Venture Studios: Overview and Jobs

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Introduction
Venture Studio Overview
Venture Studios vs. Venture Capital
Finding Jobs at Venture Studios
Top Venture Studio Resources
Corporate Venture Studio Partnerships

Venture Studios: Overview and Jobs

Curated by

byosko

5 min read

154

According to recent reports, venture studios are emerging as a popular alternative to traditional venture capital firms for entrepreneurs looking to launch new startups. Venture studios provide hands-on support, resources, and funding to help founders build companies from the ground up, taking an active role in the ideation, validation, and growth stages. By offering a more comprehensive approach compared to the typical venture capital model, venture studios aim to increase the success rate of early-stage startups.

Venture Studio Overview

hbr.org

Venture studios are organizations that create and launch multiple startups in-house, following a systematic approach to ideation, validation, and growth. Unlike traditional venture capital firms, which primarily provide funding to existing startups, venture studios are actively involved in the creation and development of new companies from scratch. The venture studio model typically involves a four-stage process: ideation, validation, commercialization, and growth. During the ideation stage, the studio identifies potential business opportunities and develops concepts around them. In the validation stage, these concepts are refined, and their viability is tested through market research and financial modeling. Once a concept is validated, the studio recruits a founding team and establishes the startup as a separate entity during the commercialization stage. Finally, the growth stage focuses on scaling the startup by expanding its market share, exploring new opportunities, and implementing management systems. Venture studios provide a wide range of resources to support the startups they create, including funding, talent, mentorship, and operational support. They often have in-house teams of experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and experts who work closely with the startups to guide their development and growth. By providing hands-on support and resources, venture studios aim to reduce the risk and increase the success rate of early-stage startups. One of the key advantages of the venture studio model is its ability to create and launch startups more efficiently and effectively than traditional methods. By working on multiple startups simultaneously, venture studios can leverage their expertise and resources to accelerate the development process and identify new business opportunities more easily. Additionally, the diverse skill sets and experience of the venture studio team can provide a more comprehensive approach to startup creation, covering areas such as product development, marketing, and sales. Venture studios have gained popularity in recent years, with notable examples including Idealab, Betaworks, and Science Inc. These studios have successfully launched numerous startups, some of which have gone on to achieve significant success, such as Dollar Shave Club and DogVacay. As the startup ecosystem continues to evolve, venture studios are likely to play an increasingly important role in fostering innovation and supporting the growth of new businesses.

20 sources

Venture Studios vs. Venture Capital

medium.com

Venture studios and venture capital firms differ significantly in their approach to startup investment and support. While venture capital firms primarily provide funding and take a more passive role, venture studios are heavily involved in the day-to-day operations and strategic decisions of the startups they create, often acting as co-founders. This hands-on approach allows venture studios to create up to 14 times more value than traditional venture capital investments. Additionally, venture studios spread their resources across multiple startups to reduce risk, while venture capital firms typically focus on a few high-potential companies.

4 sources

Finding Jobs at Venture Studios

Finding a job at a venture studio can be challenging, but there are several strategies you can employ:

Educate yourself about venture studios by reading content from experts like Max Pog, Dianna Lesage, Jake Hurwitz, and Matthew Burris to understand the industry and what studios look for in candidates.
Research individual venture studios that align with your interests and expertise. Consider their industry focus, corporate structure, and methodology for validating and building startups.
Network and attend events to make connections with venture studio employees and leaders. Venture studios often hire through their existing networks rather than traditional job postings.
Directly reach out to studio leaders and employees to express interest in working with them. Clarify your goals and demonstrate how your skills can add value to their team.
Check job boards like Indeed, which currently lists over 100 available venture studio jobs.
Look for niche job boards dedicated specifically to venture studios, such as Jobs @ Venture Studios, which includes roles at both studios and their portfolio companies.

By combining targeted networking, direct outreach, and monitoring of relevant job boards, you can increase your chances of finding and securing a role at a venture studio that fits your background and aspirations.

5 sources

Top Venture Studio Resources

Here are some of the top sources to learn more about venture studios:

Venture Studio Index - a regular newsletter focused exclusively on venture studios, including a database of over 400 studios and their 1,800+ startups.
Venture Studio Family - a community where 25+ studios share their numbers, documents, decks, playbooks, and investors.
The Global Venture Studio Database - includes data on 550 studios, their name, website, location, niche, team size and more.
Startup Studio Playbook - an 80+ page whitepaper covering the main topics of the venture studio model.
Venture Studios Demystified - a 7-month research report on startup studios based on 100+ sources.
Founders: Why Join a Venture Studio? - a blog post on why the venture studio model may be interesting to founders.
The Emergence of Venture Studios - a free downloadable report on the rise of venture studios.

These resources provide a wealth of information, data, and insights into the rapidly growing venture studio space, from detailed reports and databases to founder-focused guides and community forums.

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Corporate Venture Studio Partnerships

Highline Beta is a prominent venture studio based in Toronto that partners with large corporations to build and fund new startups. Founded in 2016, Highline Beta has worked with clients such as RBC, Colgate-Palmolive, Green Shield Canada, and Morneau Shepell. The studio takes a hybrid approach, operating a traditional venture capital fund while also offering services to help companies establish their own Corporate Venture Studios (CVS). Highline Beta engages with corporates as clients, limited partners, and co-investors. Corporate partners turn to the studio for assistance in building their own venture studios, investing in the creation of startups as LPs or co-investors. By partnering with a venture studio like Highline Beta, corporations can overcome constraints related to legal issues, compliance, regulations, legacy technology, and risk aversion that often hinder their ability to innovate quickly. Venture studios also enable corporations to focus on their core business and shorter-term objectives while still exploring new opportunities. Highline Beta's process begins with ideation, sourcing ideas internally or from potential founders. The studio then validates the problem through research, advances promising concepts to preliminary validation with simulations and prototypes, and ultimately incorporates and launches the startup. This approach allows Highline Beta to bring together the necessary ingredients for startup success - a strong founder and team, a validated problem and solution, and the required capital and resources. The venture studio model exemplified by Highline Beta offers corporations a faster and more efficient path to building and scaling new ventures by leveraging the studio's expertise, network, and processes. As interest in venture studios continues to grow, partnerships between corporations and studios like Highline Beta are likely to play an increasingly important role in driving innovation and creating successful startups.