Venture Studio Family

Paid community where venture studios share their numbers, docs/playbooks, & investors. Calls twice a month: 1 for requests + 1 for sharing best practices on attracting founders, fundraising, & processes. Suitable time options for all continents. Super strong studios inside, as well as emerging ones.

Founder

BDR Academy

We have experience in creating and promoting ~30 online courses for 120,000 students. Originally the company was named HYLS. Our current project is BDR Academy. Generally, we teach non-native English speakers – how to become a great BDR for B2B SaaS products on a 5-month online course. If you need well-prepared BDRs/SDRs, contact me.

POGUMAX – interior videomapping

We developed software for indoor projection video shows. We have 1000+ customers: hotels, restaurants & cafes, kindergartens & schools, museums & theaters. Selling software & projection kits.

Electronics E-commerce

I was reselling electronics through a social media platform. This was my first company. Started at 16; sold it at 17.

Venture Studio Community, Podcast, Research, Conferences, & Investment Syndicate. 3x entrepreneur

My name is Venture Studio (if you wake me up in the middle of the night 😁) because I did 7-month research on studios (that went viral on LinkedIn), hosted 2 largest venture studio conferences (1000+ regs each), launched a Venture Studio Family community, became an investment syndicate co-lead for studios, & recording studio podcast.
In my career, I’ve created 3 profitable companies from scratch:

1. E-commerce – reselling electronics on social media. I sold the business when I was 17 years old.

2. Projection technologies – POGUMAX, a company developing projection mapping software and selling projection kits. We have 1000+ clients: cafes & restaurants, kindergartens & schools, museums & theatres.

3. Online education – originally named HYLS, we launched 30+ online courses with a total of 120K+ students. Our current project is BDR Academy, where we teach aspiring BDRs for B2B SaaS companies on a 5-month online course.

I also record interviews with venture studio founders & VCs. Subscribe on Youtube: @pogmax

Sometimes, my producer/assistant helps me to answer comments & messages on LinkedIn (sorry if "my" answers here might be without the context of our previous conversation). True my email: maxpog@inniches.com 😁

April 11th, join for free our Corporate Venture Builder Online Conference with 9 speakers & 100+ Corporate and Independent Venture Studios, and other stakeholders from all over the World 🌎

This time, Max Pog delegated the hosting of this event to me, and I’m really curious to learn about: the keys to corporate startup collaboration, the strategies and business models behind thriving corporate studios, how to navigate challenges in corporate venture building, and how to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. More specifically:

1. The business model behind a successful corporate studio. – by Serge Dupaux, Director of Growth Foresight & Strategy at @ Creative Dock – CVB with a track record of 100+ successful ventures.

2. Avoiding common failure modes in corporate venture building. – by Matthew Brady, Managing Director of @ High Alpha Innovation – CVB that launched close to 20 companies, and raised $50M.

3. Different approaches to venture building and how it can propel both open innovation and entrepreneurship. – by Juan Montoya, CEO of @ Rokk3r that built 50+ companies, and designed 200+ digital products.

4. Venture Studio Family: the community for sharing numbers, best practices, docs, and investors – by Masha Shele, event & community manager @ Venture Studio Family.

5. The Brazilian Twist: The CVB model applied to Emerging Markets. – by Bruno Montez Carpes, Managing Director of UNITED by FCJ – the International branch of FCJ Venture Builder, LatAm's largest CVC firm with 48 funds, 1200 investors, and 220+ portfolio companies.

6. Dr. Melissa Sassi, Venture Partner at @ Machinelab Ventures who has scouted & developed 250+ tech founders in 80+ countries resulting in $500M+ capital raised & $2.7B in company valuations.

7. Ash Bhatia, Managing Partner of Enhance Innovation by @ Enhance Ventures – a venture studio with a $30M fund, known for its whitepaper on studios and the world map of studios (900+).

8. Collaboration between studios on different opportunities across Europe. – by Nathalie LAMBORGHINI DUMAS, Founder & CEO at @ FLYING RHINO – a startup studio that creates and accelerates digital platforms & ecosystems with impact.

