By Founders for Founders with Stackpoint

Each week I share the efforts my company, Wellspring International Capital Partners, LLC , makes to engage the superior academic, vibrant funding, and unrivaled founder communities that reside throughout the United States.

Our objective is to understand better the 3 W's: What is Working, what's next, and where funds are flowing. I've added a fourth "W", which stands for Why? Answering the “Why?” helps the Wellspring team provide our clients with information that allows them to make better-informed decisions.

This week I am thrilled to share the unique vision and core strengths and their approach to venture capital and entrepreneurship that define Adam Pase and Chris Kelly , the General Partners and Co-Founders of Stackpoint Ventures . For those not familiar with Stackpoint, Stackpoint is the first venture studio dedicated to building and investing in real estate technology companies.

Pase and Kelly, are proptech industry pioneers who navigated multiple businesses from conception through scale to create over $2b of combined equity value. They created Stackpoint to be the “ideal co-founder” for CEOs who aspire to build enduring real estate tech companies.

During our meeting, it was evident that these gentlemen consistently prioritize excellence and innovation in their ventures. Beyond Stackpoint, they support innovators and entrepreneurs everywhere by generously sharing industry best practices, processes and resources.

What is a Venture Studio?

Before I delve into my discussion with Adam and Chris, for those not familiar with the concept of a “Venture Studio”, this may be a good spot to explain what a venture studio is and the purpose they serve in the funding ecosystem.

Venture capital funds, accelerators, incubators, and venture studios are all crucial components of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, but they serve different roles and have distinct characteristics. For educational purposes here’s a quick breakdown of each:

?? Venture Capital Funds

• Purpose: Provide financial investment to startups in exchange for equity.
• Stage of Investment: Typically invest in later stages, such as Series A and beyond, though some may also invest in seed rounds.
• Involvement: Generally, offer financial resources, strategic guidance, and industry connections but are less involved in the day-to-day operations of the startups.
• Funding Structure: Raise capital from limited partners (LPs) and invest in a portfolio of startups, aiming for high returns on investment.

?? Accelerators

• Purpose: Support early-stage startups through a fixed-term, cohort-based program that includes mentorship, education, and funding.
• Stage of Investment: Focus on early-stage companies, often pre-seed or seed stage.
• Involvement: Provide intense, hands-on support, including mentorship, workshops, and networking opportunities. Typically culminates in a demo day where startups pitch to investors.
• Funding Structure: Often provide small amounts of seed capital in exchange for equity (e.g., 5-10%).

?? Incubators

• Purpose: Nurture startups and entrepreneurs by providing resources, mentorship, and office space over a longer period.
• Stage of Investment: Primarily focus on very early-stage startups, including those that are still in the idea or conceptual stage.
• Involvement: Offer more flexible and less structured support compared to accelerators, focusing on providing a collaborative environment, resources, and guidance.
• Funding Structure: Some incubators may take equity or provide funding, but many operate on a fee-based model or through grants.

?? Venture Studios

• Purpose: Create and develop new companies from scratch, often internally generating ideas and building teams to execute them.
• Stage of Investment: Involved from the very inception of the startup idea through its early growth stages.
• Involvement: Highly involved in the day-to-day operations, providing not just funding but also strategic guidance, operational support, and sometimes even the founding team.
• Funding Structure: Invest significant resources (capital, talent, and operational expertise) into the creation and scaling of new ventures, typically maintaining substantial equity in the startups they create.

In a nutshell, unlike an accelerator or incubator, venture studios don’t fund an existing idea — they incubate their own ideas, build a minimum viable product, find product/market fit and early customers, and then recruit entrepreneurial founders to run and scale the business. Examples of companies that have emerged from venture studios include Overture , Twilio , Taboola , Bitly , Aircall , and the most famous alum, Moderna .?

In an article written for the Harvard Business Review , Steve Blank , an adjunct professor at 美国斯坦福大学 , a senior fellow at 美国哥伦比亚大学 , and a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, provided the following graphic on “How Venture Studios Work”:?

Key Insights from My Interview with Stackpoint’s General Partners and Co-Founders

During our discussion, I noted that the company utilizes large language models and machine learning to address challenges in real estate, fintech, and related sectors. Their approach to supporting founders focuses on three main areas:

1. Strategic Network: Stackpoint has developed a network of subject matter experts who bring domain-specific knowledge to the table. These experts work with founders to co-create solutions aimed at addressing critical customer needs, which can facilitate a quicker and more cost-effective path to product-market fit.
2. Execution Capabilities: The team at Stackpoint comprises experienced founders who have successfully scaled early-stage enterprises into thriving businesses. Throughout the lifecycle of a venture, they provide the necessary operational support to navigate the complexities of growth.
3. Access to Competitive Capital: With a proven track record and extensive experience, Stackpoint has access to competitive capital, which they leverage to seed and sustain ventures from inception through exit. This can lead to more favorable financial terms for the ventures they support.

The discussions also highlighted Stackpoint's emphasis on building efficiencies and excellence from the ground up, aiming to transform innovative concepts into fully funded, market-ready solutions. This strategy appears to help in attracting both talent and capital under advantageous terms.

Additionally, Stackpoint is structured to provide comprehensive support, from the initial concept stage to scaling the business.

For more information about Stackpoint’s approach and what makes them unique, I invite you to explore their website .

Together, let's build the future of venture capital and entrepreneurship.

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Any opinions are those of Russell Ballew and not necessarily those of Raymond James.? This material is being provided for information purposes only and is not a complete description, nor is it a recommendation.? Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected, including diversification and asset allocation.