Venture Studio Architect - I help you design, launch, and grow your company creation studio.

Most innovation programs fail not because of lack of ideas, but because they lack a system for venture creation.

I help innovation leaders in corporations, universities, and economic development organizations build venture studios that scale and deliver. Backed by data, frameworks, and insights from studying over 500 venture studios globally.

As Senior Director of Research & Data at the Venture Studio Forum, I'm building the empirical backbone of the venture studio asset class. VSF is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing 1,500+ members who have built 650+ companies, 11 unicorns, and $48 billion in enterprise value.

My work establishes venture studios as a formal asset class through:

-Asset Class Analysis in partnership with MIT and Harvard, delivering the first institutionally credible research for LPs and institutional investors
-The Venture Studio Index (VSI) — the first open standard and formal definition for venture studios
-Studio Data Platform (2026) providing structured datasets and benchmarks for researchers and operators
-State of the Studio Report (2026) tracking trends, performance, and sector segmentation
-Policy recommendations for state and federal innovation agencies

Concurrently, as Partner and Head of Insights at 9point8 Collective, I translate this research into practice. We've designed and launched 25+ venture studios. Our approach builds clarity, alignment, and momentum at the intersection of innovation, capital, and impact.

I've spent 20+ years at the intersection of innovation, strategy, and venture building. I launched NCR's first internal accelerator (generating $90M from its first cohort), secured 27+ patents across AI and fintech, and developed investment frameworks that institutional investors now use to allocate capital into the studio model.

Speaking & Workshops: I deliver keynotes and workshops on designing high-performing venture studios, the future of venture creation ecosystems, and turning knowledge engines into commercial engines.

🎤 Book me to speak: VentureStudioForum.org/speaking
 📊 Learn from our research: newsletter.venturestudioforum.org
 🌍 Join the community: venturestudioforum.org
 💼 Work with us: 9point8collective.com

Matthew Burris

Venture Studios have a 100x advantage over accelerators and venture funds.

Studios vs. accelerators vs. VC vs. incubators

One of the simplest ways to compare them? Hands-on support.

Venture capital: maybe 30 minutes per week.

Accelerators: 1–2 hours a week. Mostly group sessions and some limited 1:1.

Incubators: slightly less. Some education, co-working space, network access. But very little operational involvement.

Venture studio: 20 to 100+ hours a week of hands-on execution.
Real operators. Half a person to an entire team building the business with you.

The range of support isn't even close.

P.S. Follow for more venture studio insights

I help innovation leaders build venture studios | Senior Director, Research & Data @ Venture Studio Forum | Partner, Head of Insights @ 9point8 Collective | Keynote Speaker | Trusted by 500+ Studios

Model Comparison.pdf

Venture studios aren’t VC

So why should we try to fit them inside VC frameworks?

The carousel below explains why this is the case (and breaks down an alternative model for venture studios instead).

For more on studio structures, capital efficiency, and the case for new frameworks for venture studios… 

DM/Comment “VSF” to join the venture studio forum (a community for the venture studio ecosystem)

Venture Studios Aren’t  VC Funds.pdf

I've been quiet for about a month. Claude code got me. I had to stop talking and start building.

For the last several weeks, our team at 9point8 has gone deep into Claude Code. Not as a curiosity. Not as an experiment. As a serious exploration of what AI automation can do for venture studio research, operations, and ecosystem development.

I'll be honest. I came into this with a healthy skepticism. I've spent enough time in manufacturing, engineering, and with machine learning to know that most technology hype collapses the moment it meets operational reality. The antidote to hype is always the same: test the claim against what it actually costs, what it actually produces, and whether the economics survive contact with the real world.

So we tested it.

What we found changed how I think about what's possible for this industry. Not in the vague, hand-wavy "AI will change everything" sense. In the specific, measurable, "here is what it produced and here is what it cost" sense.

Over the coming weeks, I'm going to share what we've been building, what worked, what didn't, and what it means for venture studios, for the 9point8 Collective, for the Venture Studio Forum, and for anyone trying to make informed decisions in this space.

The fundamental challenge for venture studios has always been a data problem. The people making decisions about studios, whether they're operators, investors, universities, corporates, or economic development organizations, don't have the evidence base they need. The data is scattered, incomplete, and inconsistent. 

We think we've found a way to start fixing that. At a speed and cost that would have been inconceivable six months ago.

More soon.

What does claude code mean for venture studios?

Corporate Venture Studios are surprisingly common in major corporations. 

Around a third of corporations with Corporate Venture Capital also have a Venture Studio.

Both serve different purposes, and they're distinct operationally, strategically, and financially.

Corporate VC is about gaining strategic access to an external startup, one that the corporation might one day acquire, partner with, or monitor closely.

A Venture Studio works differently, Instead of buying in, you’re building from the ground up.

Usually in a category where the corporation already has deep industry knowledge.

Two powerful tools, but useful for very different parts of the corporate growth strategy.

