I'm excited.
As an entrepreneur, most of us get a feeling when we're about to dive head first into a new journey. The feeling that you get when you're excited and nervous all at the same time. That feeling that can be described as the quiet sense of calm anxiety before the rollercoaster lets loose and the drop begins with ever-increasing speed and screams of excitement and fear begin. Yes, that's the feeling this morning as the next chapter gets underway.
So, what's next? That's the question that I've received a lot over the past few months after transitioning out of my last company.
The answer is, Prota Ventures, a venture building studio. As we say on our simple landing page that was released into the wild this morning:
“We are Venture Builders. Forged from decades of business ideation, validation, and execution, our team of experienced operators are on a mission to launch inspiring new ventures and invest in early-stage founders.”
I'm honored to be part of such a great team of partners and advisors that are focused on bringing ideas to life. As Will, who's serving as our managing director, shared in his awesome post this morning, so far, three projects have passed our initial validation tests: Startup Rocket, WeCasa, and Ascend Growth Partners. We'll be talking more publicly about each of these as the beta-releases are ready.
One that I'm particularly excited about is Startup Rocket.
Over the past decade of working on ways to bring ideas to life, there have been a number of evolutions in the methods by which to do so. Namely in the startup community there has been the proliferation of the lean startup methodology. Yet, with all the information that is readily available, many talented early-stage founders still struggle with getting through the initial landscape from idea to funding.
We think that the majority of this struggle can be broken down into the fact that there is still no specific framework for the journey that begins with an idea that will undoubtedly be battle tested once truly researching, connecting with a co-founder, running specific experiments, obtaining validation (and disproving theories) and moving that idea forward.
So, Startup Rocket will provide a tested framework, a validation platform and a support network to help founders make it through this trying landscape.
If you are interested in joining, you can reserve a spot in the queue for our private beta here.
There will surely be a lot more to come in the weeks/months ahead.
For now, I'll close with this video...
It reminds me a lot of what the journey ahead will be like. The ups and downs. The joy of making it across death-defying leaps. The struggles of taking the wrong turn. And the passion that comes through from partners focused on the same goals
For more details about what we're up to, head over to medium here: http://bit.ly/23rF7B7.
Onward!