Blacksmith
Give a startup an armor.
Here we are : Blacksmith is officially on the road. Some of you were wondering why Jeff & I were launching various companies, taking equity of new startups every 1–2 months. Here is the answer !
This journey started with a great opportunity last year, building our first startup. Previously at senior engineering positions, we discovered, thanks to our advisors, what was the other side of the mirror behind building a product, raising money (or not), growing a network and everything related to a company build-up.
This first startup was a great showcase for our little team that was quickly recommended around networks to help product builders.
In fact, there’s a huge market in the startup education & assistance. We were having in a couple of weeks several project owners coming to us and asking for help, as well we discovered the huge scene around them : agencies, incubators, advisors, studios.
Instead of becoming a classic agency, we moved our sight to an another model that was more in coherence with an entrepreneurial mindset.
First, startups doesn’t have tons of cash and second, they need more than just execution, they need a real daily follow-up. At the difference with big companies, early-stage startups have limited cashflow, so they need the best guys to get the job done ASAP. They don’t have time to waste and they need people available 24/7 in order to reduce their time to market and release fast. A few agencies have this flexibility, because :
1) In France, it’s illegal to make people work whenever you need them (look at the El Khomri law -that was approved last week- with the Right To Disconnect).
2) Cash gives a short-term commitment, equity is a long-term commitment, it comes with an incentive for the shareholder.
So the idea was simple, why don’t we help them to build their company in exchange of equity ? Specialist call it “services for equity”, as we are not only providing services, but we share our network with our startups, we raise money for them, we take real partnership position in the companies (we are today CTO-bis, CDO-bis, co-founder for the startups in our portfolio), we prefer to name it a “studio”.
The DNA of Blacksmith is a combination between an accelerator and a venture with a strong focus on product.
We do select the best people with the best ideas and we are helping them on building sustainable businesses by carrying help on vision, finance, whatever could be a friction point to young entrepreneurs and before everything, on product development.
Our portfolio is now counting 6 companies, some have been launched, others not yet. You may have crossed Mitch in the subway recently or seen Patrons in a couple of magazines, we are proud of them and proud of the job that has been done since a year.
Plus those wonderful stories, we do have now an office !
Feel free to say hi, 3 rue Geoffroy Marie, in the 9th, Paris, find behind the little red door the little office with a terrasse and a couple of bamboos.
Alexandre Pereira.
