From artist to entrepreneur: she seized the opportunity the art world was missing

From artist to entrepreneur:
she seized the opportunity the art world was missing

Meet Jessica Soueidi, ESCP alumna (19) and founder of Art From Future, the first growth platform helping young visual artists develop their careers by connecting them with a newly engaged audience online.

In 2015, you graduated with a Master’s of Fine Arts in painting. Why did you choose to then pursue a double master’s degree programme from a business school?

Exactly.
In 2015, I obtained a Master’s of Fine Arts with a specialisation in painting from the Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin in Strasbourg (former l’Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg). Soon after, I was invited to take part in several exhibitions and renowned artist residency programmes internationally, including at The Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai and the Vagabond Club in Singapore.

During my experience, I noticed that it’s extremely hard for young visual artists to make a living from their art - even with an outstanding CV! The traditional art industry values artists that get gallery representation. Selling art directly to customers that aren’t considered to be “collectors” is denigrated. As a result, only a fraction of art students will be able to make a living from their art.

Having earned a Master’s of Fine Arts and written a thesis like for any other degree, it was unacceptable to me that artists would have to struggle this way.

I started talking to people my age (Millennials and Gen Z) about their relationship with the art world. I was struck by their answers. None of them were interested in going to art galleries or museums. Worse, they didn’t know any living artists. That’s when I got the idea to create my own company to connect young artists with the new generation.

In order to do so, I needed to get the basics of business and learn more about the art and culture industries. I decided to apply to ESCP’s Specialised Master’s in Management of Cultural and Artistic Activities for several reasons. I was attracted by the school’s expertise and rich international network as well as the fact that one quarter of the programme took place in Venice, one of the richest cultural cities in the world. I also felt encouraged by the teachers even before starting the program. During the entrance exam, the teachers were very interested in my startup idea and told me that they’d help me develop the business plan during the academic year of 2018-2019.

Earlier this year, in the midst of a global pandemic, you launched Art From Future. Why now?

In November 2019, I passed my final exam at ESCP, and one month later, I moved to Helsinki. I worked as a freelance art /content marketing consultant for Taiko, the largest online art marketplace in Finland for eight months. When the global pandemic hit, I noticed that online art sales were significantly increasing and the art market was finally adapting to the digital transformation. I’m a strong believer that timing can play an important role in the success of a startup. In September, I quit my job at Taiko, and I participated in Kiuas, the leading startup accelerator in Finland.

In a month, I was able to develop my Minimum Viable Product with the help of Kiuas’s top coaches and mentors. While many art professionals saw the global pandemic as a threat to their businesses, I saw it as an opportunity to use digital tools to reach Millennials and Gen Z.

Art From Future was officially created in late January 2021, and the beta version was launched to the public in March. A few days later, Art from Future made its first art sale.

What is Art From Future’s mission? Can you give us a concrete example of how you’ve worked with an artist to promote their work?

Art From Future is the first growth platform helping young visual artists develop their careers by connecting them with a newly engaged audience online. We select the most motivated and talented early-stage artists, and we empower them to develop their identities online and connect with their community. Our mission is to make art accessible to a growing audience, Millennials and Gen Z, and to help up-and-coming visual artists finally live off their works. Our services include personal brand and audience development strategies, content creation services and paid, targeted promotions.

To give you an example, when artists join Art From Future, it’s really important to understand the message behind their art and their goal for the next five years. We first create a profile on our platform and we start promoting their works on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. In order to do so, we collaborate with influencers, publish interviews and create content that is relevant to new audiences. Many young artists don’t have a lot of experience using social media, and that’s okay. Recently, we started auditing their Instagram accounts to help them increase their digital presence. We’re also working on a series of tutorials specifically for our artists so they can learn how to grow and connect with their community.

How did your past experiences and studies at ESCP prepare you to launch Art From Future?

I have quite an atypical background. I’m a visual artist, but I also received an education to become a manager in the cultural and arts sector. Thanks to my experience as a visual artist, I have the empathy and the capacity to truly understand artists' needs. For example, in art school, I developed my critical thinking and my ability to spot promising talents. I also exhibited and curated several shows in cultural centres, art galleries and artist residencies.

Studying at ESCP gave me all the necessary tools and skills to create my company. It was an intensive year where I learnt about many different topics such as art economics, project management, art law, digital innovation and so on. We also had accounting courses, which are fundamental to the creation of a startup. For my master’s thesis, I developed my business plan for Art From Future. The project was well received by my professors and I graduated with an A.

Studying at ESCP was definitely important for the launch of Art From Future because it developed my business mindset. In art school, they don’t teach you about business, and you don’t talk about money.
Art without business can’t really work.

You’re both an entrepreneur and an artist. Do you find there are similarities between the two?

Artists are entrepreneurs but they don’t necessarily know it because they’re not trained for it. When artists graduate from art school, they’re on their own. Usually galleries take care of all the promotion and marketing for their artists. The truth is that only a small fraction of artists get gallery representation.

The rest have to make portfolios to apply to different art contests and prices, find and organise group exhibitions, and work at the same time in order to pay for their art supplies. It can be very frustrating for artists because the end goal isn’t so clear. Whereas being an entrepreneur means having a clear idea and setting different achievable goals. The mindset is very different.

