The Startup Studio Newsletter | Ed. 2
In this edition, we highlight content from eFounders, Nobody Studios, Untapped Ventures, and Startup Studio Insider + cover news from LAB577, Highline Beta, Metaversal, Rainmaking, and 24 and Up.
Welcome to the Studio Stack newsletter. Since the launch last week we’ve more than doubled subscriber count (from 307 at launch to 748 currently) and views are up over 1000. I am blown away by the positive response and grateful to every single person who read and shared the newsletter -it's motivation for me to keep working hard to provide value and give the people what they want: more studio stuff!
So, here we are- edition 2. Enjoy!
From The Stack
This week I’m thinking about the dilemma of consensus vs. conviction for studios. How do you commit to standardized processes while also making big bets on outliers that are, by definition, not standard?
In 2011, Fred Wilson- Partner at Union Square Ventures- published a blog post about how USV passed on Airbnb and why that will never happen again.
We made the classic mistake that all investors make. We focused too much on what they were doing at the time and not enough on what they could do, would do, and did do… We missed Airbnb even though we loved the team. - Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures
From the public emails between Fred and Paul Graham of YC, I suspect that Fred had conviction about the founders and championed them inside the USV walls, but ultimately couldn’t sell the rest of the team on his vision.
In the end, consensus won, and Union Square Ventures lost.
So, how do you stop this from happening in your studio while also executing on the repeatable playbooks that are the foundation for your economies of scale?
Build it into the process- define outliers as the evaluation criteria.
When a founder doesn’t have the “traditional” background or the idea seems absolutely ridiculous, that’s your clue to dig in. There will be an urge to come together to discuss the opportunity- and doing so will be a mistake.
“Groups search for consensus, individuals search for truth.” —Naval Ravikant
If everyone on your team knows what special feels like and each individual is empowered to champion founders + ideas- you’ll capture success at scale. Don’t over-engineer it. Back passionate people over industry standards. Let conviction win.
Studio Stories
📝 eFounders’ predictions for 2022 — Tech, eFounders, Medium Publication
📝 How to Get Started in Community-Led Business, Barry O'Reilly, Co-founder of Nobody Studios
🎥 Why Smart Money is Investing in Startup Studios, George Bandarian GP & CEO, Untapped Ventures
📝 Startup Studio Funding 101: How To Finance a Startup Studio, Craig Kronenberger, Startup Studio Insider
Studio Sphere
Recent News
BCB Group, announces acquisition of LAB577 venture studio, Crypto World Echo
Avery Dennison Corp partners with Highline Beta on new accelerator program, Yahoo Finance
NFT-Focused Venture Studio, Metaversal, closes $50M round, Miami Inno
Barclays partners with corporate venture builder Rainmaking to drive FinTech innovation through new accelerator program, Rainmaking PR
24 and Up Studio Announces Launch, GrepBeat
Upcoming Events
Job Board
Executive Assistant | High Alpha
Lead Product Manager | Atomic (Remote)
Program Manager | Promise Venture Studio (Remote)
Head of Operations | Aegis Ventures (Hybrid)
Go-to-Market Specialist | Harmony Venture Labs (Remote)
HEY STUDIOS
If you want to share news, content, or events please shoot me an email with what you want featured: hello@studiostack.club or @ me on LinkedIn or Twitter.
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Thanks for reading everyone!