Venture Studio Architect - I help you design, launch, and grow your company creation studio.

Most innovation programs fail not because of lack of ideas, but because they lack a system for venture creation.

I help innovation leaders in corporations, universities, and economic development organizations build venture studios that scale and deliver. Backed by data, frameworks, and insights from studying over 500 venture studios globally.

As Senior Director of Research & Data at the Venture Studio Forum, I'm building the empirical backbone of the venture studio asset class. VSF is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing 1,500+ members who have built 650+ companies, 11 unicorns, and $48 billion in enterprise value.

My work establishes venture studios as a formal asset class through:

-Asset Class Analysis in partnership with MIT and Harvard, delivering the first institutionally credible research for LPs and institutional investors
-The Venture Studio Index (VSI) — the first open standard and formal definition for venture studios
-Studio Data Platform (2026) providing structured datasets and benchmarks for researchers and operators
-State of the Studio Report (2026) tracking trends, performance, and sector segmentation
-Policy recommendations for state and federal innovation agencies

Concurrently, as Partner and Head of Insights at 9point8 Collective, I translate this research into practice. We've designed and launched 25+ venture studios. Our approach builds clarity, alignment, and momentum at the intersection of innovation, capital, and impact.

I've spent 20+ years at the intersection of innovation, strategy, and venture building. I launched NCR's first internal accelerator (generating $90M from its first cohort), secured 27+ patents across AI and fintech, and developed investment frameworks that institutional investors now use to allocate capital into the studio model.

Speaking & Workshops: I deliver keynotes and workshops on designing high-performing venture studios, the future of venture creation ecosystems, and turning knowledge engines into commercial engines.

🎤 Book me to speak: VentureStudioForum.org/speaking
 📊 Learn from our research: newsletter.venturestudioforum.org
 🌍 Join the community: venturestudioforum.org
 💼 Work with us: 9point8collective.com

Matthew Burris

Venture studios aren’t VC

So why should we try to fit them inside VC frameworks?

The carousel below explains why this is the case (and breaks down an alternative model for venture studios instead).

For more on studio structures, capital efficiency, and the case for new frameworks for venture studios… 

DM/Comment “VSF” to join the venture studio forum (a community for the venture studio ecosystem)

I help innovation leaders build venture studios | Senior Director, Research & Data @ Venture Studio Forum | Partner, Head of Insights @ 9point8 Collective | Keynote Speaker | Trusted by 500+ Studios

Venture Studios Aren’t  VC Funds.pdf

A frame I come back to when explaining venture studios:

Think of it as an Ops-heavy private equity fund that starts companies.

In private equity, portfolio companies indirectly absorb the cost of the ops team.

And venture studios follow a similar structure. 

With the difference being that the operations team is involved even earlier, not just managing companies, but forming and launching them.

Those functions don’t go away in early-stage creation. 

If a founder isn’t working with a venture studio, they’re hiring for those same needs piece by piece.

Across studios, we consistently see 40–60% of total use of funds go toward core execution which includes engineering, product, go-to-market, and ops. 

That’s not excessive overhead. That’s what it takes to build.

A venture studio makes that cost structure explicit.

So instead of hiding it across fragmented hires, unclear ownership, or mismatched expectations it’s centralized, aligned, and built for speed.

Venture studios aren’t ops-heavy.

They’re clear about where and how value gets made.

What people miss about Venture Studios.pdf

Venture studios aren’t for everyone

And they certainly don’t work like traditional startups

But most critics treat them as if they do

There’s a growing narrative that venture studios “don’t make sense” as an investment vehicle. 

And the skepticism is fair. 

But many critiques diagnose the wrong problems.

Start with the biggest one: focus.

Studio teams might test 100 ideas in 3 months, but not because they want more companies.

They’re trying to eliminate the bad ones quickly.

If something shows signal, the studio recruits a founder who becomes 100% focused on that company. 

They own the roadmap and the studio handles back office operations and shared resources.

Different jobs. Different priorities.

Another common myth?

That studios are high-volume idea machines.

The best ones aren’t.

They ship fewer companies because they’re more selective. 

Services bottleneck output, often by design.

You can’t scale conviction on command.

Every real studio decision ultimately comes down to a binary filter: 

Does this have an unfair advantage?

If yes, they go all in. If not, they kill it.

Because real studio outcomes aren’t driven by process… they’re driven by leverage.

This means that the successful studios have the right: 

Network. 
Talent bench. 
Access into a market that wouldn’t be possible outside the studio environment.

Those are the drivers that matter.

But many critics try to evaluate studios like regular startups.

And that’s the wrong lens.

A studio might look like one company on paper.

But economically, it behaves more like a fund:

    → Returns compound over time
    → Value accrues across a portfolio
    → Terms matter more than valuation

And if you're getting GP-like exposure (co-creator equity in every current and future build) it's a different category entirely.

None of this makes venture studios universally investible.

But when structured correctly, they’ve shown higher hit rates than seed funds; not because they have better ideas, but because they know which ideas deserve their leverage. 

