Hallelujah! It’s Sunday!
Time for my favorite part of the week, ICYMI for HSR Insiders.

ICYMI ₊♡₊˚ 🍒・₊✧ ₊

• Farewell, February: It’s hard to believe it’s already March. This was one of the best months of my life. I’ve never been in such a good place personally and professionally. It feels so much better to be able to share it with you and empowering you to do the same. ICYMI, I always have my end of month journal prompts on Pinterest to get re-centred heading into a new month. I also linked all of my favorite beauty products for you! I don’t understand the science yet but I’m obsessed with TSC lip tape.

• HSR Hotline: There’s a new episode of HSR Hotline that went live today and things are heating up! Who knew being needy and desperate were two different things? ICYMI, I didn’t but its changing my life.

• Frieze LA: This week I prioritized Frieze > Tech Networking (Upfront) Events and ICYMI, here’s why and how I broke into the industry. I shared all of the things you probably didn’t know about the art industry, met Joan Hornig at the VSF Frieze LA private dinner honoring A'Driane N. Nieves, and had you guess which of these pieces was over $350,000. ICYMI, I shared lots of content on Instagram here and here and linked some of my outfit details below!

• Affirmations For Creatives: I’ve spent a lot of time in a creative headspace this month and honestly I’m a little bit burnt out. I have been journaling to work through it and wrote down my affirmations to share with you to reset for the month ahead.

• De Soi: As you can tell, it was tough to pick between Upfront and Frieze because my portfolio company took the stage with non other than Katy Perry, co-founder of De Soi. Deborah Benton, GP of Willow Growth, moderated a conversation with Co-founder Katy Perry & CEO Scout Brisson (who was on Rich & Real). Like I’ve said many times, not all celebrity brands are created equal and ICYMI, Katy was literally pouring glasses of De Soi from the stage for the audience after sharing how personally invested she is in the brand.

• Use Generative AI To Scale: ICYMI, I started talking about generative AI in the consumer space back in December when McKinsey and BoF released their State of Fashion report. Well according to BoF, the race is still on to build the best generative AI platform for the world of design and Raspberry AI just pulled ahead by raising $4.5M. But personally I’ve had a lot of success with Pietra and love the fact that it integrates directly with the supply chain side so once you’re done designing the process to bring it to life is super easy. ICYMI, I broke down step by step just how easy it was. If you want to talk to Pietra about growing and scaling your brand, reply directly to this email and we’ll connect you!

• Hot Smart Rich Girls: My favorite series returned to TikTok this week! You can listen to all of my picks on my Spotify playlist! PS. I am going to leave this as one big playlist moving forward so you have all of my recommendations in one place.

This Week’s Moodboard

Startups You Should Know

I love sharing the cutting edge startups I’m seeing in my deal flow and in my day to day. This week was a BIG art week so I’m sharing my favorite startups in the ecosystem. The art industry is booming and in 2023 art startups raised $120 million. I’m sure this number will only increase in 2024.

• Stability.AI has raised over $175 million and is an artificial intelligence-driven visual art startup that designs and implements open AI tools.

• Masterworks has raised over $110 million and is a platform that offers art investment products to the retail investing public.

• Artsy has raised over $100 million and is the largest online art marketplace with more than 1 million artworks by over 100,000 artists.

• Singulart has raised over $75 million and is a convinced that the digital space is an invaluable tool for bringing transparency and equity to the art market.

• Cohart has raised over $4 million and is a platform that connects artists, fans, and collectors to discover art that they love. I spent part of my week with Kendall, co-founder, at Frieze and am obsessed with what they’re building.

• Arternal has raised over $500K and streamlines the sales process for art galleries by making the sales offer trackable.

