As part of our Women in Business programme, we’re proud to support and celebrate female founders building standout businesses across the UK.
At the recent Tide everywoman Entrepreneur Awards, Rosie Skuse, founder and CEO of Molto Music Group, was named Small Enterprise Award winner. Alongside the recognition, Rosie also received a grant from Tide to support the continued growth of her business.
We caught up with Rosie to hear how things have progressed since her win, what it takes to build a business in the live music space, and her advice for others looking to get started.
1. Hi Rosie, can you tell us more about Molto Music Group and what inspired you to start the business?
We are a live music consultancy that provides musicians to the luxury hospitality industry and exclusive private events.
We work across two main sectors. One being our residencies, which is looking after programming and designing the live music for many of the five-star hotels across London and further afield, but also members clubs and restaurants. We also do private events which can be anything from award ceremonies to VIP dinners or brand partnerships.
What inspired us to start the business was the lack of diversity within this space. The existing offerings were so ‘pale, male, and stale’. We wanted to bring in more diversity and more genres to really challenge the stereotype that hotel music is boring.
A lot of people think you need to pay for a theatre show in London to access top class musicians, but you can actually hear them seven days a week, across multiple hospitality venues in central London.
For us it was really important to open up this world to other musicians and make sure that they were getting stable work.
2. What was the moment you knew you had to create Molto?
The market was quite closed off by one supplier and we felt that the clients just weren't getting what they deserved. You could tell that musicians they employed could do their sets with their eyes closed standing on their heads. There was no love in there anymore basically.
On the flip side, I’d go to all these grassroot music venues with all this inspiring music, with younger musicians that were really hungry for the work and genres that deserve to have these platforms.
3. What were you doing before you started Molto?
I trained in musical theatre and I still work as an actor. I’ve never had any business training.
I went to university for a year studying psychology, but I dropped out when I got the opportunity to set up a cocktail bar with live music - and that opened the door to this world for me.
4. What does the word ‘Molto’ mean? And what do you want your clients to feel when they see your name on an event?
‘Molto’ is an Italian musical term which means ‘to give more’.
It's something we hold up as a value in our business, always giving our clients more and going above and beyond.
5. Your impressive client list includes The Savoy, The Dorchester and Soho House — what did it feel like signing your first big client?
It was definitely a “oh gosh I don't know if I'm actually supposed to be here” moment!
We pitched the Dorchester and when the client called us we assumed he had the wrong number.
6. You started Molto Music Group at the end of 2019, which wasn’t the best time to go into the hospitality business… Can you tell us more about setting up the business then?
We essentially started the company just before COVID hit and when we went into lockdown we lost five contracts within a week.
Unfortunately, the business wasn't quite established enough to get any government support and it felt like we were falling through every crack that we could have fallen through.
We used the time to pivot and refocus our strategy, so that when restrictions did lift it meant that Molto was right out of the gates. We were ready to go. We were so hungry.
7. You recently won the Small Enterprise Award at the Tide everywoman Entrepreneur Awards… What did that mean to you?
It was amazing and totally unexpected!
To be recognised in a room full of incredible women was something that was really special. I was super overwhelmed and grateful that I had even been nominated, let alone won.
The support and the community that AllBright x everywoman have built is really inspiring. It's really important for women to have that space.
8. As part of the awards, you also won a grant from Tide — how has that money helped?
The grant is going to help us produce some more content to help showcase our artists.
Great content is so important but can be expensive, so this helps take the pressure off a little bit; hopefully it will lead to more opportunities of work for our musicians.
9. What have you most enjoyed about the Tide app so far?
The Tide app is really easy to navigate.
For a business it's really important because it can be quite overwhelming sometimes when you're having to learn all these new programs and apps.
10. 67% of female founders expect revenues to increase — how do you feel about the future?
I'm forever optimistic! At Molto, there's a lot of optimism and I'm very confident this year is going to be bigger than ever for us.
Looking around, I see more and more women are feeling empowered — there’s a real sense of mobilisation and opportunity at the moment.
11. Lastly, what’s your top tip for anyone looking to start their own business?
You need to follow your instincts and use your naivety and the boldness this brings to your advantage.
What's the worst that can happen? You fail? Well, you fail, you learn, you change and then you succeed.