If that leverage doesn’t exist, there’s nothing to back. 

But if it does, the model works in a way most critiques never address.

4 truths mot critiques miss.pdf

Unlike traditional VC, where investors enter at a fixed valuation, venture studios are involved from day zero. 

Ideation, validation, team formation, early funding, it all happens in-house.

That level of involvement changes everything. 

And it creates a level of structural complexity many still underestimate, but LP’s spot instantly.

A studio holds all the cards in creating a deal that works. How they set up that structure is critical.

Structure determines who joins you, how aligned they are, what investors think of your model, and whether long-term value accumulates in the right place.

This isn’t theory. The stakes are measurable. Get it wrong and studio investors, entrepreneurs, or follow on capital walks and the studio falls apart.

The studio model works, but that success depends heavily on getting structure right. 

A venture studio must be an honest broker. They own the duty to balance a structure that works for everyone.

And yet, the industry still lacks a shared framework for one of its most defining decisions: how to build deal terms that are fair, functional, and geared for durability.

At least until we wrote it down. https://lnkd.in/ebjg8Z7C

As more institutional capital enters the space and studios manage portfolios of increasing scale, alignment between founders, studios, and downstream investors will matter more than ever.

A structure isn’t just a cap table.

It’s the architecture of downstream success.

Venture Studios don't invest in outside companies....

Venture capital lives and dies on terminal exits.

But venture studios operate on a differently; they design for liquidity from day one.

The difference starts with ownership.

Traditional VCs typically land at ~10% in early rounds.

Studios, by contrast, start with 25–50%. Even after dilution:

→ +20% post-seed  
→ +15% post-A  
→ +10% post-B  

That creates something rare in early-stage investing: flexibility.

And because of that, secondary sales become not only possible, but repeatable enough to build a strategy around.

Studios can return capital without waiting for IPOs or full acquisitions. 

Cash comes in early. 

LPs see distributions long before the 10-year mark. 

And the studio keeps real upside.

That’s one path.

Other studios build for profitability, creating companies that return cash long before they're sold.

When portcos generate cash, studios don't need to sell to make money. 

Regular distributions fund ongoing operations and accelerate IRR, without new investor capital.

Still others build intentionally for PE acquisition or strategic M&A.

→ PE? Studios partner early with relevant firms, optimizing financials, tooling, and reporting.  


→ M&A? They loop in the right acquirers as advisors or customers before a single line of code is written.

Each strategy gives studios a unique kind of control: over when and how returns happen.

And studios don't have to choose one model.

They can layer them.

Secondary sales + distributions + acquisition prep = cash sooner, smoother J-curve, more resilient portfolios in down markets.

P.S. Follow for more venture studio break downs

The Power of Liquidity Control.pdf

Emerging venture studios often struggle to get off the ground.

And the reason for that is because they never solved the fundamental question:

Who are they really building for?

Venture studios have 4 “customers”:

→ Investors
→ Founders
→ Internal team
→ Follow-on capital

And optimizing for one can break another.

A studio that maximizes investor money without thinking through operating needs often ends up overbuilt and unfocused.

A studio that designs everything for founders may land early talent but struggle to raise sustainable capital.

A studio that assumes follow-on VCs will just show up rarely survives past Fund I.

And the studios that work, start with alignment.

They know what kind of investor they want (and what kind they don’t).

They design an operating model that delivers real support, without getting in the way.

They define what types of entrepreneurs they’re built to serve and what types they should avoid.

And they’re clear-eyed about the follow-on capital they’re targeting, so they can reverse engineer the conditions for it to show up.

Lastly: 

For investors evaluating studios, those 4 customers are a simple lens that cuts through the pitch decks.

→ Does the model make sense for the capital, the people, and the downstream funding?
→ Or is someone subsidizing someone else?

Too many firms focus on perfecting one relationship.

The best ones get the balance right.

Practical Applications for Studio Design and Due Diligence.pdf

How venture studios decide equity splits

The 8-driver framework shared recently sheds light on the variables that influence venture studio deal structures.

But frameworks aren’t enough.

Operators need tools that help them work through real-world constraints, capital limits, founder negotiations, market expectations, and reach specific numbers.

This is where equations matter.

Deal structure isn’t a creative exercise. 

It’s about solving problems with restrictions.

Three forces operate together here:

→ Market constraints: what the ecosystem will tolerate  
→ Studio value: capital, role, and risk the studio assumes  
→ Execution quality: proof that the studio consistently delivers  

Those forces interact, not sequentially but simultaneously.

Studio Equity Range = Market Constraints × Studio Value × Execution Quality

This equation reminds us that no one input can dominate.

You can’t execute your way out of unrealistic follow-on expectations.

You can’t price in studio value without proof of delivery.

No amount of capital justifies a stake founders or investors won’t accept.

To move from theory to action, the model separates into two calculations:

Maximum Studio Equity:

Maximum Studio % = MIN(Follow-On Investor Limit, Industry Norm Max) × Regional Adjustment × Studio Execution Quality

This sets the ceiling based on what downstream capital and ecosystems will accept.

