Builders

Our advantagePartnering with us gives founders a definitive edge over other companies in the same space by jumping over common pitfalls. Together we’ll make sure; the opportunity is validated, the timing is right, recruitment is a plus, and the funding is on point.

From day one, for the long runWe provide operational support, resources, and investment capital from the start, which allow our co-founders to excel on execution and growth. This enables us to keep moving fast, provide value to customers early-on, and develop a strong product-market foundation for continuous growth.

Builders and founders

Business founderIn the early days, our CEOs research, prototype, build-measure-learn, and pivot their way to a repeatable business model. Up next, they focus on sales, marketing, product, and everything else required to build and grow the business. During this process, our venture typically spins-out out the studio with fresh funds including their own team and culture.

Technical founderInvolved in everything related to product and technology, our CTOs are experts in their field and have loads of experience with building user-centred software products. Together with our studio engineers, our CTO’s make complex decisions in hours, not weeks. From day one until exit, the real passion goes into building a top-notch product team.

Why partner with us?

Be surrounded with founders who know their way around startups and scale-ups.
Gain flexibility to focus on things that matter instead of wasting time on things that we already figured out.
Secure funding for the early stage of venture development.
Collaborate with a team of smart and passionate people.
Earn solid compensation and meaningful equity.
Get hands-on operational support from our studio team.
Receive honest advice from a global network of tech leaders.
Get daily support with recruitment, accounting, and finance-related tasks.

Build better. Launch early. Grow faster.
Michael van Lier - Managing Director

Partner with us

We are spinning out new ideas regularly and love to connect with inspiring founders. By applying to our Future Founder process, we’ll meet-up early to assess if we could be a match. If you have what it takes to become one of our future founders, let’s talk!

Apply now Explore opportunities

FAQ

How do you evaluate future founders?

We evaluate founder applications based on our studio thesis and founder requirements. The goal of our evaluation process is to establish a tentative match between our founders, opportunities, and the studio team.

Our most important founder criteria:

Track-record as a founder or c-level leadership in startups or scaleups.
Operating experience in B2B markets.
Skills and knowledge in the field of tech and software.
Leadership experience with medium-large teams.
Located in Europe and willingness to relocate to The Netherlands.
Operating or building experience in SaaS products.
Long-term vision and commitment.

How invested is Builders in their ventures?

The commitment to our ventures is related to the stages in our framework. In the early days, our studio team is hands-on involved in building and launching the company. Later on, we gradually start adding people to the founding team, and our studio team’s involvement changes to a more strategic role.

How is the equity between Builders and co-founders divided?

We know equity is a precious and emotional subject. In the end, the numbers and added value all have to make sense. To ensure interests are aligned, and we become partners, we believe equity should be equally divided amongst founders. The outcome of this division results in an equal split between our studio and two co-founders. We believe it is essential that our co-founders hold a majority stake in our company for follow-on investments in the future.

How do ideas get sourced and validated?

All-year-round we are sourcing and validating inspiring ideas for market potential, customer demand, technical feasibility, and more. We source ideas based on industry insight reports, venture capital trends, and our global network of industry leaders. When we find the right challenge to solve, we gradually start validating the opportunity through desk and field research.

The essence of our validation process is to kill assumptions early, move forward with each success and keep iterating fast. Our approach is data-driven, meaning that the more promising data we find, the more efforts we will invest. We believe in validating through real, non-biased insights by conducting lean experiments, weather via landing pages, MVPs or other proven methods.

How is Builders financed?

Builders is independently financed through our studio fund, which is backed by our studio partners and visionary investors from around the globe.

Does Builders participate in existing companies?

Unfortunately, we do not participate in existing companies. Because we are focused on building companies from scratch; our approach, resources, and support can’t provide the same value to later-stage companies. Still, we are happy to hear from you and provide you with any advice that helps you along the journey.

I have an amazing idea for a new venture.

Great! While we are focused on early-stage company building, our approach to ideation is studio-led. This means that we only source ideas internally. We believe by keeping our ideation process in-house, we can sustain a non-biased mindset amongst our founding team and stay true to our studio manifesto. Your idea may align with one of our founder opportunities, but keep in mind that we always start from scratch.