Why I Chose the Venture Studio Model Over Traditional VC

February 9, 2026

Why I Chose the Venture Studio Model Over Traditional VC

First-hand Experience

Founded Scalable Ventures as a venture studio in 2010(Built 15+ products using the studio model after years of traditional company building and angel investing)

When I started Scalable Ventures, I had a choice. I could raise a traditional venture fund and write checks to other founders. I could keep building individual companies one at a time. Or I could try something different. I chose the venture studio model — an approach where we don't just fund companies but actively build them from the ground up. It wasn't an obvious choice at the time, and it came with real tradeoffs. But after more than a decade of operating this way, I'm more convinced than ever that it was the right one for me and for the kinds of companies I want to build. Here's the honest version of why — including the parts that are harder than anyone tells you.

What a Venture Studio Actually Is

A venture studio is an organization that creates companies internally, rather than investing in companies started by outside founders. The studio provides the initial idea (or co-develops it), assembles the team, builds the product, and supports the company through its early stages — all before it operates independently. Think of it as the difference between a movie studio and a film investor. An investor writes a check and hopes the movie succeeds. A studio develops the script, hires the director, produces the film, and manages the release. The level of involvement is fundamentally different.

Venture Studio vs. Traditional VC

1

Venture Studio

Builds companies from scratch with shared resources and operational support

2

Traditional VC

Invests capital in existing startups and provides board-level guidance

3

Accelerator

Short-term programs with mentorship and small investment for early-stage startups

4

Angel Investing

Individual investors providing capital and advice, typically at the earliest stages

For a detailed look at how our studio operates day-to-day, see The Venture Studio Model: How Scalable Ventures Works.

The Moment I Decided

The decision crystallized after I'd built several companies and made a number of angel investments. I noticed a pattern: the companies where I was deeply involved operationally performed significantly better than the ones where I just wrote a check and showed up to board meetings. It wasn't because I was smarter than the founders I invested in. It was because early-stage companies face a specific set of challenges — hiring the first team, making foundational technology decisions, finding initial customers, structuring the business model — where having someone who has done it before, working alongside you day-to-day, creates an enormous advantage. Traditional VC doesn't provide that. An investor who sits on your board and meets with you monthly can give strategic advice. But they can't help you evaluate your first engineering hire on Tuesday, debug a pricing strategy on Wednesday, and make a customer introduction on Friday. I wanted to be that involved. The venture studio model is the only structure that allows it at scale.

The Honest Tradeoffs

I won't pretend the venture studio model is strictly superior. Every model has tradeoffs, and being honest about them is the only way to choose wisely.

What's Better About Studios

Higher success rates at the earliest stage. When you control the idea, the team, and the initial execution, you eliminate many of the variables that kill startups. You're not betting on whether a first-time founder can figure out product-market fit — you're applying a repeatable process honed across multiple companies. Capital efficiency. Studios share resources across portfolio companies: engineering talent, design, marketing, legal, finance. A company built inside a studio can reach its first real milestones with significantly less capital than an independent startup, because it doesn't have to build every function from scratch. Faster iteration. When something isn't working, a studio can pivot faster because the decision-making process is simpler. There's no board politics, no investor signaling concerns, no founder ego attached to the original vision. You just change course. Compounding knowledge. Every company we build teaches us something that makes the next one better. We've developed playbooks for go-to-market, hiring, technology architecture, and customer development that have been refined across dozens of ventures.

What's Harder About Studios

Finding great operators. In traditional VC, you invest in founders who already exist. In a studio, you have to either find founders for the companies you're building or develop them internally. This is the single hardest part of the model. Great ideas without great operators don't become great companies. Bandwidth constraints. When you're operationally involved in multiple companies, your attention is the bottleneck. I've had periods where three companies simultaneously needed intensive support, and there simply weren't enough hours in the week. This is fundamentally different from traditional VC, where the bottleneck is capital, not time. Explaining the model. Venture studios are still less understood than traditional VC. Explaining the model to potential co-founders, employees, and investors takes extra effort. "We're a venture studio" still gets blank stares in many rooms, followed by "so... is it an accelerator?" Equity complexity. When a studio creates a company, the equity structure is more complex than a traditional founding. The studio typically retains a significant stake, which means there's less equity for the operating team. Structuring this fairly — so operators are motivated while the studio is compensated for its contribution — requires careful thought.

