Is a Venture Studio Right For You (and Your Startup)?

Decision fatigue is real — for all of us, but especially for startup founders.

You have so many choices to make on a daily basis when launching a company. Some are small reversible decisions but others are big and hard to undo.

Whether to bootstrap, go the VC route, join an accelerator, or partner with a Venture Studio is one of those big messy decisions you need to get right.

In this article, I’ll break down the differences between each startup catalyst model and help you determine which path fits best with where you’re at now and what you want in the future.

What Do You Need?

This is the most important consideration when choosing between going it alone, taking Venture Capital, joining an accelerator, or partnering with a Studio.

Though they will all likely tell you that they do all the things, in reality, each model has a specific and unique value prop.

Time

If you need time to work on your startup — if you don’t have the idea fully fleshed out or aren’t sure if you’re ready to be all in, you should go it alone.

The truth is, any of these startup support models want you to be serious and 100% committed to your venture and they aren’t going to work with you if you’re not.

There’s no problem with needing more time, it’s actually a good thing to be self-aware in that sense. No two startup journies are the same — take your time get yourself ready before trying to partner with an outside firm.

Money

If you simply need money, you should go with a Venture Capital firm.

Venture Capital firms fund startups as early as MVP with traction (typically these are Pre-seed VC funds) and as late as it gets (Series-C and beyond).

If you don’t have a product built yet, it’s unlikely you’ll get funded — even by a Pre-seed firm. If you do have a product and a level of traction that demonstrates clear demand, you’re in a good position to…