9. Corporate Startup Readiness. – by Christian Hüttenhein, Corporate-Startup-DJ and Venture Clienting Expert.

+ Corporate Venture Studio Hacks contribution part. Share your studio’s best practices on partnering with corporations!

The link to register for free https://lnkd.in/daChb78i

P.S. Conferences can often feel too formal, but not with us. This time, we're celebrating our 'Across Borders' theme: bring an item that represents your culture or country for a memorable group photo that crosses continents and cultures 🌎

Max Pog

We're considering launching a marketplace for startup studios & entrepreneurs. A platform where founders can filter studios and apply to join studios and co-found startups.

It will also allow studios to get access to the database of founders who are looking to join studios.

We have a couple of bonuses for those studios that will fill out a 3-4 minute form about how they attract founders:
1. Early access to the platform when it will be launched
2. A bonus article about how an experienced studio that raised €40M shows 6 values of a studio for serial entrepreneurs

Please fill out the form: https://lnkd.in/dtnnmAfx

Real story: You're a co-founder of a SaaS startup that has raised $10M+, grown to 100+ employees, & reached an ARR of $10M+; you're in the position many entrepreneurs dream about, but...

... each day, visiting the office and having online calls with your team and customers, you're feeling less and less satisfied.

Finally, you realize: "I want something bigger than me & my company; I want to make an impact in the world; I have a passion for social & sustainable entrepreneurship."

You make probably one of the hardest decisions in your life, or at least in the last decade: you leave your startup to follow your passion. You want to build a Climate Tech startup.

You don't have many connections in Climate Tech, so you're looking for a program to find co-founders. Only one is available in your city, but it's not focused on Climate Tech, so you continue your search.

Finally, you're meeting your future partners. And their idea shocks you – by joining them, your positive impact on climate might be multiplied by 100s times compared to launching one startup...

... You're joining them to launch a venture builder in Climate Tech called Carbon13 – to help entrepreneurs find the team and launch startups. Like Entrepreneur First but for Climate Tech. 

This is the story of Michael Langguth, a co-founder of Carbon13, but even more interesting – their numbers:

1. In 3 years, they launched 150+ startups, each to mitigate 10+ million tonnes of CO2 annually.

2. For each cohort of entrepreneurs, they get ~750 applications and choose 80 best ones for a 10-week program (first phase out of 8 months). 50-60 individuals out of 80 form 20-30 teams.

3. After 4 months, Carbon13 chooses 6-15 startups to invest £120,000 (~$150K) each for 10% of equity. 

4. Next 4 months – to prepare startups for demo day & external funding – 80% of startups receive follow-on funding.

5. So far, Carbon13 invested in 65 startups – total of $10M+. TVPI of 2-3x.

6. And it's a huge opportunity. According to McKinsey, the total market size for decarbonizing operations and products will be $9-12 trillion by 2030, not billion.

7. The average age of entrepreneurs joining their cohorts is 38. 30% are women. 30-50% have business ideas. 40-60% are full-time employees or freelancers. 50% are locals (Germany & UK), and others are from the US, India, Nigeria, and other parts of Europe. 64% of the teams have at least one female co-founder.

8. Recently, they announced the first close of their €30m fund.

Watch the full interview with more secrets, hacks & details on launching a venture builder, forming teams & fundraising: https://lnkd.in/dTZxTczX

Bonus. The Carbon13 team interviewed 30 female founders and prepared a comprehensive article (I would call it a mini-book or white paper) on how to found a startup to fight the climate crisis. Read and share: https://lnkd.in/d7vMinXm

Compare 2 approaches: 
1. Late-stage VC: "If you put a $50M check in a $2B-valuation company, you'll have 2% of equity and 0 or minority vote rights. The founders could not even answer your phone call."
2. Venture Studio: "Invest $50M in building 10 companies, and you'll get way way way more value, control & experience"