→ Follow-on investors often cap studio ownership to preserve founder equity  
→ Industry norms create soft ceilings around what feels reasonable  
→ Regional culture adjusts tolerance depending on location  
→ Execution quality determines if top-tier outcomes support above-average stakes  

Minimum Studio Equity:

Minimum Studio % = MAX(Investor Return Requirement, Capital Intensity Floor, Role Contribution Floor) × Entrepreneur Competition Penalty × Studio Execution Quality

This sets the floor based on what the studio needs to make the deal viable.

→ Return expectations tie back to fund math, risk, and portfolio strategy  
→ Capital and role contribution set basic ownership needs  
→ Execution quality influences whether those inputs hold weight  
→ In competitive founder markets, studios may be forced to come in lower  

The difference between these two values creates what matters most:

Viable Range:

Viable Range = Minimum Studio % – Maximum Studio %

If the viable range is negative, the deal doesn’t work.

Studios can’t beat the math with storytelling.

But the values inside the formula can be improved.

→ Shift capital strategy to change return requirements  
→ Target follow-on VCs with higher tolerance for studio collaboration  
→ Improve execution quality to raise credibility with both talent and capital  

This isn’t about fixing one number, it’s about making the formula hold.

P.S. Here’s the full breakdown and tools: 
https://lnkd.in/ebjg8Z7C

Your venture studio is missing a voice.pdf

In June 2023, Business Insider reported tensions at the venture studio Fractal, where several founders said they had been “blacklisted” by later-stage investors.

That report set off a chain of closer analysis.

Here’s a case study, grounded in public information, that revealed there deeper design issue:

1) Follow-on Capital: 

Fractal promised founders that their companies could raise a Series A just 12 months after launch. 

That’s nearly 4x faster than the average startup timeline and half the time most venture studios take. 

Investors weren’t open to the companies that clearly were not ready for that stage.

2) Founder Incentives: 

Press reports suggest entrepreneurs held only ~15% equity. 

That made it harder to attract strong founding teams, and triggered concern from later-stage capital about founder incentives.

3) Operational Load: 

Spinning up one company per week with 100 staff reduced support per venture to ~2 full-time equivalents, assuming zero admin and operations overhead.

For an equity stake that was greater than a cofounder stake, the equity studio took didn’t match the operational lift they provided.

4)  Market Misalignment: 

Fractal’s thesis focused on “boring markets with unicorn potential,” but their target VC investors weren’t aligned with that narrative. 

Founders were caught in the middle.

None of these elements would have sunk the model individually.

But venture studios are integrated systems. 

When any one stakeholder group isn’t aligned, founders, investors, or internal teams, the consequences ripple through all of them.

And when alignment fails at multiple levels, the venture studio model breaks.

The Fractal Case Study.pdf

Venture Studios have a 100x advantage over accelerators and venture funds.

Studios vs. accelerators vs. VC vs. incubators

One of the simplest ways to compare them? Hands-on support.

Venture capital: maybe 30 minutes per week.

Accelerators: 1–2 hours a week. Mostly group sessions and some limited 1:1.

Incubators: slightly less. Some education, co-working space, network access. But very little operational involvement.

Venture studio: 20 to 100+ hours a week of hands-on execution.
Real operators. Half a person to an entire team building the business with you.

The range of support isn't even close.

P.S. Follow for more venture studio insights

Model Comparison.pdf

Fostering Innovative & Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Driven by growth, innovation, efficiency, and empowering others. Whether it's working with a startup, running a non-profit, consulting with innovators, or teaching important skills, I find joy in being active and working with others to bring about positive change. Solving problems and helping others realize their goals whether they be personal or career oriented are great passions of mine.

I have started and been a part of a number of companies/organizations with varying degrees of success, and consulted for dozens more. Learning from failures and difficult situations teach more than any class or seminar could ever hope to. Disrupting the status quo is where I naturally gravitate. 

Working in the crowdfunding, blockchain, and hardware industries I have the unique opportunity to not only help businesses new and old succeed through innovation, but am exposed to many ideas and opportunities that can fuel growth and impact. Decentralized technologies are already beginning to shape the next era of our lives and incorporating more democratized human involvement should be an exciting prospect for all of us.

Focuses:

- Assisting organizations and entrepreneurs to establish solid foundations
- Curating active communities and groups behind companies and initiatives
- Implementing disruptive processes and technology
- Democratizing Funding
- Decentralizing the Internet through plug and play hardware and blockchain technologies
- Establishing Puerto Rico as a leading innovation and entrepreneurial hub

A few achievements:

- Launched the first ever side by side Regulation Crowdfund and Product crowdfunding campaigns resulting in both being oversubscribed. Later followed by more oversubscribed funding campaigns.
- Grew and engaged a passionate community behind a mission driven tech company resulting in an average email open rate of over 50% over a 3 year period.
- One of the first and only companies to obtain a written decree and approval from the Puerto Rican government to launch a digital token and have it be treated as software, with preferential tax treatment.

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