Since our inception, High Alpha has co-founded over 30 companies, including Zylo, Lessonly, MetaCX, Mandolin, Casted, Bolster, and more through the venture studio model we helped pioneer in 2015. We’re incredibly proud of the companies we’ve started, the thousands of jobs we’ve created together, and this new model of entrepreneurship we’ve worked so hard to build over the past six years.
And today, we’re thrilled to announce the official launch of our third studio incarnation, backed by Emergence Capital and Foundry Group. With over six years of experience building companies in the studio, $260M in funding raised across three venture studios, and 60+ companies across the High Alpha portfolio, the venture studio model has truly cemented itself as a core emerging asset class.
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We believe the venture studio model is one of the most effective and efficient ways to start successful, high-growth startups. We also believe that the venture studio model is helping democratize access to entrepreneurship. As our newest High Alpha board member Lotti Siniscalco puts it, “High Alpha’s model provides opportunities for a broader range of individuals to step into entrepreneurship, a critical component for driving the next generation of enterprise software.”
What excites me the most about the venture studio model, though, is the outsized impact it allows us to have, both on the companies we get to start and the physical (and digital) communities in which we live and work.
This month also happens to mark my six-year anniversary with High Alpha, and it’s been incredible to look back on all the amazing founders, marketers, and companies I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years and the growth in their careers and those organizations have had in such a short period of time.
There truly has never been a better time to be a software founder. Over the course of just the last few months, our Studio companies have closed multiple new funding rounds and announced some major acquisitions, including Shutterstock’s acquisition of Pattern89, Seismic’s acquisition of Lessonly, a $12M Series A financing for Mandolin, the launch of Humankind, and much more to be announced soon.
What some may not realize, though, is that High Alpha really serves as a co-founder in the truest sense of the word, surrounding our new companies with world-class design, marketing, go-to-market, finance, and talent teams from day one to get new companies off the ground. Every couple of months we get to dream big and flex our muscles in literally going from “zero to one”, which is some of the most fulfilling work I’ve ever been a part of.
I don’t believe any other job in the world gives someone such a unique opportunity and viewpoint — and that’s what excites me most about what’s ahead for High Alpha. Our ambitions are only getting bigger as we set out to redefine the traditional concept of entrepreneurship through the lens of the venture studio and continue to become the best team in the world at going from zero to one.
We are thrilled to begin High Alpha Studio’s next chapter with the best entrepreneurs and investors in the world. You can learn more about this exciting news here or join us on this adventure.
P.S. If you think you have an idea or company you’d like to share with us or want to start a company with a venture studio, we’d love to hear from you.