For more in depth comparison, check the carousel below

P.S. Follow for more venture studio insights

CVS vs. CVC.pdf

6 Common venture studio design mistakes

1. Incorporating Fund Too Soon
2. Picking the Wrong Follow-on Capital
3. Picking the Wrong Founder Archetype
4. Raising Capital Too Early
5. Designing Something Too Fancy
6. Pitching the Model Instead of Yourself

For more in depth breakdown, check the carousel below

The more focused you are early, the better your odds.

P.S. Follow for more venture studio insights

6 Common Mistakes Venture Studios Make Too Early.pdf

I'll be moderating at the Virtual VC Conf on March 31. Topic: “The Cap Table Problem: Do Venture Studios Make Startups Uninvestable for VCs?”  Join me and register free here:  https://vcconf.com?32

9Point8 Collective's Matt Burris moderates a venture studio panel on the cap table problem

We're hosting a live Venture Studio 101 with open AMA.

If you've ever confused a studio with an accelerator, incubator, or VC fund — this is the session that fixes that.

I'm sitting down with JT Benton for the kickoff of the Venture Studio Forum's University Speaker Series to break down:

→ The formal definition of a venture studio and the three roles every studio must play 
→ How studios actually differ from accelerators, incubators, and funds 
→ Why definitional clarity is make-or-break for institutions evaluating or building studios 
→ What organizations get wrong when they try to adopt the model

45 minutes. Interview, open Q&A, real discussion. Come with questions.
📅 Thursday, March 19 · 12:00 PM ET 📍 Circle - Link in comments

Session 1 of 5, running monthly March through July.

DÓBRA

https://dobra.world/

DÓBRA is an Impact Venture Studio. The very first Impact Venture Builder in Lithuania. 

We start from the ideation stage, create a brand-new startup teams around the concepts generated at DOBRA Grand Prix, grow them and hand over to the market (early VCs, corps).

Our key features: focus on impact, ideation stage (involving human and AI), community reward program, 
pre-seed/seed investments into the bunch of startups clustered around the same social issue, mutually benefit partnerships (business, government, non-coms, academia). 

For ideation, we created DÓBRA Grand Prix a cycle of events and activities designed to bring together experts, founders, VC, IT, non-comms, creators, devs, marketers, etc. to collaborate and develop innovative impactful solutions. Our 2023 track is in mental health.

Co-Founder, Head of Legal & Partnerships

Beagle Legal

Beagle Legal is a brand-new name on the Belarusian legal market, represented by a team of experienced and business-oriented lawyers: until April 2022, we were practicing as the Belarusian office of the top tier Baltic law firm COBALT.

Managing Partner

Holding Apteka Group

Board of Directors' Corporate Secretary

DOBRA Foundation

The DOBRA Foundation was established in Belarus in 2017 as a non-governmental organization the main purpose of which was to attract and unite financial, intellectual and organizing resources to appearing realize social impact programs and startups to develop social investment, innovations and entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, its activities started earlier - in 2013 with the largest contest of social startups in Belarus with educational and accelerations tracks – Social Weekend. Sixteen contests were held, more than 4500 initiatives of non-governmental organizations and citizens participated in them and almost 1.000.000 USD were invested directly by individual sponsors and companies. 

DOBRA was among the organizers of the Annual Social Business Forum, Social Impact Forum, other educational seminars and trainings about this topic.

Also DOBRA Foundation played a leading role in Belarus in the developing the right frameworks for a market for corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility, by unleashing the benefits for key economic sectors (including exchange of experience, analytics, analytics) and engaging in practical activities. Since March 2018, DOBRA Foundation has been hosting The UN Global Compact initiative in Belarus. 

The DOBRA Foundation was directly involved in the implementation and was itself the lead partner in 440 projects in past 8 years.

Board Member

COBALT Legal

Law Firm GLIMSTEDT

I was one of the founding partners of the Belarusian office of GLIMSTEDT responsible for the business development. My specialisation covered corporate & commercial law, M&A, corporate finance. Besides, I managed high-profile projects in such exclusive (for Belarus) areas of legal practice as public private partnership, investment activity and privatization.

Partner

BelJurBureau

Senior Associate

JurExpress

Associate Lawyer

I am a business lawyer with comprehensive international track record in M&A, Corporate advisory, Corporate Governance, Corporate finance & Capital Markets, Venture Capital & Startups.

I have more than 15 years of partnership background with leading regional law firms in the Baltic States and Scandinavia being a managing partner of their Belarusian offices, which gives an advantage in implementing the best legal know-how and business practices. Now I am managing my own boutique law firm Beagle Legal focused on cross-border and high-profile projects in all areas of business law. 

I am Co-Founder of DOBRA Impact Venture Studio which invents and innovates meaningful world-being solutions.

I am a startup mentor and enthusiast who helps to develop an innovation-based entrepreneurship.

I am a certified Independent Board Member having experience in various Boards.

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