In traditional venture, diligence means a few meetings, a data room, and some reference calls. Then you write the check and hope. However rigorous the process looks, it is fundamentally an interview: a snapshot of a company on its best behavior.
The venture studio model replaces the interview with the relationship. We are there at the founding. We see how a founder handles the crisis that never makes it into the deck, the pivot argued out at midnight, the customer that almost walked. By the time we decide to double down, it is not a bet on a stranger. It is the most informed decision in venture.
| What a founder gets | Typical VC | DGB |
|---|---|---|
| Capital | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fundraising and later rounds | ✓ | ✓ |
| Idea validation and first hires | – | ✓ |
| Sales and distribution | – | ✓ |
| Institutional network: banks, agencies, regulators | – | ✓ |
| In the trenches, from day one | – | ✓ |
Funds that come in later buy in after the risk is priced. A studio that co-founds owns the whole arc, and every step up is access a later investor can never buy back.
Because we co-found and then exercise our options to invest more capital as our companies grow, our stake sits second only to the founders and dwarfs any single later investor.
Multiplication, not addition.
A real prior cap table
DGB 19% is total ownership across DGB-controlled entities. Representative of an actual prior portfolio company. Illustration only.
First capital, first hires, first customers. We work the problem with you, from entity formation to product to go-to-market, and we stay after the honeymoon ends.
Tim Draper's global reach, a decade of relationships across digital securities and traditional finance, and warm paths into the institutions that decide whether your category exists.