What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs looking to enter the world of arts and culture?

Go for it! Just do it your own way. Forget what you’ve learnt, don’t be afraid of breaking the rules.

For ESCP’s media, The Choice, Jessica shared her take on why the art sector needs to reach Millennials & Gen Z customers and how to do it.

Take a look

Campuses

Paris

ESCP Alumnus Edoardo Monaco among the "100 Leaders Insurtech" by Forbes Italy

On the occasion of the first edition of Insurtech Day, Forbes Italy has published a special issue dedicated to Italy's top 100 Insurtech leaders: among them Edoardo Monaco, co-founder and CEO of Axieme Group, as well as ESCP guest lecturer and Alumnus (Master in Management, class of 2009).
After completing international professional experiences in consulting, investment banking and marketing for consumer goods, Edoardo decided to specialise in the insurance sector and launched the first Social Insurance in Italy in 2016. Axieme Group is bringing digital transformation to the Italian insurance industry.

You and your company were recognised as those who are on the fast track for revolutionising the industry. How did the idea to found an InsurTech start-up come about?

In my career path, I have been lucky enough to work in various sectors: consulting, investment banking and FMCG. When I landed in the insurance sector almost by chance, in 2013, I immediately noticed the difference in business agility compared to other industries. It's a very traditional, capital-intensive and old-fashioned industry.
I have always had a hyperactive personality and while I was working in a small Insurance Brokerage firm, my curiosity pushed me – at night or weekends – to investigate on the internet or in literature the reason why this powerful sector still operated in such an old-fashioned way. I started by simply searching Google with the keyword “insurance” combined with “innovation” (in English, as I was sure that in the US or abroad something was already happening).
I came across the term “InsurTech” for the first time in 2015 (it doesn't seem so ago but it's actually ages in terms of innovation evolution) and fell in love with what other start-ups were doing around the globe, in particular with what was called “peer-to-peer insurance” or “social insurance”.
I invited a couple of friends (Matteo and Marco) to have a dinner and in front of a pizza I presented my idea to them: to introduce these new business models that were already present in other countries to Italy.
And here we are!

What is Axieme's vision?

We want to radically change the way insurance is distributed, managed and perceived by policyholders thanks to a digital, ethical and data-driven approach.

Axieme wants to reshape the insurance Italian market by introducing 'social insurance'. Can you explain more about it?

The start-up is in fact the first - and currently only - insurtech in Italy that implements a business model that rewards virtuous policyholders with a refund (called "Giveback"). We provide policyholders with a Giveback at the expiration of their policy based on simple logic "fewer claims = greater Giveback ".

This business model, already present worldwide and promoted by other start-ups in other countries, is called social insurance because it gives clients the opportunity to have a social impact:

as a member of the community: with mutuality logic the amount of the Giveback depends on personal behaviour combined with that of other similar policyholders (who have the same coverage and belong to the same cluster);
for donations: instead of redeeming his or her Giveback, the policyholder can choose to donate it to a non-profit organisation, the amount will then be doubled by Axieme.

The Social Insurance business model is fully compliant with some of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals identified by the United Nations. Axieme has always set its growth process by trying to create a positive impact on people, society and the territory and by aligning its business strategies with the principles of sustainability identified at an international level.

How are your insurance solutions different from traditional insurance?

We actually provide the same level of security and coverage of other “classic” policies. Indeed, the strength and solidity of the guarantees is exactly the same, in the end our products are backed by traditional top-tier insurance companies. The main difference when choosing Axieme is instead on two fronts:

Fully-digital user experience: our clients can quote, purchase, pay and sign insurance policies completely paperless and remotely. Very few companies can implement (for real) a fully-digital end-to-end process. We enhance user experience and delight customers in need of a digital and seamless experience.
The Giveback: we are the only player that provides convenience through a refund on the policy premium paid. With other companies, if you don’t file any claim you just don’t get any satisfaction nor a reward.

The insurance sector is undergoing an important digital transformation. What are the key issues for the digitalization of the industry?

The challenges at stake are indeed many. I don’t want to bore you with the typical dynamics of the Industry, so I will try to summarize them briefly:

ability to recognize talents capable of understanding digital challenges, motivating them and giving them space within the firm and the organization chart;
knowing how to reconcile “legacy” issues with the potential given by new technologies
investing in innovation, not only in financial terms (in which we must accelerate as Italy is far behind other European countries) but also and most of all, in terms of mindset: innovation is first of all a state of mind.

For those interested in investigating these issues further, difficult to summarize here, I am pleased to share with you the forthcoming publication of a book which I co-edited: “Insurtech 2030, il futuro è già qui”, E. Monaco, M. Michaud (Edizioni La Rosa, 2021).

What's next for Axieme?

The road is still long and we have many activities to implement ahead, such as the expansion of our product catalog, the introduction of new features available on the platform and new non-profit organizations to which our customers will be able to donate the Giveback.
From a corporate point of view, we are negotiating with investors and VCs interested in investing, and we might evaluate M&A operations in the short term: the market is very active and our aim is also to repay the trust of our investors with an exit strategy.