Here is how a $500M VC firm (that made ~20 deals of $20-50M) transitioned from late-stage investments into the venture studio model:

1. Based in Europe since 2017, they have started approaching the US unicorns, but it wasn't easy to get into the deals. So, they started partnering with US companies to help them grow in Europe as business development partners (for free).
2. After providing value, investing became easy. They also decided to build joint ventures in Europe with these US companies. 
3. Soon, it became obvious to the VC firm that they could build companies without US partners. In 2020, they combined the venture studio model of launching startups with the Private Equity approach of buying companies.
4. It became successful – out of 7 launched companies – 5 are alive today. One of the companies, Cowa, is valued at $750M generating $30M EBITDA.

This is the story of LIAN Group from its co-founder Fiorenzo Manganiello & investment associate Robin Vaks. More ideas:

1. To fundraise for a studio (as an abstract concept) might be difficult – some investors are willing to invest in specific companies but don't like others. This is why they've decided to fundraise on a deal-by-deal basis. Investors love the due diligence process and want to tell a story about the company they've supported.

2. 2 reasons for founders to build a startup with the studio – 1) a team of 50 employees helping them to succeed & 2) capital – save much time that you waste on fundraising.

3. In the best scenario, a $500M fund aims for 3x cash on cash. With the venture studio model, you aim for 5-10x in 5-7 years.

Watch the full interview: https://lnkd.in/diB8d5-5

Bonus article from Fiorenzo & Robin – The Synergies of Private Equity and Venture Building: https://lnkd.in/dcYW9wPB

Maxime Rutagarama, Erenik Yzeiraj, David Wigger, Clémentine Savy, Nessim-Sariel GAON, Stéphane Muller, Pierre-Emmanuel Besnard, Jacopo Spoto, Alexandre Tréhu, Michele Di Minno, CFA, Veronica Tsurankova, Marco E. Chong, Matteo Cardarelli, Laura González-Valdizán

Today, I met a GP who made ~6x multiples in Fund I and ~22x with Fund II (these are 7-year funds, so IRRs are even higher compared to 10-year ones). This GP is now in the process of raising Fund III. And it's not easy even with such a track record – they will rely mainly on their previous LPs. 

So if your fundraising is going bad, it's not your fault: 
Even great-track-record VCs struggle. 

What can you do if you can't change the market?
Not so many options.

1. Postpone fundraising plans and wait. You'll reduce some demand for capital, and your fellow GPs will thank you :) 

2. Change the model that will allow you to succeed with less capital; for example, another investment stage, another focus, or a VC fund can be turned into an accelerator or a venture studio. It's like a pivot for a startup – risky, stressful, and energy-consuming, but still better than failing.

3. Grow your LP funnel. Create content, develop outbound marketing & host events. During the last 6 months, my team and I organized 6 online conferences for venture studios, VCs, LPs, angels, & family offices. With no marketing budget (and just creativity), each time, we reached 500-1250+ registrations & several hundred people simultaneously online. 

If you think that additional 30-60 Family Offices + 50-150 angels + 40-80 LPs on your public event can bring many benefits for your fund, studio, or startup, let me know in a DM or comments (you can comment "+" to indicate your interest). I'll share the strategy / event plan / examples & offer how we can help.

If you visited some of our events, help me reach more people by liking & commenting. Do you like our conferences?

One of the most unusual startup studios I've met (€20 million revenue out of 8 spinoffs in 4 years) focuses on university dropouts. 

"Don't judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree." Some people are not good at studying, but "they have energy and velocity to put on the table." They call their founders ⚽️ Kylian Mbappé because they are very young & talented – the studio is like a football training center.

THE QUEST is a bootstrap startup studio launched by 5 co-founders in Paris. The studio provides a 90-day evergreen mentorship program, invests €100K per company (at €1.5M cap), & supports the startup until the seed round or up to 18 months. It takes 10% equity for the program and another 6.7% for investments. Now, it has 4 new projects and plans to launch 7 startups annually.

