How to Find The Right Venture Studio For Your Startup
Once you determine partnering with a venture studio seems like a great idea, it comes time to find one compatible with your startup’s vision and target market.
Most entrepreneurs understand forming a new startup involves a decent amount of risk. Striving to source enough venture capital, hire talented technology and management professionals, and research potential target markets remain critical tasks. A failure in anyone of these might end up resulting in a business failure, especially when forming a startup outside of a venture studio.
Venture studios provide the crucial support a startup needs for a true chance of success. This includes that critical funding support, especially agency builders that perform outside work for other businesses. Access to talented software engineers, designers, and managerial professionals also provides important resources. Finally, studios typically boast meaningful experience forming businesses, with that knowledge base greatly benefiting any new business proposition.
Of course, once you determine partnering with a venture studio seems like a great idea, it comes time to find one compatible with your startup’s vision and target market. So let’s take a closer look at a few strategies for sourcing venture studios and ultimately deciding on one as a partner. In the end, choosing the right studio significantly increases your fledgling business’s chances for a successful impact on the marketplace.
Perform Focused Research on Potential Venture Studio Partners
In a similar manner as when searching for capital funding sources or startup accelerators, you and your entrepreneurial team need to burn the midnight oil researching potential venture studio partners. Pay close attention to their experience level, the types of startups they foster, their capital resources, and their employees. In the latter case, ensure they employ top-shelf technical and managerial talent, as these resources play a critical role in the initial operations of your business.
Don’t worry about whether or not the studio is local to your new business. In a global economy with remote work commonplace, ensure the scope of your search covers the entire world. Use a rating system to score potential studios, making it easier to determine the best fit when your leadership team meets to choose a studio to approach.
Find an Experienced Venture Studio With Expertise in Your Target Market
Your startup stands a better chance of success when partnering with a venture studio with a proven track record of successfully bootstrapping new businesses. So analyze the companies incubated within each studio. Ensure they show signs of positive growth potential and early success.
However, even more important is choosing a studio with expertise in the industry sector your company hopes to target. This ensures they understand the specific pain points in that target market, informing the advice they offer as well as the technical and managerial resources provided to your business. Additionally, they might even know of talent currently with other companies looking to join a startup with a bright future. When considering the current difficulty sourcing software engineers, this provides your startup with a useful candidate pool, ultimately saving money in staffing costs.
Choose a Studio With a Broad Network and Marketing Resources
Experienced venture studios typically provide startups with access to a broad network of industry connections. Of course, ensure some of these reside within your company’s target market. However, any entrepreneurial insights potentially benefit your fledgling organization’s growth potential.
These include marketing knowledge, as any new technology product or service needs focused advertising to make a real impact in the industry. Again, a studio with experience marketing new startups and their products in your target market remains a critical aspect when choosing a partner.
Your Startup Needs a Hands-On, Proactive Venture Studio Partner
When researching venture studios as potential partners, pay close attention to their participation level in the startups they incubate. A hands-on studio reveals one that truly cares about the success of the businesses they introduce to the business world. As such, they take a proactive approach ensuring each startup has the technical, managerial, marketing and capital resources they need for a successful first few years of operation.
In this scenario, studio leadership steps up to take an active managerial role in the startup. This remains the best way for the new business to truly take advantage of the studio’s relevant expertise. On the other hand, a hands-off approach just might increase the chances of a failed startup.
Technical Compatibility Between Startup and Studio is Critical
Simply stated, if your startup formed around a great idea for a mobile app, partner with a venture studio with experience bringing top-shelf iOS and Android apps to the market. This same concept applies to interactive websites as well as any similar digital venture. You want a studio with software engineers and leadership that understand modern iterative methodologies and know the best practices for building an MVP. Keep this at the front of your mind when researching potential studio partners.
When searching for an experienced venture studio as a partner, look no further than the team at NineTwoThree. We boast extensive experience in software development, including mobile apps, websites and other digital platforms. Our business expertise also spans multiple industry sectors. Connect with us to discuss the benefits of a partnership and let’s change the world together!
