We know the stories: a hoodie-donning college student launches something called ‘Facemash’ that eventually balloons into the multi0billion dollar tech giant Facebook; UberCab launches to deliver black cars in San Francisco and eventually becomes the prolific ride-share hailing app Uber. But for all these success stories, there are many more startup failures.
In fact, an estimated 70% of startup failures stem from premature scaling.
Today, nurturing a startup into a booming business often requires more than just an angel investor – it often takes a team of knowledgeable experts, and Venture Studios are poised to provide this kind of focused mentorship and help your business grow. In fact, mentored startups are estimated to grow 3.5 times faster, and raise 7 times more money than those without mentorship support, according to a report by Startup Genome.
Unlike accelerators, which largely focus on the seed stage, Venture Studios offer support into more mature stages and take a very resource-centered approach.
More than just a check: Venture Studios cultivate a business ecosystem
Because Venture Studios focus on a limited portfolio of companies, they can offer essentially all necessary resources for a business, including both its network and the capital required to fuel additional growth.
While funding is clearly critical to budding companies, the network a venture studio can provide can help to ignite innovation and expansion. For example, a venture studio can help find potential team members (take, for example, Hexa’s robust IT staff augmentation options) introduce you to other market influencers, or help source additional funding – all depending on the specific needs for your business.
Technology also deserves its own mention. Whether you’re selling office supplies or offering the latest in AI, technology is critical to prop up your business functions and interface with customers. And for enterprise-focused starts up, technology is critical. Teams with a technical co-founder performed 230% better, according to First Round Capital’s 10 Year project.
Venture Studios also adopt a broader emphasis on the overall ecosystem your business will thrive in, Forbes Business Development Council contributor Gary Fowler writes. This means cultivating a network outside your local hub and positioning your business to access resources across the globe. When you consider the crushing costs many startups are navigating, the relief from an optimally priced market for talent can mean the difference between going into development and throwing in the towel.
Talk it out: Venture Studios Connect you to the People with Answers
Ultimately, there are plenty of great ideas out there that don’t warrant building a business around. For example, how many kids have drawn slide exits, dreaming of a much more fun way to leave the house than the front door or the stairs? And yet this idea hasn’t hit the marketplace because the real customer, the parent, isn’t going to see that as a realistic solution. Fun exits aside, even more, realistic ideas still need to vetted against at least two core questions:
- Who is your solution helping?
- Will that potential customer care?
Using our earlier example, a child might say the solution is helping them get out of the house more quickly, but a parent may only envision a toddler sprinting across the lawn unaccompanied, or having to climb up said slide to retrieve a misplaced shoe. In short, this solution isn’t helping anyway.
Your potential customers also need to care about this solution. So let’s say all parties agree a slide exit is faster than the front door. Okay. But is the buyer, in this case, the parent, going to care that this is faster, given all the other possible disasters mentioned before? Probably not.
A venture studio can help your business connect with the resources and network who can help you reach our customers – consistently – to keep a pulse on real answers to those critical questions. As you share your businesses’ story and listen to influencers, potential customers, and investors, you’ll be able to hone your solution to make the best impact on the market together with the ecosystem you cultivate as part of your venture studio.
Are you ready for your business to be one of this decade’s success stories? Learn how Hexa’s many options can great the venture studio your business needs to grow. Visit http://hexatx.com/venture-studio/ or contact us at info@hexatx.com