Inside the studio, they've launched internal digital agencies to have cash flow & also provide marketing services to startup founders at cost.

Examples of their portfolio companies include:
1. Revoltrain (€2M revenue in the 1st year, €3M raised) – build the N°1 worldwide group of online schools that train for the jobs of the future.
2. Minea (€100k MRR in the 1st year): SaaS for Decision Making for E-com owners + Influencer Marketing
3. Mobula (€1M raised) – a crypto aggregator with decentralized governance & transparent data manipulation.

This is the story of Robin Seligmann, a co-founder of The Quest. He admitted that they made all types of mistakes while launching a studio, including:

1. Earlier, they made different terms for different deals — an opportunistic approach. Later, they switched to the strict model.

2. Earlier, they micromanaged their founders and treated them as children. Later, they started to focus on gathering strong teams who could lead companies.

3. Earlier, they prioritized opportunities above culture. Now, cultural matches are more important than projects. People are first, and projects are second.

Watch the full interview: https://lnkd.in/dwrekhDA

P.S.: their website is a masterpiece. Try to read it, and do not apply for the 90-day game: https://lnkd.in/dUtaKJtw

Julian Ivaldy 🏴‍☠️ Maxime Blondel Maxime Paradis Adams Salahou (Douss) Médoune Diack Pierre Paris (Paname Automatise) 

Do you know what is common between 1) a consultancy business, 2) a digital marketing agency, and 3) a corporate venture builder? A lot. Recently, I was surprised to learn that most “corporate venture builders” work for commissions, not for equity (as it usually happens in independent venture studios). The similarities between the three:

1. It is quite easy to start without capital – you just need a customer (better 2+) with a retainer or fixed fee per project.

2. Yes, you can have some success fee or KPI-based fee to imitate skin in the game (but make sure that your skin is not at risk due to at least a minimal “at cost” retainer).

3. Low entrance bar – fierce competition (until you have some unfair advantages).

4. In most cases, it’s difficult to scale, difficult to delegate management and difficult to sell a company.
You're constantly putting out client fires and always in stress.

5. You always have one of two problems: 1) either you can't keep up with your commitments to your clients, and you have to hire, or 2) you don’t have enough customers, and you have to fire.

6. After 3 years, you swear not to launch a service company anymore, and you discourage others from this type of business.

7. Product companies, e-commerce & even logistics seem much easier to make the same amount of money.

8. Sometimes, you feel lucky to have a profitable business (not all these 80%+ of startups with venture capital and beautiful storytelling to extend the runway until bankruptcy).

Hope there are many mistakes in how I perceive it from some stories I heard.

Honestly, I don’t mind having one of those three. It couldn’t be so bad. In fact, it’s so attractive to generate cash flow fast. And I seem (naive) to have two simple ideas that can help such types of businesses get started (I hope to test them one day).

If you lead one of such businesses, I would be happy to ask a couple of questions and get your feedback.

Comment or DM what type of company you have and whether I was right or wrong with some points. I’ll ask you questions in a DM.

Yesterday, I was inspired by Jake Hurwitz's post about his one-year-old company, which reached $72K MRR by providing a productized service: weekly podcasts and newsletters for $6K a month.

Everyone knows how content creation can help you reach your business goals, but it’s so time-consuming that there is a 90% chance that you’ll stop in a couple of weeks. Jake and his team handle all the details; clients simply need to appear for a weekly 1-hour podcast.

The same is true with online conferences — if you host them, you gain so much influence, thousands of new connections, and followers. You become a community leader, making it much easier to find partners, customers, and investors. But organizing takes so much time that almost no one even starts.

It got me thinking about turning our experience of organizing 500-participant online conferences into a productized service — Conference (+ community building) as a Service.

1. You become the leading voice in your industry by uniting experts, founders, and investors at regular online conferences and in the community.
2. We handle 99% of the work involved in organizing the events every 2-3 months, 5-15 speakers each time. Plus, community building.
3. You (or your company) only need to show up as a host to hundreds of participants. The rest is on us.

