Let's talk about the generator of the new business: the Startup Studio.
The first collaboration between company and startup came through startup accelerators, but these have made way for a more innovative solution with fewer limitations: the Startup Studio. Let's get into the core of the concept.
What is the Startup Studio?
The Startup Studio presents itself as a Startup Factory, with the goal of generating new business, the process starts from the analysis of the market and the most functional trends and proceeds from a potential and even latent demand, to which a new and specific answer is to be given.
Startup Studio is a model focused on the rapid scalability of a selected number of projects and allows the creation from scratch of a portfolio of quality and, above all, low-risk startups. In fact, given these special characteristics, projects researched, grown, tracked and launched by a Startup Studio have both a higher growth rate and a faster go-to-market .
When we talk about the Startup Studio, the generator of the new business, we are talking about a Startup Factory, within which we find a figure of reference who has some experience in the field and also a portfolio of companies that have had their own success-Zalando, for example, was grown by a Startup Studio.
When we talk about Startup Studio, we are not talking about incubators or accelerators
If we have to start from scratch with the startup, the Startup Studio is the answer: once you start the partnership, you have human and financial capital at your disposal.
We talk about human capital because the peculiarity of the Startup Studio is the working team that will support the client's project: the team will be at the same time also integrated to the startup itself, the initiatives will be managed by this team that through the use of specific methodologies and tools (secrets) will scale the project(s) efficiently.
Instead, when we talk about incubators and accelerators we refer to a very different reality, in fact solutions are proposed to startups that have already been formed and accompanied through the provision of workspaces and consulting. In fact, a startup studio works only with projects created from scratch: it starts from the business pain to solve it by meeting the client's expectations.
To provide further clarity, we highlight the differences between Startup Studio, Incubators and Accelerators by going through points:
- Startup Studio: The first thing evident is time: the Startup Studio, works on a long-term time window, it is also called a venture builder or startup factory, it is a generator of new business that, through a process called parallel entrepreneurship, creates multiple startups in parallel by providing support to the created companies from conception to exit.
- Accelerator: The accelerator works on a short-term time window and offers, for free or for a fee, professional strategic consulting services ranging from business definition to team building, from fundraising to managing any pivots to launching the product in the market.
- Incubator: The incubator works over a medium-term time window and provides a physical space in which to work, access to a limited number of services, such as conference rooms and Internet connection, and also networking opportunities.
In addition, the Startup Studio model is beneficial because it aims to achieve two goals: eliminate the degree of risk of startup failure and increase the quality of startups generated.
Advantages to be taken into account as they will allow investors to take a new strategy and approach to the startup world; companies to become industry partners, collaborating with the Startup Studio in the acquisition of new businesses and thus enjoying more favorable conditions; and people who want to experience the business world to learn and acquire directly in the field the skills necessary to properly practice the role of the entrepreneur.
Why choose the Startup Studio
Here are the reasons for choosing a Startup Studio and its distinctive elements:
- Experience: The founders who make up a Startup Studio are top-notch: industry professionals with years of entrepreneurial experience, capable of not making mistakes typically made by a new founder, able to respond to clients' needs through best practices from the very beginning
- Methodology: The lean startup method is often used with the aim of governing the incremental development of many projects and applying a serial entrepreneurship strategy. In each case, the choice of methodology depends solely on the founder's prior experience in the field and skills acquired.
- Absence of bias: Within the Startup Studio, we let go of the belief that the founder is in love with his own idea, here the situation is the opposite: the ideas considered in this reality are business ideas, ready to be always questioned and reinvented through the pivoting maneuver when necessary or in the most complex cases, alternative solutions are found with the team that are more suitable for the pursuit of the objective, at the cost of overturning the idea chosen from the beginning, in short, functionality and objectivity are the key to success.
- Decision-making processes: The strength of startup studio lies in the team of professionals and investors behind it. Holacracy is adopted as a management philosophy to make the most of each team member's expertise, eliminating individual bias and basing every decision on objective data. This allows us to avoid the "subjectivity" and mistakes typical of a traditional startup.
- Resources: We are talking about resources in terms of financial and human capital, which the startup studio possesses a priori already in the validation phase of another startup's business model, resources that a classic startup does not possess, even at the level of skills provided.