Unlocking $1M: 3 Unconventional Tactics for Bootstrapping Startup Studios

The Secret Playbook Studios Should Steal From Creators

Bootstrapping a Startup Studio sounds incredibly hard, but I can tell you from experience that raising a fund for an emerging Studio is harder.

Investors want evidence of your ability to launch de-risked ventures. They are already skeptical of the Studio model and on top of that, you don’t have any real proof that your Studio can actually do the thing it’s promising to do. You also haven’t been around long enough to earn credibility in the eyes of investors, which is fine for new startups that can raise a seed round on a pitch deck — but like I said, Studio investors need more convincing.

• Building these relationships takes time.
• Building ventures takes time.
• Building a team takes time.

And how are you to keep the lights on while all of these prerequisites are percolating?

How do you bootstrap a Venture Studio?

This is a topic I’ve thought a lot about in my work with emerging Studios.

I wrote about this a few weeks ago in an article where I detailed the common revenue generation strategies of Studios.