Santa Monica-based venture capital firm Struck Capital is “flipping the traditional venture model” on its head with the launch of Struck Studio. The new company will develop startup concepts from scratch and recruit founders to lead them.
On Tuesday, Struck Capital announced the closing of a $15 million funding round to fuel 15 startup concepts over the next three years. The round was backed by investors like AOL founder Steve Case’s Revolution Ventures, US Venture Partners, Joe Montana’s Fund Liquid2, Synergis, and venture capitalists including Forever 21 founder Alex Oak and Mike Hurst.
“We fundamentally believe right now that just the way the market is, it’s harder than ever to start companies,” CEO Adam Struck said. “VCs are generally flocking to what they consider very high-quality opportunities, and the bar is much higher than it was last year to raise a seed round.”
Struck and his colleagues–CTO and co-founder of Resy Michael Montero and Tom Ryan, CEO of streaming at Paramount–wanted to create a company for risk-averse executives. In Struck’s view, these executives present the profiles they are looking for in a founder. In return, his company will offer them 50% of the startup.
Struck Studio's executive team, from left to right: CEO and co-founder Adam B. Struck, CTO and co-founder Michael Montero,, ChairmanTom Ryan, COO Andrew Green, and CDO (Chief Design Officer) Gordon Tindall.Photo courtesy of Struck Studio.
Struck said the Studio currently has five ideas in product development, and the team is constantly brainstorming future concepts. So far, three startup concepts have been green-lit. One is building solutions for home subscription rental services for digital nomads; another allows Web2 developers to interact with Web3 and blockchain technologies; and another will provide vet recommendations for pets.
Once a concept goes through the validation process and enters its product development stage, the time frame takes eight weeks to complete. During this period, Struck and his team will turn to their “founder funnel,” a vetted list of candidates will be added to its network and organized based on what sector they come from.
“You kind of have to be recruiting for founders even before you know which idea is ultimately going to be spun out,” Struck said.
While the company is based in Santa Monica, Struck said they are not limiting their pool of applicants to those that live here.
Struck’s team of 19 is currently distributed across the U.S. He claims they have put together a team like the Avengers because he believes his colleagues' combined experiences are Struck Studio's superpower.
He also added that the Studio’s goal is finding signs of product market fit. Once the ideal customer profile and buyer persona are identified, Struck said there is an excellent opportunity to go to vetted founders and offer to take the reins of the startup.
“We are huge supporters of the L.A. ecosystem. And we have a natural bias for building companies in L.A.,” Struck told dot.LA, “but if we find an incredible founder and they're not in L.A., we're still gonna go with that because we think that gives the company the best chance of success.”
This story has been updated to correct Struck Studio Chairman Tom Ryan's title at Paramount.
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