How I Think About Venture Studio vs. VC

The choice between a venture studio and traditional VC isn't about which model is better in the abstract. It's about which model fits your strengths, your goals, and your temperament.

Which Model Fits You?

Do you want to build companies or invest in them?

BUILD

Do you want to be operationally involved day-to-day?

YES

VENTURE STUDIO — you want to be in the trenches

NO

HOLDING COMPANY — own and oversee, but hire operators

INVEST

Do you want board seats and strategic influence?

YES

TRADITIONAL VC — invest and advise at the board level

NO

ANGEL INVESTING — write checks and offer light-touch support

Choose a venture studio if you're an operator at heart. If you love the daily work of building — product decisions, team building, customer conversations — and you want to do it across multiple companies simultaneously. You need to be comfortable with the bandwidth constraints and genuinely enjoy the variety. Choose traditional VC if you're primarily a capital allocator. If your greatest skill is evaluating opportunities, selecting founders, and providing high-level strategic guidance. You'll have a larger portfolio and more diversification, but less control over execution. Choose angel investing if you want to support founders without the institutional commitment. Write smaller checks, offer advice when asked, and maintain the flexibility to do other things with your time. I've done all three. Angel investing is the most hands-off. Traditional VC gives you more influence but still leaves execution to others. The venture studio is the most demanding but also the most rewarding — because you see the direct connection between your work and the company's outcomes.

What I'd Tell Someone Considering the Studio Model

Start With One Company, Not Five

The temptation when launching a studio is to start building multiple companies immediately. Resist it. Start with one, prove your process works, and then gradually expand. We started with a single company and didn't build the second until we had the first one operating independently.

Build the Infrastructure First

A studio's advantage is shared resources. Before you start building companies, invest in the infrastructure they'll share: design systems, deployment pipelines, financial operations, legal templates. This upfront investment pays dividends across every company you build.

Hire Operators, Not Just Idea People

The studio model generates more ideas than it can execute. The constraint is always operational talent — people who can take an idea and turn it into a functioning, growing business. Invest disproportionately in finding and developing these people.

Be Honest About Your Bandwidth

I can meaningfully contribute to 3-4 companies at any given time. Some studio founders think they can handle more. They usually learn the hard way that they can't. Know your limits and structure accordingly.

Plan for Graduation

The goal of a studio is to build companies that can eventually operate independently. From day one, build toward that independence. Develop internal leadership, document processes, and gradually reduce the studio's involvement. A company that permanently depends on the studio isn't a success — it's a liability.

The Future of Venture Studios

The studio model has grown significantly over the past decade. What was once a niche approach is becoming mainstream, with studios emerging across every industry and geography. Several trends are accelerating this: AI is making small teams more productive. A studio team of 5-10 people can now do what required 20-30 a few years ago. This makes the studio model even more capital-efficient. For more on this, see AI Tools Running My Companies. Remote work enables distributed studios. You no longer need everyone in the same office to run a studio. Our team operates across multiple locations, and the companies we build can be based anywhere. Founders are more open to the model. As more successful companies emerge from studios, the stigma of "not being a traditional startup" is fading. Talented operators are increasingly willing to join studio-built companies because they see the advantages.

The Venture Studio Model: How Scalable Ventures Works - Our operational approach
What Is a Serial Entrepreneur? - Lessons from building across multiple ventures
Investing in the Next Generation of Founders - What I look for in startups
B2B SaaS Scaling Playbook - Scaling companies from $1M to $10M ARR
The Midwest Advantage - Why we build in the Midwest

The Bottom Line

The venture studio model isn't the right choice for everyone. It's demanding, bandwidth-constrained, and harder to explain than writing checks. But for operators who want to be in the trenches of company building — who get energy from the daily work of creating something from nothing — it's the most fulfilling and effective model I've found. After more than a decade of building this way, I wouldn't trade it for a traditional fund. The connection between effort and outcome is too direct, the learning too fast, and the impact too tangible.

Interested in the Studio Model?

If you're exploring the venture studio approach or want to work with Scalable Ventures:

Explore the portfolio: See companies we've built through the studio model
Learn more: Read about how our studio operates day-to-day
Advisory services: Learn about my advisory work with founders and studio operators
Get in touch: Reach out to discuss collaboration or co-building opportunities

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Why I Chose the Venture Studio Model Over Traditional VC