Would you hire us? If interested, let me know. Looking for the first ideal customer. 

Who knows, a new CONFaaS company can be launched.

P.S.: This is the second time I've been inspired by Jake's stuff. Earlier, my interest in venture studios came from reading his white paper "The Rise Of Startup Studios." Jake co-founded GSSN in 2018, which was acquired in 2019 by Global Accelerator Network.

P.P.S.: Jake moderated one of our venture studio online conferences. He also founded The Gallery, a publication for startup studios, and he has published 13 podcast episodes with studio experts.

I’m sorry for publishing this. I’m not sure it’s ethical, but I believe it’s for the better version of me [and hope others].

I have a short window of enlightenment regarding understanding the words [which I usually ignore like spam] “Impact,” “Social Entrepreneurship,” “Climate emergency,” “War,” & “Sustainability,” and I want to prolong this window.
This happened to me during the last 24 hours and totally shocked me:

Ep 1.
Participating in a call with venture studios. The invited speaker, after discussing all the nuances of studio operations & strategies, says, “Studios are not for creating fluffy businesses. There are many real problems in the world to be solved.”

Ep 2.
Having a call with a Family Office. Their focus is not just investing in Deep Tech. The man says that there are 3 types of family offices: 1) those who are focusing on profits only, 2) those who focus on profits, but if there is some impact – it’s a good bonus, 3) those who consider profits & impact as equal goals. They are the third one: “If it’s not impact – we don’t invest.”

Ep 3.
Answering the question under my last published podcast where my guest left his startup with 100+ employees & $10M+ ARR because of his passion for social & sustainable entrepreneurship to start a new venture in Climate Tech.

Ep 4.
Discussing some of my fluffy business ideas with a good acquaintance…
…

Ep[ic] 5.
… I’m finding myself depressed on the roof of a 5-story building; it’s too high to fall and scary… The next moment, I decided to do anything possible in the worst situation I had ever felt. I would pay a lot of money (it doesn’t matter) to rebuild the roof and build the fences, even if it’s too late… discussing the tragedy with my wife how it was possible that our child … [it was my dream] felt from it, I saw how he was falling, even not crying… is it possible to do something? resurrect?

Ep 6.
I’m waking up in horror – hearing the breathing of my 4-year-old boy. Thinking for 2 hours about how it is possible that people can die and how their relatives can survive the loss. Nothing doesn’t matter when it happens. 

Preventing tragedies and reducing suffering feels like the only legitimate activity.

______________________________

When you read news about wars, earthquakes, or climate emergencies – you don’t feel the difference between 10, 100 or 50,000 deaths. It’s somewhere far away. It’s like a banner blindness, or human (& animal) death blindness. But even one [close to you] life is so-so-so important that you would pay any money to avoid it.

I feel that there is a huge chance that in a couple of days, I’ll soon forget about it, become blind, and will again have the 1st-or-2nd-type mentality of family offices from ep2.

And I know there are many people with the 3rd type of mentality. How have you switched there, and how do you remain there? And what helps you to be optimistic?

P.S.: there is something mystical when you have no choice & do something mission-driven.

One of the best feelings I ever had as an entrepreneur was when I decided to shut down my “startup.” Really! I believe most entrepreneurs feel the same. It was 2020, and my video projection company was facing a situation where our customers (restaurants, kindergartens, museums) began to cancel projects.

In the first month, 20% of customers canceled contracts. Next month – 60%. We were trying our best to find new customer segments. Then COVID restrictions closed all public places, and we lost all our customers.

I didn’t know when the situation would be resolved, so I decided to reduce the team's costs by 75%. It was hard to lay off 6 out of 8 people on the team. I decided to lay off only 3 people and, with 3 others, to try a completely new idea – consulting for small businesses.

We created content, a website, social profiles; were planning to organize some online events; contacted some experts to attract them to speak; it sucked; we were trying to sell services – it didn’t work; at the same time, it was stressful because of COVID and losses; we pivoted – it didn’t work again.

