Venture Studio Index - September 13, 2022
Venture Studio Index - September 13, 2022
Tegus EIR interview, popular startup themes, equity splits, celebrities and 5 new CEO roles
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Venture studio interview
Tegus interview with former EIR at Pioneer Square Labs. Key takeaways:
Ideation process. According to the interviewee, PSL holds a weekly meeting where team members rate every new idea on a scale of 0 to 5. The highest scoring ideas are assigned to a business lead for at least one week of further diligence, and the rest go into a spreadsheet. Business leads quickly start recruiting EIRs to co-develop new ideas that show promise. Business leads are the bottleneck, so once a company spins out, its business lead pulls back and focuses on new ideas. Overall goal is to spin out 5 companies a year.
Corporate co-builds. According to the interviewee, PSL charges corporates a monthly fee based on the number of ideas being incubated at any given time. Companies that are spun out receive initial capitalization of $300-400K, and the corporate partner gets a ROFR on additional funding. Challenges include corporates having fewer valuable ideas and fewer viable CEO candidates than anticipated.
Equity splits. According to the interviewee, PSL retains 30-50% ownership of new startups depending on whether they ideated the company themselves and to what extent the founder is proven. In a corporate co-build, the equity split is closer to 1/3 PSL, 1/3 corporate partner, 1/3 management team. These figures are post a $300-400K pre-seed investment.
(Tegus)
Venture studio news
YCombinator completed its Summer 2022 Demo Day, and the top themes were neobanks, alternative investments, crypto and aircrafts. Creator economy had fewer startups than prior cohorts (Protocol)
Redesign Health betting on caregiver economy:
Studios producing a higher volume of startups can take more shots on goal on conviction themes (Dhruv Vasishtha on Twitter)
Carlyle’s global head of consumer departs to cofound a PE firm with Kim Kardashian. This article discusses the PE opportunity, but a related question is whether venture studios have an opportunity to partner with celebrities as well. A consumer focused venture studio would be directly analogous, but executives can also have “celebrity” status across different verticals such as defense, healthcare, cybersecurity, etc (Fortune)
At least 19 venture studios have a >50% hitrate across varied industries, geographies and end customers. Our analysis is bullish on the opportunity for more venture studios (Venture Studio Index)
Venture studio jobs
25madison - Founder of Remote Management for Complex Patients Startup
“25m Health is a first-of-its-kind healthtech venture studio in partnership with LifePoint Health, Scion Health, and Apollo Global Management…25m Health’s in-house platform team, based in Nashville and New York City, spans engineering (full-stack, security, data science), strategy (fundraising, product, research), design (UI/UX, branding, marketing), and back-office (hiring, legal, accounting, tax). And, most importantly, the ability to scale across LifePoint, Scion, and into the greater healthcare ecosystem…We are looking for a founder and future CEO to build a remote management startup for complex patients.”
Fractal Software - Founder / CEO
“We provide you with a vetted business idea, pair you with a talented CTO, and fund you with $1M of capital on Day 1. We’ll then give you the right guidance, playbooks and process to build the product and grow the company. You will also join an active community of entrepreneurs in our portfolio who are navigating similar challenges in other industries.”
Hashed Health - CEO & Co-founder
Startup is “a rational marketplace creating digital assets from discrete healthcare service bundles for purchase by consumers, employers, and payers. This open approach enables fair and transparent marketplaces. We’ve secured design partners and are ready to bring on a CEO & Co-Founder to lead the venture through the next stage of our studio process.”
High Alpha - Founder/CEO for Product Led Growth Startup
“The product leverages short-form mobile first video stories”
Redesign Health - Founder in Residence / CEO
“As a Founder in Residence, you will have a front row seat to Redesign Health’s innovative approach to company building and early exposure to Redesign Health’s idea pipeline. This 3-month contract full-time program will give you visibility into our diligence and fundamental research process, exposure to a range of ventures in various Health and Wellness sectors, and a deep dive on ideas that interest you.”
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