What Is a Venture Studio and Why the World Needs Them Now

Why Startups Fail in a World Overflowing with Capital

Despite significant investment of money, talent, and effort in innovation, most startups still fail. We’ve come to accept this failure as normal, as if it were the cost of making progress.

But it’s not normal. It’s systemic.

Ask the average founder or investor what went wrong, and they rarely point to the idea itself. Instead, they cite issues such as team problems, poor execution, or premature scaling. We’re not failing because of innovation. We’re failing because of what surrounds it.

That’s why a new kind of model has emerged – not to support startups, but to build them systematically.

It’s called a venture studio.

Where Venture Studios Come From

The term “venture studio” didn’t exist when Idealab was founded in 1996. Back then, it was known as an incubator. But in hindsight, it was the first real studio: it created ideas internally, built them with in-house teams, and invested with long-term commitment. Idealab launched over 150 ventures, with more than 45 exits.

In the early 2000s, companies like Rocket Internet in Berlin and Betaworks in New York followed similar paths, often described as startup studios or startup factories. It wasn’t until around 2015 that the term “venture studio” began to be recognized as a distinct model, separate from incubators, accelerators, or venture capital (VC) funds.

Today, there are more than 1,100 active studios worldwide, and the best of them outperform traditional startups in both speed and survival.

But only a small number follow the true studio model.

A venture studio isn’t just a label. It’s a method – one that requires deep involvement, operational commitment, and alignment from day zero to exit. Studios that do the real work are changing how companies are built. Venture studios aren’t a trend. They’ve quietly reshaped the way startups come to life for nearly three decades.

What Is a Venture Studio?

A venture studio is not an incubator. Not an accelerator. Not a VC fund.

Also known as a startup studio or startup factory, it is a company that systematically creates other companies. Venture studios don’t wait for pitch decks. They generate ideas, identify real problems, validate solutions, assemble co-founding teams, and build the business from scratch.

They act as co-founders, operators, and early investors. As the venture grows, the studio transitions from builder to strategic partner, remaining involved until the company is ready for scale or exit.

A true venture studio combines all three roles:

• Founder – they develop the idea and create the company
• Operator – they build the product, team, and operations, hands-on
• Investor – they provide capital systematically and guide outcomes

The term “venture studio” may sometimes get confused with “venture builder,” but they are not the same. A venture builder is a broader term encompassing corporate innovation teams, support programs, or hybrid models that help launch startups, but most do not adopt the full studio model.

In contrast, a venture studio is a high-commitment model that takes responsibility from day zero, combining all three roles in an end-to-end approach and maintaining significant control throughout the venture’s early stages.

Why Venture Studios Exist

Venture studios address systemic failures in early-stage startup development. They offer structured environments, experienced operators, and hands-on resources to:

1. Reduce risks
2. Improve success rates
3. Accelerate growth

Their approach is quality-first. Unlike traditional venture capital, which spreads bets across many startups hoping one or two become unicorns, studios build with depth and precision from day one.

Here’s how venture studios tackle what most startups struggle with:

Reduce Risks

Venture studios are designed to eliminate the most common early-stage failure points – including mismatched teams, poor market fit, and funding gaps.

By building ventures internally, studios apply proven playbooks, validate ideas early, and refine their approach with each cycle. Capital is deployed systematically, tied to milestones. No need for mid-stage fundraising. This allows faster pivots and smarter stops.

Studios stay in control during the riskiest phases, enabling quick decisions when benchmarks aren’t met or when IP can be recycled into stronger opportunities. This drastically reduces waste and creates a lower-risk path to value creation.

Improve Success Rates

Venture studios significantly outperform traditional startup models. On average, studio-backed companies achieve success rates over 60%, compared to less than 30% in conventional VC-backed ventures.

Some leading studios report IRRs above 60%, compared to 33% in top-quartile VCs. That reflects not just better selection, but better building, with aligned incentives, disciplined execution, and strategic capital from day zero.

Accelerate Time to Market

Studio-backed ventures reach Series A in just 25.2 months on average – more than twice as fast as the 56-month average for traditional startups.

With pre-built infrastructure, shared services, expert teams, and focused funding, studios remove the delays and inefficiencies that often burden early-stage ventures.

Solve What Others Miss

From team formation and funding to execution and scale, venture studios fill the gaps that solo founders and seed-stage investors often struggle with.

A venture studio is not a support system. It is a co-founder with structure, strategy, and staying power – built to turn strong ideas into resilient, scalable companies.

How Studios Work in Practice

Studios typically start with 100% ownership of each new venture. As traction builds:

• Equity is allocated to the founding team, brought in based on fit and timing
• Capital is added either from the studio or external investors, post-validation
• The cap table evolves based on real value creation

By the time a company raises its Series A, the studio generally holds 30–35% ownership (including its seed investment), with founders and team holding the majority. External seed investors may also be involved.

This approach allows studios to:

• De-risk early decisions by maintaining control
• Allocate ownership thoughtfully, based on performance
• Keep the cap table clean and flexible during the critical early stages.

What Atlan Brings to the Table

Atlan is a venture studio.

We build deep-tech ventures that work with nature, not against it – companies that help the planet thrive alongside society.

Our ideas come from diverse sources: researchers, engineers, inventors, and internal development. What they share is depth – scientific rigor applied to real-world problems, with nature as a key benefactor.

We focus on sectors where ecological urgency meets commercial opportunity, including biodiversity, circular production, clean water, and sustainable materials. Our model is built for ventures that demand both technical excellence and strategic execution.

We bring:

• A holding company structure that aligns capital with long-term outcomes
• A hands-on operating arm that co-builds every venture from the ground up
• A selective ecosystem focused only on ventures with the potential to solve meaningful problems and scale responsibly

Every idea we pursue must be technically sound, built around a validated need, and aligned with our mission to regenerate natural systems through innovation.

Opportunity: Why Now, Why You

For investors: Venture studios offer better-aligned, lower-risk investments built on strong foundations and repeatable success.

For inventors and researchers, venture studios offer more than just commercialization. They also provide co-creation, team formation, and shared success at a significantly higher level.

For institutions: Studios are the missing link between research and impact, bridging the gap with faster, higher-probability outcomes – a more reliable and faster track to get returns on IPs.

For industry partners: Venture studios actively collaborate with partners within their ecosystem, offering access to pilot opportunities, cutting-edge innovations, strategic partnerships, and early investment opportunities to ventures aligned with emerging market needs.

Studios don’t just help ideas grow. They help the right ideas lead. 

What’s Next from Atlan

In the coming weeks, we’ll share more about how we co-build with inventors, reduce risk for investors, and work across sectors to tackle critical global challenges.

You’ll also find us at upcoming events and partner meetings, helping shape a shared understanding of what this model can do – and where Atlan is headed.

If this resonates with you, follow along. And if you’re building something meaningful, reach out.