A new month which calls for a new, insightful webinar at StudioHub! This time, we had the pleasure of talking to George Bandarian, Founding Partner of Untapped Ventures, a Startup Studio based in LA focusing on building and investing in the New Future of Work.

Operating in the entrepreneurial ecosystem for 15+ years and monitoring the Startup Studio model closely, George shared his observations and experiences about Startup Studios as the new arising asset class. Keep on reading to receive the key takeaways of the webinar. In addition, make sure to follow us on LinkedIn or join our Slack Group to not miss the next webinar.

Our key takeaways:

Definition of Startup Studios

• Startup Studios build multiple venture-scale startups in parallel with speed and precision. They use proven processes to ideate, validate, get traction, and spin-out ventures.
• Depending on the Studio Model, ideas are generated either internally within the experienced Studio team or externally with corporates or external founders.

Investment Trifecta

• The trifecta consists of three elements, the main success criteria of Startup Studios: less losses, higher equity, and faster exits.
• The elements are multiplicators and weighted equally.
• Startup Studios break the old thought of “high risk, high returns”: with experienced teams and standardized processes, high returns with low risks are a reality!

Types of Investors

• There are 4 types of investors that invest in Startup Studios:
• Angel Investors, High-net-worth Individuals, Family Offices
  (Examples: Marc Andreesen, Tim Ferriss)
• VCs
  (Examples: SoftBank, Sequoia)
• Corporates
  (Examples: Intel Capital, Virgin)
• Traditional Limited Partners, Fund of Funds
  (Examples: Blackrock, Leyden Studio Fund)
• Each investor group has its own reasons and interest in investing in Startup Studios. So, make sure to approach the right investor group for your Studio Model and highlight arguments that are most relevant for the investor group.

Criteria for Startup Studio Due Diligence

• Investors typically evaluate Startup Studios based on 5 criteria.
• In particular, having strong traction or a successful track record is important to successfully raise funds for your Startup Studio. Make sure that either you, your team or your Startup Studio has a strong track record. For example, Scott Dorsey went on co-founding High Alpha, a leading B2B SaaS Startup Studio, after co-founding, IPOing, and finally selling ExactTarget to Salesforce.

That’s it, our three key takeaways! If you are a premium member and would like to dive deeper into the topic, make sure to revisit the webinar recording and presentation. Not a premium member yet but interested in joining? Just reach out to us.

About George Bandarian

George is the Founding Partner of Untapped Ventures, a Startup Studio based in LA with a $10MM pre-seed studio fund. In addition, George is an angel investor, startup founder coach, and speaker for a wide-range of topics such as strategy, inspiration, and Entrepreneurship.

Previously, George was the President and CEO of AMI, a B2B/Enterprise software and services company. With his team, George grew the business over 10x, turned into the leading provider of business process automation, and finally sold it to a strategic buyer for a successful multimillion dollar all-cash exit in 2018.