The Studio-Optimist

While we all reflect on the year and make predictions, let me open up about my relentless optimism, almost by default. I truly believe that tech will be the force for good that we’ll rely and build upon at all times.

This year has marked the true glow-up for startup studios. The launch of a studio every week, packed studio events, and hyped fans are now a thing. We are told it's the best thing since snap-on wristbands. Even last week, I bumped into an entrepreneur I haven't seen for a while, you guessed it… launching a studio. While this hype cycle will pass, let me entertain you with why we should all be studio optimists.

Actually solving real-world challenges

Gone are the days of moonshots without changing the world for good. While in the beginning, studios were mere optimisation factories to get more startups out of the factory. Today, studios are emerging in all industries to empower entrepreneurs to tackle real-world challenges and craft outcomes that will benefit us all. Instead of looking for more reports on past studio successes, let's lean into the fact that accomplished operators are building places where collective effort is channeled to solve wicked problems. The results will come, and we must embrace the fact that fairytale land startup stories are and have never been, actually cool to brag about.

Capital markets have and will always change

Yes dude, really. For some reason, we need another bar chart or bubble map on our LinkedIn feed to tell us what we all know. Things have been shuffled around, get with the program! Yes, this is for the better, and you no longer need an excuse to stand out. Start already. A growing amount of studio founders have chosen to step away from the power-law game and focus on getting their companies to the finish line without believing in the absolute outlier truth. This is exactly what studios are poised to be, transforming how companies are built and not limited to a strict investment construct. Studios are leading this shift, and it's time for entrepreneurs to embrace this new paradigm.

Studios are perfectly imperfect

As studios grow in popularity and new players set up shop, everyone is screaming for more standardisation of the studio model and making everything the same boring sandwich. Heck, I’ve been part of a legal counsel aiming just that. Let me rectify myself and say it doesn't freakin matter! Studios can be awesome places for innovation and disruption because off-the-beaten-path creative operators run them. They don't need more boring whilst building a bigger rocket; they need the broader community's support to build. Not just in a mould we know, but any shape or form that will actually allow them to build, just build.

Techno future has surpassed the movies

I cannot stress how humongous the moves are in technology at this point in time. For those of us who experienced the rise of the personal computer and the .com era, what's unfolding now is off the charts more transformative. Heck, we’re building nuclear power plants to power data centres?! At the exact same time, we're in this flux field of expensive capital, high employment rates and total ignorance on who knows what. In these times, technology is where we should look for comfort.

It's the freaking first time we invent things in the real world first instead of copying them from movies.

While most groups you and I hang around will love all new tech, the world is still scared. As a true Techno-Optimist soldier, I believe we’re venturing into a time where tech will feel human for the first time. We should embrace a future where humanoids take care of our factories and software is taking the grind out of our daily routines. It's the freaking first time we invent things in the real world first instead of copying them from movies.

Let me leave you with this

To me, technology is not just a tool for change but the embodiment of human potential and ambition. It's the driving force behind societal progress and economic growth. Studios are built by the biggest optimists you’ll ever meet. They believe technology and human ingenuity will always prosper over the bad. Lean into the studio world, and they’ll filter out the bs and show you the promised land, I promise.

As a studio-optimist ourselves, we’ve published our Builders manifesto here.

Forward, always. ????