Rick Phillips

CEO, PRESIDENT, GENERAL MANAGER, BUSINESS LEADER

Rick Phillips is an accomplished manager, innovative leader, and corporate entrepreneur with repeated successful outcomes building technology and media businesses.  Rick now provides consulting and investment advice as the leader of ASH Partners; Rick is serving as a consultant and expert witness in a significant video-game industry case, and over the past year has advised a video-game company on a major acquisition and evaluated an investment opportunity in the gaming space for a leading private-equity firm.  Previously, Rick served as President, Publishing and Licensing at FoxNext Games, where he founded Fox’s first-party video gaming business and expanded its game licensing business more than five-fold. In this role, Rick co-managed Fox’s gaming business, and led all marketing, publishing and licensing activities for the company’s self-published games.  Rick also managed the mobile video licensing business at Fox from 2012 – 2014 and expanded this business significantly. Rick has more than 20 years of experience driving revenue growth and building asset value in the media and technology sectors. He was a senior executive at leading companies, including Microsoft Corporation, where Rick and his team created the first over-the-top digital video service (Xbox Live Video) in 2006.  Mr. Phillips was an executive at Gemstar-TV Guide International, Liberty Global, and MGM Worldwide Television.  Earlier in his career, Rick worked at Liberty Media Corporation, The Walt Disney Company, and Goldman, Sachs & Co. Rick holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College.  He also serves on the Board of Directors and is Chairman of the Compensation Committee of Audible Magic Corporation, and is a Director of Mise-en-Place Restaurant Services. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Elissa, and their three children.

Articles by Rick Phillips

How Shaun Merritt Vibe-Coded Karrot.ai As A Solo Builder

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Shaun Merritt, cofounder and CTO of Karrot.ai, a LinkedIn ABM tool. Shaun was kind enough to share a comprehensive breakdown of how...

7 Steps to Build a Product That Sells Itself

Learn the 7 steps to product-led growth (PLG) to build a product that sells itself. Drive activation, boost conversions, and scale efficiently with Wes Bush from ProductLed....
Balancing self-care and startup pressure as a founder

The Founder’s Mental Health Playbook: What I Learned After Nearly Burning Out

A hard-won guide to staying mentally healthy while building a startup I founded Stitcher, the podcast platform, in 2007 and ran it for seven years until we sold in 2014....

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

In our latest session from the Mucker Growth Series featuring Ethan Smith from Graphite, we explored AEO, a significant new approach for optimizing visibility in AI-driven search, particularly relevant as...

Startup Guide to AI Visibility Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Startup Guide to AI Visibility: Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Introduction Today, users aren’t just searching on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems for advice. AI visibility is the new frontier of brand awareness....

Practical Uses of AI Automation for Startup Operations

Practical Uses of AI & Automation for Startup Operations

In a recent Mucker Growth Series session, we invited Rock Vitale, Founder & CEO of Easie, to share how he’s helped early-stage teams move from manual, fragmented workflows to streamlined,...

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