A venture studio is a company that builds other companies. It’s like a startup manufacturing unit or a foundry. They can operate on their own or be part of a larger corporate innovation division or part of a venture capital firm. Venture studios leverage internal resources and external partnerships to dream up their own startups, matching them with experienced founders and mentoring them to successfully go to market.
What is a Venture Studio?
Venture studios are different from funds and accelerators. They are more hands-on than other models in the startup ecosystem. Typically, funds or whatsapp number list make small investments for small equity through many bets, while venture studios make large investments for large equity through fewer bets. Additionally, venture studios ideate, validate, and invest internally.
Funds are great for identifying and investing in startups, accelerators are great for taking startups from point A to point B quickly, while Venture Studios are great for co-creating startups together with entrepreneurs.
Venture Studios are not new, but the model has become more popular recently. They are fewer in number but very successful due to their involvement in the startup lifecycle, access to resources, and business-making expertise.
The downside to Venture Studios is that you need the right management, with the right team to work efficiently on co-creating multiple solutions with different models. It takes different expertise and without the right energy the Venture Studio can lose its power very quickly.
Why is the Venture Studio model more important today when it comes to innovation?
Premise: The Covid-19 pandemic has hold the right meeting digital transformation and paved the way for a low-touch economy, resulting in lasting changes.
- For sustained growth, you look at intrapreneurship, startup accelerators, etc., and your core business model remains largely unchanged; but for exponential growth, your business model often changes, and for that, Venture Studios work best;
- Co-creation is a much better mode of engagement when you are trying to adapt to customer needs during a crisis – it benefits from the entrepreneur’s perspective as well as the Corporate or VC’s; The Covid-19 pandemic has created a wave of rapid change and you need to adapt to survive and thrive;
- Expertise in strategy, operations and GTM (Go to Market – a type of strategy that helps startups define how they will reach customers and increase their competitiveness) when combined with the disruptive nature of a new venture results in high growth opportunities; this is more likely through the Venture Studio than through other models
How Corporates and Venture Capital Firms Innovate Through the Venture Builder Model
The first thing that comes to cnb directory is equity. Owning a stake in a company that is expected to grow exponentially is the quickest and most legitimate way to create wealth.
Venture capital funds have a large pool of investors and seek to make a wide range of bets to mitigate risk based on their thesis. These organizations are great at understanding markets and scouting startups for investment opportunities. They provide valuation and funding for early-stage and emerging companies while forecasting the viability and profitability of the company’s product.