Venture studios and funds dem
When one test cost one afternoon, shortlist go turn pipeline
Studio constraint never be ideas. Na say to validate one well cost one quarter and one team, so dem go dey argue about thirty candidates for room and build four — and di people with di best arguments dey make di selection instead of di market.
Studio economics na portfolio economics: most attempts fail, di winners pay for everything, and di whole model depend on getting enough attempts. Anything wey reduce di cost of one attempt change di model pass anything wey improve di hit rate, because attempts dey compound and instinct no dey.
Wetin don stubbornly expensive no be di building — dat one don dey cheaper for years — but everything around am: di brand, di site, di measurement, di outreach, di inbox, di first campaign. Na dem dey turn build into something wey di market fit respond to, and dem don always cost weeks per idea, every idea, from scratch.
Thirty candidates, two weeks, real evidence
Di interesting exercise no be to run one idea faster. Na to run di whole shortlist — every candidate wey survive di room — and make di market rank dem instead of di meeting.
Each one get name, written case, site, dashboard and small campaign to real audience. Two weeks later, table dey of wetin each one produce: replies, signups, silence. Di table no be verdict, and good idea fit produce nothing for im first two weeks for ordinary reasons — but na evidence, and evidence for room full of confident people worth plenty well-well.
Di failure mode to watch: studio wey run thirty ideas and no give any one of dem second month don build machine for generating dead landing pages. Di pipeline reduce di cost of starting; e no reduce di cost of finishing, and finishing still be where di returns dey.
- 1Day 1 — di shortlistThirty candidates, each one describe for two paragraphs by di person wey champion am.
- 2Day 1 — how to arrange amNine no survive dia own written case. Na nine quarters wey dem no spend be dat.
- 3Day 2–3 — dem build amTwenty-one sites, boards and workflow sets. Same afternoon each one.
- 4Day 4 — dem point am outsideTwenty-one CRMs dey stand by, twenty-one small campaigns wey go reach real audience.
- 5Day 14 — di tableThree produce conversation. Two produce money. Sixteen produce silence.
- ·Wetin go happen nextThe five go get people, budget and second month. The sixteen go close without any ceremony — and na that one be the point.
Dem rank am by marketNo be by the room
Ten ideas every quarter, and nine of dem suppose die quick.
Wetin go change structurally
Four consequences wey worth am to plan for
Selection go move outside the building
The idea wey get the best champion no go automatically beat the idea wey get the best market again. E go pain exactly one meeting, but after that e go dey useful.
To kill am go cheap pass
Idea wey only carry one afternoon inside, you fit close am based on evidence. But idea wey carry one quarter and three people inside go get defenders, and idea wey get defender go outlive their evidence by like one year.
Measurement dey uniform
Every candidate go set up the same dashboard on day one, so the fortnight table go compare like with like. Portfolio comparison dey usually fail because each company measure demself differently.
The bottleneck go move
E go move go attention. Twenty-one live experiments need person wey go dey read twenty-one inboxes, and the studios wey go get this one wrong na the ones wey treat launching like say na finish line.
Wetin one fortnight of silence prove and wetin e no prove
E no prove say the idea bad. Plenty good business dey invisible for their first six months, especially the ones wey dey sell to people wey dey buy on yearly cycle, and small campaign to small audience na weak instrument by design.
Wetin e prove na narrower one but e still valuable: say this offer, describe this way, to this audience, at this price, produce nothing wey worth am to follow up. And that one na four variables to change, no be verdict on the concept — and the pipeline make am so say to change any of dem na just another afternoon.
Studios wey go get value from this one na the ones wey go treat each run like experiment wey get hypothesis attach to am, no be like launch. The tooling make the experiment cheap. But e get nothing to talk about whether you write down wetin you expect to happen before time — and that one still be the difference between portfolio and collection.