In 2 weeks of these burdensome experiments, I suddenly admitted that what we were doing was irrelevant to the market, and I had to lay off these 3 teammates.

The moment I made the decision – my emotional state became so high. It was a light at the end of a tunnel. Just make several calls and cancel all the tasks. It took me just half of the day to stop all the activities and find a way to part ways with employees on good terms for both parties, and I was completely free!

It felt like a huge success – the same as when I sold my first business after one year since inception.

Complete relief from stress!

It hurts while you’re struggling. When you take a cold, hard look at the situation and take the right actions – shut down the project – it makes you feel so good.

P.S.: in 3-4 months, my projection business again became profitable, and I was able to return some people back to the team.

There are two ways in life (#1 and #2), as well as two approaches to venture studios, VC funds, and startups:

1. Focus. Strive to be #1 in something, focus on it, and work harder than others.
2. Curiosity. Always follow your curiosity and be able to switch to completely new things if your interests change.

1. Be a vertical or niche venture studio that reaches such a level of expertise in their focus that no one has.
2. Be an agnostic or an opportunistic venture studio that follows trends.

1. If you’re #1 on the market, you get much more revenue & opportunities than the company #2.
2. If you follow your curiosity or trends – you’ll never be tired, and you’ll be more likely to create companies that will be leaders in the future (if you’re operating in a rising market like AI).

1. At the same time, if you’re truly working hard to be #1, then you either create a new market or you’ll be in a much better position than all the others who join the new trend.
2. However, the “Follow curiosity” approach gives you more chances to innovate because “what looks hard work for others – for you is just a play.” You will be more efficient than those who are doomed to carry a heavy burden of the focus.

1. Make logical decisions.
2. Listen to your heart.

In some periods of life, I am more inclined to the “hard work #1” mode, in other – to the “oh, wow, this is cool, I want to do new things”

What do you think about those two ways? Is there the ultimate right answer?

– My answer will be: Through curiosity (#2) reach focus and become #1 (#1)
– My wife’s answer: “You’re artificially creating the division between the two concepts — they are one.”

As many of you know, from 2012 to 2022, I was the co-founder and CEO/Chairman of the group of the world's pioneering hardware startup studios. TechnoSpark and its seven regional studios launched over 750 new startups (each studio started approximately one per month). In 2020, the annual revenue of new companies reached $175 million. Together, they created more than 3000 high-tech workplaces. You can find detailed information in my interviews, including the podcast with Max Pog. 

While my primary focus has always been on the business, I have consistently dedicated a portion of my time to sharing my experience. I’ve been a regular speaker at various business schools, discussing startup studios, venture-building instruments, new investment vehicles, business models in deeptech, the mindsets of studio founders, and other topics. However, due to the increasing demand for personalized guidance, I have decided to reduce my speaking engagements and devote more time to one-to-one mentorship. This shift is prompted by the entrepreneurs and investors seeking my guidance in launching their startup studios.

This year, in addition to my core business in the venture industry, I will select and support up to FIVE individuals venturing into startup studios for the first time. Each founder and investor embarks on a unique journey, and my mentorship will be tailored. Given the early stages of these projects, the founders may not be in a position to offer shares in exchange for my involvement. However, they will have the opportunity to compensate me for my contribution with a mutually agreed-upon monthly fee. 

If you are a new founder/investor in a startup studio looking for support to clarify your future and radically reduce risks, send me your request in DM. 

