Scott Lynn
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Scott Lynn | |
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| Born | January 1980 (age 46) |
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Scott Lynn (Born January 1980) is a serial entrepreneur and investor known for building companies across digital advertising, casual gaming, and fintech.[1] His career began by creating his first online game, TreeLoot.com, which he founded in high school and eventually became the 50th most visited site on the Web in August 1999 according to Media Metrix (now Comscore).[2]
After that, he founded the adtech giant Adknowledge and founded the e-commerce fintech firm Payability.[1] Today, he is best known as the founder and CEO of Masterworks, a platform to offer fractional investment in blue-chip art.[3]
Early Life
Scott Lynn grew up near Kansas City, MS, and at age 15, he started his first internet company.[3] This venture eventually led to the creation of a popular online game and sweepstakes site that would bring him significant success while still in his teens.[2] Lynn briefly attended college, but he left during his first year to focus on his growing business ventures.[1]
Career
Early Internet Ventures: Lynn’s entrepreneurial career began in the late 1990s with an online advertising game, which became an Internet sensation.[3] This project, launched through his company Virtumundo, evolved into a sweepstakes website called Treeloot.com that achieved widespread popularity.[4] By his late teens, Lynn had made his first millions from this venture, as the site attracted massive web traffic and advertising revenue.[3] Treeloot’s success made it one of the most visited sites of the dot-com era.[2]
Adknowledge and Online Advertising: In 2004, at age 24, Scott Lynn founded Adknowledge, an online advertising technology company aimed at providing an alternative platform for advertisers outside of giants like Google and Yahoo.[4] Adknowledge grew rapidly and became one of the industry’s largest ad marketplaces; it was reported as the fourth-largest online advertising marketplace, connecting advertisers with websites on a massive scale.[4] Under Lynn’s leadership as CEO, Adknowledge expanded with multiple offices (including Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York, Singapore, and London) and reached over $300 million in annual revenue.[4][1] He also launched V2 Ventures, a venture studio and investment firm that started other online advertising companies, such as Reach Mobi, Pushly, Vueplanner, and others.[5]
Fintech – Payability: In 2014, Lynn transitioned into the financial technology sector by founding Payability, a digital lending and payments company. Payability was created to address cash-flow issues faced by online marketplace sellers, such as those on Amazon, by providing them with faster access to their sales revenue.[6] The idea for this business arose from Lynn’s experience with online advertisers who needed quicker payments. Under his guidance, Payability steadily grew alongside the e-commerce boom, and it has provided over $6 billion in financing to e-commerce sellers to date.[7]
Masterworks – Art Investment Platform: Lynn is best known in recent years as the founder and CEO of Masterworks, an art investment platform. Founded in 2017, Masterworks was born from Lynn’s long-standing passion for art collecting and his realization that fine art can yield strong financial returns.[8] The New York-based company buys high-value “blue-chip” artworks and securitizes them by filing each painting with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, then sells shares of the artwork to investors, much like shares of a company stock. This innovative model allows individuals to invest in multimillion-dollar artworks by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Claude Monet, and Banksy without requiring the capital to purchase entire pieces outright.[9][10] Masterworks is credited as the first platform of its kind to make art accessible as an asset class to everyday investors.[1] Lynn’s leadership at Masterworks has seen the platform grow rapidly; by 2021 Masterworks reached “unicorn” status with a valuation over $1 billion after a major funding round.[3][11] By 2024, Masterworks reported that it had acquired over 415 masterpieces for its platform since inception.[12][10][13]
Notable Business Ventures or Roles
Virtumundo/Treeloot (1990s): Lynn’s first company, Virtumundo, launched the online game and sweepstakes site Treeloot.com. The site gained fame in the late 1990s for its ubiquitous “punch-the-monkey” ad and became one of the most visited websites of the era.[3][4]
Adknowledge (2004): Lynn founded Adknowledge, an advertising technology company that grew into a major ad network. Adknowledge became the fourth-largest online advertising marketplace, serving as a one-stop platform for advertisers to buy ad space across the web.[14] Under Lynn’s leadership, Adknowledge reported revenues in the hundreds of millions and expanded internationally.[14]
