Evidence is a venture studio developing businesses in digital health and finance technologies. We transform our own ideas into startups and invite select founders to build their business within our venture studio. In addition, we operate a  a six-week structured accelerator program called Evidence First to train founders through  where innovator teams work with proven business, scientific and technical leaders through a blend of 1:1 mentorship and cohort workshops.

There are many many types of startup creation and support systems these days. Our uniqueness stems from our hybrid model. Our companies come in two flavors.

1. Venture scale potential companies that seek out progressive stages of venture capital until exit through an IPO
2. Product/Feature companies built with constrained capital leveraging our efficiencies in product and customer development. Our “innovation acquirer” relationships will provide a faster exit path to these sub-scale businesses

We will help craft financing and execution strategy for each of our companies. Our hybrid model is a big differentiator to both our investors and founders, providing superior returns at lower risk compared to venture capital.

We also invite talented aspiring entrepreneurs with founder potential to explore leadership opportunities within one of our studio startups. You can build on one of our well researched ideas or further research a more nascent idea for customer discovery.

We work at the pre-seed and seed stages of company building as seen below. This generally means concept, business model, product and customer development stages.  After product-market fit is found, our scale companies will go on to raise venture capital series  A,B,C, …. to support expansion of the business with the goal of an IPO. Other companies will seek out “partners” or “acquirers” to scale the business without needing additional infusion of capital by the current team(s).

Evidence First is a structured 6-week accelerator program where innovator teams work with proven business, scientific and technical leaders through a blend of 1:1 mentorship and cohort workshops. The six-week program aims to significantly bolster the business acumen of founders,  expand their networks, and accelerate real-life validation and revenue generation of the most promising technologies by incorporating Lean Startup, Customer Discovery and Business Model Canvas methodologies as shown below.

Innovation in digital health and financial technologies is our focus. These are the areas where we are building our own startups and where we can help founders the most. We also invite talented aspiring entrepreneurs with founder potential to explore leadership opportunities within one of our studio startups. You can build on one of our well researched ideas or further research a more nascent idea for customer discovery.

Pitch decks are not needed nor are they very effective at the early stages. We need a more detailed narration of your story. We need to get excited and understand your vision of the world with your product in it, and what the world would be missing without it. We can share a startup memo template example so you can articulate your story.

The Evidence First program focuses on helping founders become skilled storytellers from day one. This involves lots of hard work and customer conversations to understand the market, competition, and why past attempts to solve similar problems have failed. Founders must also be able to articulate why they are the right person to solve this specific problem and why the timing is right for their solution. A strong narrative helps founders to build emotional connections and persuade investors, attract talent, and win over customers.  Storytelling is critical for effectively communicating a vision and standing out in a crowded market.

We need to get excited about what you are proposing to build or are currently building. Before start of the program, you will write a memo to share your story with us. The memo will give us a deeper insight into your ideas, what has the problem not been solved until now, why now is the right time, why you are the right person to solve the problem, etc. We will guide you through writing your memo when you apply.

Not at all. 

25 hours each week at a minimum…

We are with you for the long haul. We’d like to get to know you and you get to know us before we take the next step for engagement. The best way to do this is for you to complete the Evidence First accelerator program.  Some founders upon completion of the program may find it more attractive for them to build their business within the Evidence Venture studio. Many other founders may discover their idea is not commercially viable at this time, and seek to work on another studio company. 

We only invest in 2-3 venture scale potential companies and 5-6 innovative feature/product companies each year. We expect our accelerator program will have many more exceptional companies than we are unable to invest in directly, but our network of mentors will always be available to the founders who do the work and successfully exit the program.

Many of our founders are working on venture scale ideas within very large markets, others are building much needed products and services within niche markets. Our investment ranges from $100K to $500K per startup depending on market potential, ownership and risk analysis.

If we judge you to be outstanding founder talent for early stage businesses, we will invite you to join a studio company. The best place to start would be to apply to the accelerator program expressing your intent. 

Key opinion leaders, connectivity with founders, active in research or clinical practice, business expertise creating new services, complementarity of network (minimal overlap with our existing networks), and references on insight, helpfulness and character.

Yes, that is a possibility when the company is in its fundraising cycle. Investments in the Evidence Venture Studio will provide exposure to all the portfolio companies.