NOW Venture Studio’s Post

Brilliant venture studio manifesto. The work comes in generating real traction. “We don't fund entrepreneurs-in-residence with a deck and a check. We think product-market fit is a hard problem and we don't think it can be industrialized or handed off - but it is possible to solve repeatedly. We get in the guts and build the thing from day zero. Most of the work of a scientist isn't generating hypotheses, it's running experiments to get the data. That's what we do. Once we've created real traction, we partner with best-in-class operators to create a second founding moment to scale the company. That's because the skills at each stage of a startup are different, even if vesting schedules pretend they're the same. We aim for unreasonable speed with each portfolio company while making decisions at Boulton & Watt like we're going to be in business for decades. We go long: building networks of talented people we someday hope to work with, waiting patiently for businesses to compound, and preferring to make the pie bigger for everyone instead of owning all of a small pie of our own.” Boulton & Watt

It's been a whirlwind of learning since we started digging into the Venture Studio model. First when we started our previous company, Roam, it was "do some consulting so we can launch games & products" and in fact we did launch a couple of products and even released a couple of games. But it was always a constant tension between the siren call of instant revenue with consulting vs the long term return of equity. We sometimes joke that Ryft is the outcome of 10+ years of bootstrapping to get to a place where we can focus as a pure-play Venture Studio. Learn more below.

Traction is crucial in the startup ecosystem as it signifies the early success and potential for future growth. 🚀 It provides concrete evidence that the market is responding positively to a startup's product or service, which is vital for attracting further investment, securing partnerships, and scaling the business. 📈 Essentially, traction shows that a startup is on the right track, moving from concept to a viable, demand-driven venture. It's the proof that there's a market need being met. 💰

When we launched our venture studio in 2017, our goal was to build something truly different. After years in the agency world, we were eager to create companies from the ground up, driven by ideas often overlooked by the traditional startup ecosystem. Six years and 13 companies later, here’s a hard truth we learned in this journey: Nobody gives a sh*t about venture studios. It’s not that venture studios don’t create amazing companies. The problem is that venture studios sit in a strange middle ground: not traditional startups, not venture capital firms. And when you don’t fit into the standard mold, it’s harder for people to see the value. To many outsiders, venture studios feel like “inside baseball”—too abstract or complicated for those who aren’t deeply embedded in the ecosystem. This makes it difficult to tell a clear story, especially in a media landscape that loves the idea of charismatic founders leading companies. On the other side, Investors especially want focus. They want to back one strong idea with a clear path to victory and a dedicated team behind it. By nature, venture studios spread resources across multiple projects, and that ambiguity doesn’t inspire confidence. Investors want to clearly know: What’s the big idea? Who’s working on it full-time? Where’s my money going? Despite these challenges, building a venture studio for six years opened our eyes to the struggles others early-stage ventures face in scaling, even with immense potential. We discovered our higher calling: going beyond creating companies to becoming a support system for businesses fighting day in and day out to reach their next milestone. This is why CO/STUDIOS exists today. #startuplife #venturestudios #entrepeurship #ventureplatform

Great chart to explain how venture studio works

🚀 Venture Studios: The Agile Innovators of the Startup World 📏 Building on Matt's insights, want to highlight a key advantage of venture studios: their unparalleled flexibility in resource allocation. Venture studios are uniquely positioned to: 👷♂️ Reallocate Talent: move skilled professionals between projects as needed, maximizing impact and learning. 💵 Redeploy Capital: quickly shift funds to the most promising opportunities within the portfolio. 🧠 Cross-Pollinate Ideas: foster innovation by applying insights from one venture to another. This flexibility allows venture studios to adapt swiftly to market changes and capitalize on emerging opportunities. It's a stark contrast to the accelerator model, which typically offers: 1️⃣ Fixed-term programs 2️⃣ Standardized resources to a diverse group of founders 3️⃣ Limited ongoing involvement post-program While accelerators cast a wide net, venture studios take a more hands-on, adaptive approach. This agility in managing talent, capital, and ideas enables venture studios to pursue the most promising opportunities with focused intensity. It's not about quantity, but about quality and strategic alignment. #VentureStudio #StartupInnovation #EntrepreneurialEcosystem #FlexibleInnovation

Another big win for Camplight and our venture partners! 🚀 One of the startups we co-founded just secured Seed funding. It’s a testament to what’s possible when you start with the right foundation. From validating the idea in its earliest stages to building a fast, effective MVP, we’ve been with them every step of the way. And here’s the thing: we’ve distilled everything we’ve learned from co-founding and validating over 300 ventures into one resource: THE Pre-MVP Playbook. Don't skip the critical first steps if you’re dreaming of turning an idea into a scalable venture. Download the Playbook today and start your journey with confidence. 👉 Link in comments. - 🚀 No-nonsense insights on building fast. 🔥 Got the guts to innovate?

🦄 Venture Studios don’t need to build unicorns to return their funds. Instead, they focus on building companies that bring substantial returns, scalable growth and higher success rate than traditional unicorn companies – the dragons. What makes them so successful in scaling early-stage startups? ⏩ Speed: Venture Studios aim to get an idea from zero to scale as quickly and successfully as possible 🔁 Repeatable methodology: Venture Studios act as co-founders and get involved in day-to-day operations 📈 Entire portfolio success: Out of 10 portfolio startups, 8-9 become dragons and the rest don’t fail - they pivot. At Venturerock, we pioneer a proprietary, AI-powered venture building operating system designed to navigate ideas into dragon companies. Our Studio-built startups unlock access to resources, playbooks and tools based on evidence and audited data to ensure sustainable growth across their stages of development. At Venturerock we leverage a Studio-based model to build the next gen of dragon companies. Do you want to join us? 🚀 #VentureStudios #StartupStudio #SeriesA #StartupEcosystem #VentureBuilding #Venturerock #PortfolioPerformance #StartupSupport

More and more founders are asking this question as they look to build their startups and new ventures... Do I find a venture studios or do I apply to an incubator/accelerator? Here are key differences: - 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁: Venture studios offer tailor-made resources, from funding to expert mentorship, significantly de-risking the entrepreneur's journey. - 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮 𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Unlike incubators that support early-stage concepts (but don't generally roll up their sleeves), venture studios actively participate in building businesses from scratch. - 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱: With venture studios, there’s skin in the game. They invest resources upfront in exchange for equity, aligning long-term success goals. This collective approach underlines the essence of venture-driven growth: leveraging shared expertise to turn bold ideas into reality. As we move forward, understanding these nuances becomes crucial for founders navigating their entrepreneurial path. Venture studios represent a paradigm shift—where success is not just envisioned but engineered.

I like this diagram to help understand the different types of players in the early stage ecosystem Of course, it doesn't capture every permutation (for example many accelerators also take an equity stake or charge fees) but if you were curious about the different groups this gives you a baseline.