offering to improve the experience for users across tablets and phones.

Originally posted on HelpTheCrowd.com:
https://helpthecrowd.com/blog/rise-art-meets-the-crowd