Create – Support – Exit
Lifeboat Venturesfollows the theory of Compounding of Marginal Gains, to reduce the risk of the startups through the entire process of startup creation and scaling.
We are putting together a set of processes that depend on empirical data and external validation to improve the success ratio of startups. To facilitate this idea, we will execute these startup processes in the Startup Studio (aka Venture Studio/Venture Builder) model. The Startup studio is one of the more unusual versions of venture funding models, and one leading exponent is Rocket Internet.
A new norm with proven successes
Startup studio phenomenon started in 1996 and built momentum in the last decade to become a new norm with massive funding and long list of exits
The Venture Builder model, also known as Company Builder Model is a creative alternative to the traditional venture capital investment. The difference between this and other models of investing in startups is that typically only one company will be funded at a time while all others are left waiting for funding which can take years if they ever receive anything.
This new idea allows entrepreneurs to easily get their ideas recognized by potential investors without having to worry about competing with hundreds of others who may not have any competition because no one else has been invented yet either!
Many people fail even before they start up due to lack of resources but thanks to these innovative changes many more will now see their dream become reality!
Many of the startups we know and love were started by a person with an idea, but now there are companies that form their own. The Lifeboat Ventures studio would create startups by vetting ideas that address clear needs, fitting the investment thesis, recruiting the initial team in order to provide strategic direction for these early-stage businesses. Most of these new ventures will be successful as long as they follow this plan outlined here because it focuses on smaller risks given some slightly lower reward.
We help startups by providing a comprehensive back office services package that will reduce the time commitments on founders and commensurate costs. This service package is designed to keep entrepreneurs focused on what matters most – product, customers, funding.
The back office will include co-working space, UX Design, programming, marketing and tele-sales. By reducing the risk of startups failing by a substantial percentage we give them more chances to provide better ROI.
The second part of our model is to deeply analyze all risks associated with each phase of the startup process, identify the risks, and reduce them all substantially. In the ideation phase, we would collect a large pool of ideas (100+) based on our understanding of the market that can fit the thesis. We would convene expert panels in these areas and filter the best ideas. We may add more ideas from the experts in that process.
A shortlist of ideas (24) would be filtered for consideration. We then recruit entrepreneurs with the right qualities, entrepreneurial interest and suitable domain expertise. We have access to a deep and extensive network of entrepreneurs from the world’s largest pre-seed accelerator – Founder Institute. Existing VC models largely subjectively decide that certain entrepreneurs have what it takes. This assumption is not proven out in the results since 75% of startups fail.
We look for some objective data to select entrepreneurs, instead. Founder Institute tests and selects entrepreneurs based on psychometric data. After that they go through an extremely rigorous process as part of the accelerator program.
Once a smaller pool of ideas have been selected, we go through a methodical process of validation of the ideas.
In the Build phase, low code, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) technology will reduce software development effort by 60%, and reduce costs of development commensurately. The solution will increase velocity and decrease time-to-market. It will provide competitive advantages by including enterprise-grade globally comprehensive functionality. This will include security & compliance, multi-tenant architecture, parallel processing, internationalization, language translation, data integration/API, workflow, business intelligence document management, electronic signature, etc.
As part of the build-out phase, we will validate the entire startup to make sure it is a completely viable firm for execution success, and exit. In the scaling phase, we will assist the startups on a daily basis as a co-founder to grow the startup. Each startup will be assisted by a customer council made up of C-level executives, corporate development and purchasing management.
During this phase, we also assess the progress of the startups by means of comparative KPIs to see that they are scaling as expected. We will also compare them against an external growth index to make sure there is independent verification of their performance and their suitability for M&A. The growth Index is called “Predictive Growth Index” and was designed by Broad Reach Growth to help manage a company to a successful exit. The founding partner of Broad Reach Growth, Andrew Green, is also an advisor to our fund. In addition, they will also have continuous assistance from an M&A advisor giving them guidance towards a successful exit.