What are the technologies that will drive the future of insurance or the game-changers for the industry?

There’s a hype in the use of terms like “blockchain”, “artificial intelligence”, “machine learning” etc. But in my opinion, the real game-changer will be a smart implementation of APIs (Application Programming Interface) across the industry.
To make it clearer and pragmatic: think about what happened in the banking industry with the PDS2 directive. You can now download apps that aggregate account balances from your different bank accounts, merge wallets, arrange a bank transfer from an allowed third party etc.
None of this is possible – at the moment – in the insurance industry. Insurance companies’ software work on a “silos approach”: data-bases cannot communicate and this results in a painful journey for the customer each time he/she has to deal with his or her policy contracts.
Another example is the lack of “data bureau” in the industry. Insurance companies do not have access to “scoring” or “rating” of policyholders. Except for Car Insurance (and only Third Party Liability) there is no common data-base accessible by companies on claims filed by policyholders. This means that if Mr. White files a claim on his Home Policy with company A, then company B doesn’t know, and he can easily switch between companies benefitting from this information asymmetry. In the financial industry, instead, banks have all the information on clients. If you ask for a loan, the bank will immediately access “credit bureau services” (such as CRIF or EXPERIAN) to check you track-record.
Again, another example of how data-access and data-share will be THE challenge of the industry in the future. In Axieme we are already working on this.

How did what you learned at ESCP help you to achieve your goals?

Dedication, teamwork and a lot of commitment. These are the values that I learned at ESCP and that I will always carry with me.
The sacrifices made during the years of study at ESCP as well as professional experiences, even though hard and demanding, have taught me the desire to excel and the importance of being ambitious (in the most noble and pure meaning of the term) and resilient.

Do you have any tips for young entrepreneurs out there aiming to make an impact with their tech start-ups?

I don't know whether to call it a tip, but as banal and rhetorical as it may seem, I want to say something that is the simple truth: always work ethically with dedication and professionalism.
Beside technology, algorithms, artificial intelligence and any other abstruse or very technical word you can think of, remember that companies are made of people. Relationships are made of people. Business is made of people.
Time is a gentleman and these qualities, that are not always obvious, can make the difference on the market and will reward your hard work (and your start-up).

Campuses

Turin

MIM student Riccardo Angioli recognised in the Italian #ForbesUnder30 at only 22

Forbes Italy Top 100 Under 30 2021 ranked an ESCP Master in Management student as one of the young leaders doing great things in the Venture Capital sector: Riccardo Angioli. He is the youngest talent in his category, nominated when he hadn't yet celebrated his 23rd birthday. In 2019, Riccardo co-founded, with Roberto Sfoglietta, Starting Finance Deal, a company that connects start-ups looking for funds, with investors.

Madrid

Paris

Turin

ESCP Alumnus Federico Dalpozzo in the Italian #ForbesUnder30

News 17/05/2021

Turin News

ESCP Alumnus Federico Dalpozzo in the Italian #ForbesUnder30

We were delighted to see among the young disruptors recognised by Forbes Italia in its annual “100 Under 30” list, an ESCP Alumnus: Federico Dalpozzo. He has been selected as one of the young talents who are leading the way in the Marketing and Advertising sector.

Turin

News 24/03/2020

Turin News

Matteo Frescobaldi is among the Italian #forbesunder30, ESCP alumnus and 30th generation of a family firm with 700 years of history

Matteo, Master in European Business alumnus, class of 2012, is the youngest member of the thirtieth generation of Marchesi de Frescobaldi, a family firm with seven hundred years of history.

Turin

Romolo Ganzerli, ESCP Alumnus and MammaPack co-founder

News 05/05/2020

Turin News

MIM Alumnus Romolo Ganzerli recognized in the Italian #forbesunder30

Forbes Italia has released its annual “100 Under 30” list. We are delighted to see among these young disruptors ESCP Alumnus Romolo Ganzerli, cofounder of MammaPack, in the Retail category. He has been selected as one of the young leaders who are on the fast track for rethinking our relationship with e-commerce.

Turin

Edoardo Persenda, Vice President of AlixPartners

News 09/03/2021

Alumni Success Story

“Inch by inch”: the story of Edoardo Persenda - from student at ESCP to Vice President of AlixPartners

Having joined AlixPartners in 2017 as an intern, when studying for his ESCP Master in Management, Edoardo Persenda has already been promoted to Vice President. Check out what Edoardo has to say about his professional experience and the key to his skyrocketing career growth path.

Turin

News 23/06/2020

Turin News

MIM Alumnus Pietro Luigi Ghigo has key role in Italy’s F&B expansion in Asia

In recent years, Italian companies have embarked upon a process of international development aimed at tapping into new markets, especially in Asia, and many Food and Beverage firms are in the forefront of that expansion. One of the Alumni of ESCP Business School has played a key role in that growth: Pietro Luigi Ghigo, Master in Management Alumnus, Class of 2009, and Asia Regional Sales Manager at Lavazza.

Turin

How big data can help understand, apprehend and control a pandemic

From artist to entrepreneur: she seized the opportunity the art world was missing