Key Takeaways
- • The venture studio model is gaining favor among investors because it builds companies in-house to reduce early-stage risk, rather than backing founders who arrive with their own ideas.
- • Studio formats vary widely, from Entrepreneurs First (EF) taking an 8% stake to The Foundery taking 75%, according to The Ken's reporting.
- • EF runs a three-to-six-month India programme in which about 80 candidates rotate through four rounds of matching to find co-founders before any business idea exists, then winnows roughly 40 teams to a few finalists who pitch in San Francisco.
- • The Foundery, a 90-day residential studio backed by Ronnie Screwvala, Kishore Biyani and Nikhil Kamath, matches participants with pre-researched ideas from its Idea Vault, inverting the founder-led origin story its backers champion.
- • The model's speed incentives favour fast-to-validate businesses such as US-focused AI products, potentially at the cost of organic co-founder chemistry, and Indian investor appetite for studios as an asset class has yet to catch up.
Summary
The Ken examines a growing 'venture studio' model in which firms manufacture startups and founders in-house rather than backing founders who arrive with their own ideas. The stated objective is to de-risk early-stage portfolios by turning company-building into a systematic, repeatable process. Formats differ considerably: EF, a London-based firm that describes itself as a 'talent investor', takes an 8% stake in the companies it builds, while The Foundery takes 75%, according to the report. Some studios have gone further and dropped the outside founder entirely, hiring executives to run the companies they create.
EF's India programme, lasting three to six months and intended to produce a VC-scale business eventually incorporated in the US, begins with a candidate pool that has no business idea or co-founder. In one September session in Bengaluru, about 80 candidates cycled through a long table over four rounds of roughly six-minute conversations, a ritual EF calls 'carousel'. Participants may repeat the process until they find a match. EF then helps each pair settle on an idea and prepare it for investors within three months. Of roughly 40 teams, the surviving few are flown to San Francisco to pitch Silicon Valley investors. EF's talent investors reject comparisons to a dating show.
The Foundery, a 90-day residential studio that brings participants to a 'sanctum' in Alibaug, Maharashtra, pairs them with a pre-researched idea from its Idea Vault. Its backers, entrepreneur and film producer Ronnie Screwvala, Future Group's Kishore Biyani and Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath, describe their own origins as middle-class risk-takers driven by ideas of their own. The Ken argues the format inverts that narrative, since the candidate executes a thesis that is not their own.
The report notes that the model's emphasis on speed favours businesses that can be built and validated quickly, such as AI products for the US market, and that speed can crowd out the time needed for genuine co-founder rapport. It also observes that studios present themselves as an asset class, though investor appetite for that proposition in India remains limited.
EF's India programme, lasting three to six months and intended to produce a VC-scale business eventually incorporated in the US, begins with a candidate pool that has no business idea or co-founder. In one September session in Bengaluru, about 80 candidates cycled through a long table over four rounds of roughly six-minute conversations, a ritual EF calls 'carousel'. Participants may repeat the process until they find a match. EF then helps each pair settle on an idea and prepare it for investors within three months. Of roughly 40 teams, the surviving few are flown to San Francisco to pitch Silicon Valley investors. EF's talent investors reject comparisons to a dating show.
The Foundery, a 90-day residential studio that brings participants to a 'sanctum' in Alibaug, Maharashtra, pairs them with a pre-researched idea from its Idea Vault. Its backers, entrepreneur and film producer Ronnie Screwvala, Future Group's Kishore Biyani and Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath, describe their own origins as middle-class risk-takers driven by ideas of their own. The Ken argues the format inverts that narrative, since the candidate executes a thesis that is not their own.
The report notes that the model's emphasis on speed favours businesses that can be built and validated quickly, such as AI products for the US market, and that speed can crowd out the time needed for genuine co-founder rapport. It also observes that studios present themselves as an asset class, though investor appetite for that proposition in India remains limited.
Go deeper than the headline
Research every firm in this story, track the ones that matter and get the daily briefing — free for 7 days.