After spending the week immersed in the consumer space and researching all of these startups, reading this article by The Information was literally music to my ears. Their analysis found that consumer companies are more likely to public at higher valuations than enterprise-focused companies and offer better margins and better growth rates. What’s even better is that ELLEVEST just published their woman and wealth survey and found that 94% of women feel like their economic power is being underestimated and that a great wealth transfer is happening. I can’t wait to see women taking their dollars and spending them at consumer startups that align to their values - like art, design, interiors, beauty, fashion, and health and wellness.

Art of Choice: Olivia Davis

Olivia Davis is Art of Choice’s founder and has experience working with the most globally recognized galleries, institutions, artists, and collectors across the contemporary art market. Olivia’s past experiences have allowed her to foster relationships with emerging and already established blue-chip artists, giving her access to both primary and secondary market works.

Olivia advises influential tastemakers and emerging art collectors (like me) on building valuable collections. So, we’re sitting down to ask the most common questions that were submitted. There was so much content that this is Part 1 and there will be a Part 2 coming soon!

Hot Smart Rich: Why is art such an important asset class?
Olivia Davis: There are three main forms of Art as an asset and different sets of collectors that go with each. I would categorize them as “Blue Chip,” “Mid-Career” and “Emerging.”

Blue Chip artists are established artists that have been achieving high prices for a very long time. Similar to wearing a Rolex or driving a rare vintage car, there is a certain recognition for displaying Blue Chip paintings. It shows the level of your collection. These artists are represented by the top galleries in the world, and their estates will also have representation.

Mid-Career artists have passed the Emerging stage and are recognized as Artists that could eventually achieve Blue Chip status. These artists have top tier galleries representing them who keep price below auction levels to continue to build demand for new works sold through the gallery.

Emerging artists are very young in their careers, perhaps just out of a Master’s in Fine Arts program, and have only had a few shows. The prices are typically <$40k per piece from the gallery, and new collectors are drawn to this because it is often the best entry level way to start building your collection.

I get asked all the time about my opinion on an artist, and I think it is important to understand the career progression above. To me building a valuable art collection is so rewarding because you get to live with something you love, can look at every day and that carries great value.

I always recommend that people look at my Instagram account to see which galleries and artists I post about. It’s an easy way to get a free education!

HSR: How is the value of a piece of art determined?
OD: There are two prices to be aware of. “Primary” work prices are set by the gallery for new works that are made/being sold for the first time and “Secondary” prices are works that are being resold at auction or in a private transaction. Secondary prices are what the market is currently valuing artists at. Primary prices can be artificially low to generate demand and a waiting list for future works.

Prices of blue-chip and mid-career art are determined by auction prices. There can be a lot of deviation in value within this category based on the series or subject matter. For instance, Monet’s most popular works are the Water Lillies which command higher prices. Richard Prince is known for his Nurse Paintings and Cowboys which command $5M+, while his Instagram series sells for <$100k. Emerging artists are mostly all primary prices and are set by the galleries.

HSR: How do you know if a piece of art or an artist is going to be a good investment or not? Are there any tell-tale signs that an artist will rise in value or popularity and have secondary resale values?
OD: The quality of the gallery representing the artist is an important factor, as is the collectors who are buying the art. It is also a good sign if a museum accepts a donation of a piece of work, as they have strict committees to select works.

HSR: Can you share your selections below that will help our Insiders gain the inside track on the art industry and investing space and to get to know you a bit more? 

If you’re interested in building or add pieces to your collection that are ~$15K, we’d love to connect you with Olivia. Please reply to this email directly and we will introduce you. If you want to start to immerse yourself and get educated on the industry, you can always find her on Instagram @artofchoiceadvisory, her website, or subscribe to her newsletter.

If you haven’t shared with me before, I’d love to learn more about you in my

TYSM, I♡U!!!!

In case you're new here, I sporadically do secret giveaways for the people who are supporting me on this journey of becoming an accidental creator and media entrepreneur while I continue to do what I love most, which is invest in companies and work with founders.

This week, we’re giving away something from Belli Welli SO to enter this week's giveaway, comment on this video with a 💖 emoji and your favorite part of your self care routine!!