#startupstudio #venturestudio #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

In this post, you’ll learn about the ultimate text killer tool (I’ve been using it for several years, well before the GPT-4 era), but first, I’ll begin with the list of types & goals of writing:

– To sell something
– To build following
– To free your mind from some ideas
– To say that you’re alive (companies usually do this type of SMM)
– To show that you can (complete a challenge of 30 days of writing and [ideally] develop a habit)
– Others do, so I
– To impress (good writers are always good thinkers) & build credibility
– To feel good by being creative + disciplined + having communication & getting [hope good] feedback
– To turn people into your religion, serve humanity or God
– To hire (great people) or to be hired (by great people) or just to find like-minded people
– To launch new companies (my last two ones were accidentally launched through writing) or create more opportunities
– To think more deeply than without writing
– To create plans, strategies, instructions & be focused
– To make others better, happier, smarter
– To learn something new (from comments or while deeply thinking) or language

These are bad things about writing and its consequences:

– It’s much easier to read than to write
– It’s hard to start writing (impostor syndrome / you don’t want to seem stupid, etc.) & easy to stop
– It’s time-consuming
– It’s time-consuming 2 while reading comments & answering
– It’s time-consuming 3 while fighting with FOMO of collaborations, meetings, & new ideas because your inbox correlates with the success of your writing. 
– People will judge you, especially if you're doing something that doesn't make sense (why is Max posting something boring, not about venture studios?)

What good products exist to help people write? Do you know more? Share in the comments.

1. Educational courses,

2. Copywriting challenges,

3. Grammarly,

4. GPT4 / other AI tools to refine your writing,

5. AI tools to write for you (I think in 90% of cases now, it serves only the target of “Just to say that you’re alive & that you know how to use GPT”)

Now, the text killer tool (or I would call it the hesitation killer tool). I’m not affiliated. One of the most valuable tools I have been using for several years is a website where you start writing your text, and if you’re not typing for 6 seconds, it deletes everything you wrote (once I lost 20 minutes of text & it is worth it). 

It saved me days of hesitations when I was procrastinating on some writing tasks (answering difficult emails, writing a description for a YouTube video, or coming up with a business strategy). You can set up different timers from 3 to 60 minutes to focus on writing. Try it https://bit.ly/killertxt

I would be happy to use/launch a similar tool you can use in any app (at least in Notion + Google Chrome). Do you love the idea and want to build it? Let me know in a DM.

Also, comment if you know some great products helping to write (you see my funny attempts last three days).

Business opportunity or hallucination? Have you ever felt that a suggested online meeting or coffee might be interesting but hesitated because you don't want to waste your time? (Like if yes, ignore if no)

From one side, entrepreneurs, influencers & CXOs are reached out by many people. Some of them want to sell you something, some of them “explore collaboration opportunities,” and some just want to get acquainted. Some of them are so cool that sometimes it’s difficult to reject a meeting (FOMO), but there is still a risk of wasting time.

From another side, sometimes you want to reach out to someone and think that you can collaborate effectively for both parties, but you don’t always have a good connection to make an intro, and your cold email is not always answered, nor are your two follow-ups.

Intros might also be irrelevant. If someone wants to meet you, you don’t want to offend your connection by rejecting a meeting with a third party (if your connection didn’t ask for approval before the intro).

THE IDEA is to establish a standard where initiators of communication can offer a one-click payment for a 30-minute meeting (let’s say $50, $100, or $500). At the same time, “popular” people can also send a paid meeting calendar (like in Calendly) for such occasional meetings if they hesitate about whether it is worth their time.

It’s transferring the risk of losing time on a not-relevant (you don’t know it before) meeting to those who initiate communication.

Why it can not work:

1. Busy people just have a very high level for saying “yes” to the opportunity and their time is very expensive to risk. They will just ignore anything that doesn't directly address their #1 problem or goal.

2. Network, intros, and a good cold email solve the problem.

3. Ignoring + “What do you want to discuss on a call? What potential partnership do you have in your mind?” + “Have a call with my PA first” – good alternatives.

4. For sellers, the price can not justify it – they can just make 20 more cold messages to generate 1 free meeting and it can be cheaper.

5. Adoption of the “communication standard” will take a lot of time. You’ll seem rude offering a paid meeting with you if someone reaches out to you.

What do you think? Would you waste 10-20 hours to explore this idea / brainstorm / test and potentially co-found a startup based on this idea? Let me know.

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