V2 Ventures (mid-2000s): Lynn started V2 Ventures (also known as V2 Ventures Group), a private venture studio and holding company. The firm serves as the parent company for a portfolio of businesses, and it specializes in incubating and scaling businesses in the technology, marketing, and alternative asset sectors, providing shared operational support across legal, finance, marketing, and engineering functions. Portfolio companies include VuePlanner, a contextual advertising tool for YouTube campaigns; ReachMobi, a performance marketing platform specializing in consumer engagement; and Pushly, which enables content publishers to monetize audiences through targeted push notifications.[15]
Payability (2014): Lynn co-founded Payability, a financial technology company that provides financing and accelerated payments to e-commerce marketplace sellers. Payability offers services such as daily payouts and working capital to help online sellers maintain cash flow, addressing the slow payment schedules of platforms like Amazon.[6] Since its inception, Payability has advanced billions of dollars to small businesses, and Lynn serves as its Chairman.[7]
Masterworks (2017): Lynn is the founder and CEO of Masterworks, the first investment platform to offer fractional ownership of high-value art. Masterworks allows investors to purchase shares in famous artworks, effectively turning art into an investable financial asset.[1]
Personal Life
Outside of his business activities, Scott Lynn is an avid art collector and enthusiast. He began collecting art around the age of 20, reinvesting some of his early business earnings into fine art.[7] Over the years, he has built an internationally recognized art collection, with a particular focus on Abstract Expressionist and contemporary works.[8] His collection has included renowned artists such as Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still, among others.[8] At one point, art industry observers ranked Lynn’s private collection among the top 100 in the United States.[1] He has lent pieces from his collection to major art museums and galleries, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Guggenheim Museum, allowing the public to view works that he owns.[1]
Lynn is also involved in philanthropic endeavors and cultural initiatives. He established the Lynn Foundation, through which he has funded various charitable projects. In the early 2000s, the Lynn Foundation supported education and child welfare programs, including the building of schools, libraries, and providing vaccinations for children in underdeveloped countries like Vietnam and Cambodia.[4] In his hometown of Kansas City, Lynn’s foundation also worked to promote the local arts scene, such as showcasing local artists in the Crossroads Arts District.[1]
As of recent years, Scott Lynn is based in New York City.[16]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "Upcoming Events – CFA Society New York". 2025-04-30. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "The Net's teen sweepstakes king". ZDNET. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 "Masterworks: The $1bn company selling paintings as stocks and changing art forever". The Independent. 2022-02-17. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "40 Under Forty | Class of 2007". ingrams.com. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ "Scott Lynn - Founder and Chairman at v2 Ventures". THE ORG. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Smith, Keith (2015-05-07). "About the Founders". Payability. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Masterworks CEO Scott Lynn's Pivots from Gaming to Ad Tech to Fractional Art - CEO Today". www.ceotodaymagazine.com/. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Scott Lynn, CEO at Masterworks Biography". www.rblt.com. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ "Smart Humans: Masterworks' Scott Lynn". www.withvincent.com. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION". www.sec.gov. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ Matney, Lucas (2021-10-05). "Masterworks raises $110M to sell fractional shares of physical art -- not NFTs". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ LLC, Masterworks Administrative Services (2024-05-02). "Masterworks Surpasses $1 Billion In Capital Raised". GlobeNewswire News Room (Press release). Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ "UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 FORM 1-A". www.sec.gov. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Ludwig, Sean (November 1, 2011). "Massive ad network Adknowledge acquires AdParlor to get into the Facebook ad game". Reuters. Retrieved April 30, 2025.
- ↑ "About us". V2 Ventures. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
- ↑ Clarke, Katherine (2023-08-04). "WSJ News Exclusive | Woolworth Building's 'Pinnacle' Penthouse, Once Asking $110 Million, Sells for $30 Million". WSJ. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
External links
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