Our Switch to the Venture Studio Model!

The Background

When we founded M&M, we always wanted to create an environment that enables talented people to build businesses that shape the future.

After several years of experimenting, iterating, failing, and meeting all kinds of different people, we can say that we found at least our secret sauce of how to start and scale digital businesses.

We were testing many different approaches - even the typical German approach that mostly focuses on business operations only rather than focusing on an outstanding tech product that people really love.

In the end, we stayed true to ourselves. Building sustainable businesses that can shape the future requires more than “intelligent” business people. We call it “Product and culture first, factory later.”

From now on we will be even more focused on the following things:

• Building our own stuff from scratch and solving problems we understand

• Partnering with entrepreneurs we like, that have skills we need

• Taking more risks, but also aiming for higher returns based on bold goals

• Giving complete trust to our people and helping them reach their potential

• Challenging our comfort zone

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with being a pure client services business. It can be a great business with good returns. Especially in digital industries, since the demand for tech and digital transformation talent is huge. But for us, it never felt natural. We always felt it is more for the people that think small and avoid risks. We always took more risk, even as pure sub-contractors, that was natural to us.

The Plan (Implementing a venture studio model)

We are taking it step by step with the structured process that will take us at least two years to finish.

As one of our first steps we spin-off our corporate startup offering into the new venture called Martian X (MX). MX will be focused on helping established corporations in the DACH region to innovate through startup creation. By incorporating all learnings we gained while working with big organization and combining it with our doing mindset, MX will set a new standard for corporate startup building!

Secondly, we will re-invest cashflow from servicing our existing ventures to experiment with new ideas. While working on new ideas, we will differentiate between 1) VC cases, where we need venture capital to make it work, and 2) niche software businesses that can be bootstrapped and that generate profits from the start.

Our model also includes working with seed-funded startups that lack crucial experience and skills to move faster and exchanging our margin for equity.

Finally, we will work with external capital and establish a structure that enables us to spin ideas on a scale. You can read more about the model on Netokracija or on Jutarnji List (Croatian sources).

The Team

In terms of team setup, we will keep our lean and senior core team focus, but we will also expand our partner's network with people that share our mindset and are great at their job!

We are looking for people in all disciplines necessary to build a software startup! If you are a software engineer, designer, product manager or owner, marketer, sales manager, business operations expert, we are always happy to talk.

More to come...

During the following weeks and months, we will write and post more about our venture building model!