How the studio works
Most studios accept the same constraint mainstream VCs do: every venture needs one founder who’ll commit a decade. We don’t. The company is the constant; the people flow through it — each rotating in for the stage that fits them, then handing over.
The scientist who proves a novel chemistry is rarely the same person who scales it to a pilot plant. The engineer who builds the first prototype is rarely the GM who closes the first big customer. Most deep-tech failures we’ve seen come from forcing one founder to be all of them, for ten years.
So we let people rotate. They join a venture for the stage they’re best at, hand over when they’ve done the work that’s theirs to do, and move on to the next opportunity. Smaller teams, lower burn, less burnout — and the common reasons early startups fail, designed out.
Each stage is designed to kill the idea cheaply, or to hand it on. What survives all four leaves the lab as its own company.
Every venture starts from one green deep-tech question worth a company. If clean energy is cheap and abundant, what becomes possible that was not before? Each question is screened against three filters: does the technology have a real chance, does a market exist or could one, and is this something only a studio could de-risk.
A small team runs the cheapest experiment that could kill the idea. Most concepts die here, on purpose, in weeks. Technology and business model get tested together — there's no point proving the chemistry works if the unit economics don't.
Survivors get a bench, a budget, and the right people for the stage. Talent rotates in for the work they're best at, then hands over. Wet-bench scientists run the experiments. Engineers run the build. A different operator runs the commercial pilot. No one is forced to be a founder for life.
When the core risks are retired and the market is real, the venture leaves the lab as its own company. The studio retains an equity stake; the operating team takes the reins. The company is the constant; people flow through it.
Two audiences, two different questions. Same email.
Δ / Investors
We don’t ask for capital at the question stage. We ask for it once the riskiest technical milestones are cleared — typically at spin-out. You back specific spin-outs, not a fund. The studio retains a meaningful equity stake in every venture; that alignment is the point.
Email about a specific idea, a co-invest position on the next spin-out, or a conversation about how the studio model fits your thesis.
Talk about an investmentΔ / Operators
We’re always looking for operators who can join a venture at the stage that suits them — wet-bench scientists in Explore, engineering leads at Build, GMs and commercial operators at Spin out. Commitment is per stage, not “found a company forever”.
Email with what you’d want to work on, the stage that fits, and roughly how much time you have. We read everything.
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