Venture Studio
We do not only advise. We build
COELIS creates and operates its own ventures. They run on ordinary commercial tools held together by our method: roles per decision domain, who signs what, and a record of what was done. It is why we can say the method works rather than claim it.
What a venture studio is
Most consultancies advise. Some invest. We build: ideas come from inside, get validated with structured methods, the business and operating models are designed, the product is built and then run.
The model does two things. It creates value on its own: each venture is a real company designed to stand up. And it is the proving ground for the method: when we recommend an architecture to a client, we can point at a venture where that choice already held, or already broke.
The rules we apply to ourselves first
Four rules that apply to our ventures and to client engagements alike.
We test on ourselves first
Every method, framework and tool we recommend has been applied to one of our ventures. If it does not work for us, we do not sell it.
Structure before scale
We design ventures the way we design management systems: clear processes, defined roles, measurable outcomes, traced decisions.
Same method, different context
The five phases hold for a utility’s asset management system and for a music label alike. The method is the constant; the domain is not.
Build to operate
We do not build to flip. Ventures start with a sustainable operating model, which is exactly what we ask of clients.
Why we build our own ventures
A consultancy that operates nothing of its own can only describe how it is done. Our ventures are where the method meets real clients, real deadlines and real accounts, and where it breaks, before it breaks at your place.
Each venture is a company in its own right, with an economic model that has to stand on its own. If an architectural choice does not hold, we find out on our P&L before you find out on yours.
How a venture starts, grows and ends
This is not the working method: that one is single, applies to client engagements too, and lives on the "Method" page. These are the five portfolio steps: each one ends in a decision that says whether the venture goes on, changes shape or stops.
Assess the opportunity
Market analysis, evidence that the problem is real for someone willing to pay for it, reachable market size and a first economic model.
The decision
The venture opens, or the idea is filed.
Architecture sprint
Business model, technical architecture, operating model and launch plan. This is where the venture takes the shape it will live with.
The decision
The architecture holds up economically, or it is revised before money is spent.
Tooling rollout
A business system, an activity tracker, company mail and file storage: ordinary commercial tools, chosen because they are cheap and tie nobody’s hands. The method goes on top: roles per domain, who signs what, an action record, agents on repeatable work.
The decision
The venture can run day to day without extraordinary intervention.
Operate and grow
Day-to-day running with those tools: indicators under watch, processes corrected by use, automation advancing where volume pays for it.
The decision
The numbers confirm the model, or they disprove it and it changes.
Exit or hold
Assessment against portfolio objectives: how much capital and attention the venture absorbs against what it returns.
The decision
Prepare the sale, hold it in the portfolio, or close it.
How the work is actually done inside each of these steps (the five phases of the COELIS method, the same ones client engagements follow) is explained here: Method
Have a venture idea?
The architecture sprint takes an idea from concept to a structured architecture: business model, stack, operating model and launch plan.