Got Questions?
At Nobody Studios, we’re embracing new ways of working and building companies that have never been done before.
With so many unique aspects to our studio, we get a lot of questions from investors, entrepreneurs, and people interested in contributing.
If you don’t see your question addressed here or you want to connect further, reach out!
Studio-related Questions
What is a venture studio?
A venture studio ideates, validates, and builds companies from scratch. When they reach a certain point of autonomy, we spin them into the world on their own, with a direct line for help back to the studio. Because the studio creates the new companies, it wholly owns its stake in each portfolio creation, allowing for much stronger return profiles.
What stage of companies does Nobody Studios invest in?
We birth companies from within our four walls. We may bring in outside ideas, and even people passionate about them, but we will only build companies from scratch.
Are companies housed under the venture studio forever?
Once companies go through our proprietary validation, MVP, and revenue generation processes, they get spun into their own entities with their own operating teams. This does not change the ownership structure or voting rights of the studio.
Where do the ideas for the venture studio come from, and how do you know what ideas are worth building?
Ideas are fed into the system by studio team members, advisors, contractors, budding entrepreneurs, as well as anyone within our collective of Nobodies. The studio will also build corporate partnerships to take on their innovation wish list. All of these ideas are vetted heavily, through rigorous validation processes. Only the best and most qualified survive, regardless of their source.
How does the Nobody Studios model cultivate higher success rates than traditional venture capital startup models?
The Nobody Studios methodology creates repeatable processes with firm decision thresholds that force intellectual honesty about what we’re creating. This process is fulfilled by a team well trained in the art of company building, surrounded by advisors and investors who have been around the block many times.
This repeatable system de-risks our ventures and increases the likelihood of success. Most VC failure rates are high because they’re passive observers. Once they make an investment, they have limited recourse to affect the path of their portfolio companies. In the venture studio model, we capture most failures within the incubation process. This process ensures only the viable companies get further funded and eventually leave the nest.
Why is it called Nobody Studios?
We’re a collaborative community of talented visionaries. What we’re aiming to accomplish is far bigger than any one person. We work together with respect and an attitude of collective benefit, allowing everyone involved equal opportunity for involvement and reward.
Who is a good fit for Nobody Studios?
Do you…
- have diverse interests?
- thrive with change?
- enjoy engaging in multiple streams of work?
- take action to cut through complexity?
- readily learn your way through uncertainty?
- love tackling big challenges with many unknowns?
Note: if you’re a company founder with a specific dream, a team, and funding, already focused on developing a fully formed idea, our studio isn’t a good fit (but we may be able to support your journey in some way).
How can I get involved?
If you’re excited by our ways of working together to build diverse companies and share in the impact and rewards, let’s put that energy to work on the business ideas that will shape and invent the future.
Founder-related questions
How does Nobody Studios take ownership in the companies it creates?
We create each company from the ground up, so the studio starts every company with total ownership. Along the path to autonomy, outside operators and founders are recruited to run the company. These individuals receive minor equity stakes and are incentivized to take the company to its fullest potential. When the company hits the market, the studio remains the largest stakeholder.
Why would an entrepreneur bring their idea to Nobody Studios vs. raising VC funds and growing it alone?
Nobody Studios offers a unique way to de-risk and build a company from the ground up. Many entrepreneurs and visionaries have great ideas but lack certain business skills or resources. Working with our rock star team can provide guidance, connections, funding, and hands-on support.
Even better, team members working within a newco also participate in the equity of the entire portfolio. This is an attractive way for entrepreneurs to diversify and become part of a vibrant, collaborative network of talent across our portfolio.
What sectors does Nobody Studios invest in?
Our focus reflects the expertise in the team and advisors that surround the studio. We would never pick up a direct-to-consumer food product if there were no team members with experience in that space. Out of the gates, the team’s experience has been heavy on software, AI/machine learning, and other digital offerings. Our range of industries will expand as the collective grows.
Are the businesses in the portfolio B2C or B2B?
We’re developing a mix of B2C and B2B. There is currently nothing preventing the studio from pursuing either path, as we are more focused on industry vertical.
Investor-related questions
Why would I want to have a long-term stake in a venture studio over a traditional venture capital fund structure?
We’re not here to compete with venture capital—we see our relationship as complementary. That said, for our investors, we offer several key benefits:
- Higher control: the studio creates the companies, thus controlling their trajectory and purpose. We also have leeway to split or merge companies and switch teams around, giving us immense flexibility to greenlight the highest potential portfolio companies. VCs simply cannot do this.
- Larger stake: Nobody Studios owns 80%+ of our companies, even after bringing in founders. VCs typically take 5%-15% stakes in their portfolio companies.
- Cash flow: Venture funds are locked up for 10-14 years before seeing full return profiles, while venture studios achieve incoming cash flow much more quickly.
- Impact: Nobody Studios brings on investors who have a passion to make their portfolio companies shine. Most VCs want an arms-length relationship between its limited partners and its portfolio companies.
Are investors limited partners in the venture studio?
A venture studio is not a fund structure, so investing into the studio does not make you a limited partner. Your investment will make you an equity shareholder in the studio, and you would benefit from the value created through the portfolio companies created and launched.
How do I receive a return on my investment in Nobody Studios?
Your investment into Nobody Studios makes you an equity investor in the studio itself. As such, you will benefit from pro-rata proceeds of companies the studio creates, spins off, and eventually sells. Your pro-rata is directly determined by size and timing of your investment. We have a formula that determines the distribution of proceeds that return to the studio to cover operating expenses prior to cash distributions for equity holders.
What criteria does Nobody Studios use to decide which companies to invest in?
The Nobody Studios executive team has created a detailed process for understanding and vetting ideas that are brought around the table. At each of the five stages, companies are evaluated and the studio determines whether or not to continue building them.
Can I choose which companies I want to invest in?
As an equity investor in the studio, we welcome your involvement with any company and at any stage of operation, including bringing your own ideas to the table. Ultimately, deciding what companies to bring to life is a group process, and your Nobody Studios equity investment will be applied accordingly. However, as companies mature and go out on their own, there will be opportunities to invest directly into individual portfolio companies as they leave the nest and go into the wild on their own.
As an investor, will I be required to invest more in the future?
There is no requirement to invest further into any future rounds the studio may pursue, but you are more than welcome to.
Will Nobody Studios support its companies through future stages of funding?
Even after portfolio companies have graduated through the studio’s full development process and gone out into the market, the studio will always maintain itself as an anchor in the companies’ resource box. Aside from being the largest shareholder of each company, the studio will continue bringing new resources, learnings, funding, and talent to the table for all of its portfolio companies well into the future.
Additionally, the studio is highly focused on building an ecosystem of funding partners and long-term relationships with seed-stage investors, series A VCs, corporate investors, and family offices in order to connect its companies to the proper capital at the proper stage.
If you don’t see your question addressed here or you want to connect further, reach out!