There is more than one way to build a company together.
You do not need to be a startup founder.
- You may be an investor with conviction.
- A business owner with an adjacent opportunity.
- An operator who understands an industry unusually well.
- A technologist who knows something has recently become possible.
- A creator with distribution.
- An expert with access.
- Or someone who has simply seen a problem closely enough to recognize that the market has accepted something it should not have.
Storyworlding can bring the company-building capability around that insight.
Six ways a partnership can start
- 01
Venture creation
Storyworlding originates the opportunity and builds the company.
Related - 02
Venture partnership
A person or organization brings an opportunity, market insight, network, asset, access, or thesis. We investigate and build together.
- 03
Founder partnership
An existing founder has an early company or thesis and wants a hands-on venture partner.
- 04
Joint venture
Storyworlding and another organization contribute complementary assets, expertise, capital, technology, customers, or distribution.
- 05
Strategic investment
Storyworlding invests in an existing company where there is strong thesis alignment and where we can contribute beyond capital.
Related - 06
Exploration
Someone has conviction around a market or problem, but the company has not yet been defined. We research it together and determine whether something should be built.
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Conviction, before there is a company.
Someone has conviction around a market or problem, but the company has not yet been defined.
We research it together and determine whether something should be built.
Often the most valuable market insight lives with the person doing the work.
- The photographer.
- The contractor.
- The nurse.
- The restaurant owner.
- The buyer.
- The analyst.
- The logistics operator.
These people frequently understand the problem better than anyone. What they may not have is a product team, venture infrastructure, technical capability, capital, or the desire to leave their profession and become a startup CEO.
- where the margins disappear,
- which workarounds everyone uses,
- what customers complain about privately,
- who actually has influence,
- where incumbents are vulnerable,
- and which supposedly fixed parts of the business are simply conventions nobody has challenged yet.
Being close to a market creates a kind of knowledge that research alone cannot reproduce. Exploration is how we put that knowledge to work before anyone has written a business plan.
The people who hold that knowledge should still be able to participate in what their insight creates.
Contribution on both sides
- A meaningful insight
- Proximity to a market
- A network
- A customer base
- A capability
- Capital
- Intellectual property
- Proprietary access or distribution
- Research
- Market validation
- Company formation
- Product strategy
- Technology
- Design
- Brand and narrative
- Business model design
- Distribution
- Recruiting
- Capital strategy
- Investment capital
- Ongoing venture support
Neither side is necessarily sufficient on its own.
Together, they can be unusually powerful.
Structure should follow contribution.
A Storyworlding partnership may involve:
- Equity
- Co-ownership
- Capital investment
- Revenue participation
- Commissions
- Operating roles
- Intellectual property
- Distribution
- Joint-venture economics
- Combinations of these
Someone who contributes enduring value should have a way to participate in the value created.
That does not mean every idea receives ownership, or that every contribution is valued equally. The structure should reflect the venture and what each party puts into it:
- Risk
- Contribution
- Ongoing responsibility
- Capital
- Access
- The venture itself
We do not promise specific economics in advance. Terms are set venture by venture.
The person with the idea should have a way to win.
Value creation should not become extractive simply because one participant knows how to build companies and another does not.
When we build something together, we want incentives to remain aligned as the company grows.
- The company should win.
- Its customers should win.
- The people who helped make the opportunity possible should have a mechanism to win with it.
- Storyworlding should win because we created something worth owning.
A few things that clarify the model
- We are not a development shop.
- We do not build to someone else's spec and hand it back. We build companies we intend to help own.
- We are not an accelerator.
- There is no cohort for ventures. Each opportunity moves on its own timeline.
- We are not an agency-for-equity model.
- Ownership follows the structure of the venture, not a trade of services for shares.
- We are not passive capital.
- When we invest, we expect to contribute more than money.
- We do not require the person who identifies an opportunity to become its CEO.
- Seeing it and running it can be two different roles.
- We do not need every investigation to produce a company.
- Finding out that something should not be built is a useful result.
Partnerships in the portfolio
Mastline began with a paparazzi photographer who understood the economics of his industry. He brought market knowledge, relationships, trust, and access; Storyworlding built the software; and his participation was structured so he shares in the ownership.
The Pull began with a lawyer who specializes in placements and sponsorships, and he is paid on every deal.
Have you seen something?
Bring us the opportunity before you turn it into a pitch deck.