List Of Top Startup Studios in 2022
Startup studios are one of the hottest topics in the startup world right now — and for good reason. Here’s a list of the top startup studios, their founders, and the companies they’ve helped launch so far.
The Boom Of Startup Studios
Startup studios have seen an explosion of growth in the past few years. By pinpointing problems and turning them into viable, scalable businesses, startup studios are creating the next generation of companies and entrepreneurs. With over 200 startup studios founded across the globe (and counting), top startup studios have accounted for the success of many well-recognized startups such as Dollar Shave Club, VacationRenter, Hims&Hers, and more.
Hands-On Support
The magic of the startup studio model is that while founders focus on building a product, the studio supports them in every other way that matters. Day-to-day operations are facilitated by the studios’ experienced team of marketers, designers, financial professionals, recruiters, and other subject-matter experts.
Over the past few months, we’ve been digging into 2022’s top startup studios and what these studios are doing to achieve impressive success. Below is a list of this year’s top startup studios in alphabetical order, as well as insight into their founders and top portfolio companies.
Top Startup Studios List
Atomic
Betaworks
Builders
Colab
Coplex
Devland
eFounders
Expa
High Alpha
Human Ventures
Nobody Studios
Pioneer Square Labs
Rocket Internet
Science
Wilbur Labs
Zuma Ventures
Atomic — Founded by Jack Abraham, 2012
Location: San Francisco
According to their website, “Atomic is a company that builds companies.” Through their disruptive ideology, the studio is able to pair innovative ideas with industry discipline to create fresh and inventive businesses.
Notable companies/projects:
Betaworks — Founded by John Borthwick, 2008
Location: New York
Betaworks invests in new consumer behaviors and trends powered by frontier technologies, leading the product-focused venture studio to build the next-generation internet companies.
Notable companies/projects:
Builders — Founded by Michael van Lier, 2015
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Builders is a Rotterdam-based startup studio designed to build and grow technology companies from scratch, by bringing together bold ideas, seasoned co-founders, operational support, and investment capital.
Notable companies/projects:
Colab — Founded by Jon Bradford, 2013
Location: Los Angeles
Colab is an innovative studio that partners with a select portfolio of strategic companies to design, launch, and grow early-stage businesses from an idea on a napkin.
Notable companies/projects:
Coplex — Founded by Anthony Johnson, Ilya Pozin, Nikola Mickic, and Zach Ferres, 2018
Location: Phoenix and Los Angeles
Coplex partners with corporations to create new startups, repeatedly, by providing entrepreneurial talent that validates, builds, and rapidly scales new business models.
Notable companies/projects:
Devland — Founded by Miles Dotson and Devon Fanfair, 2016
Location: San Francisco
Devland is a startup studio that focuses on building new innovative ventures with brilliant technologists and wildly underestimated entrepreneurs.
Notable companies/projects:
*Note: These businesses are still in the incubation phase
- Rain Research
- E-BX
- ØRetail
- Content-X
eFounders — Founded by Quentin Nickmans and Thibaud Elziere, 2011
Location: Paris, San Francisco, New York, Berlin
eFounders is a startup studio that builds enterprise software ventures and inspires new ways of working through the help of its 1,000+ team of experts in product development, finance, marketing, HR, and more.
Notable companies/projects:
Expa — Founded by Garret Camp, 2013
Location: San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, London
Expa focuses on building companies around mobile applications, platforms, and marketplaces with access to top U.S. and European investors and physical office spaces for entrepreneurs to collaborate and share knowledge.
Notable companies/projects:
High Alpha — Founded by Mike Fitzgerald, Scott Dorsey, Eric Tobias and Kristian Andersen, 2015
Location: Indianapolis
High Alpha is comprised of High Alpha Studios, High Alpha Capital, and High Alpha Innovation, which together design, build, and invest in B2B SaaS companies with world-class founders.
Notable companies/projects:
Human Ventures — Founded by Heather Hartnett, Joe Marchese and Megan O’Connor, 2015
Location: New York
Human Ventures goes beyond the business model to build and invest in model businesses with ambitious founders who are innovating around human heeds.
Notable companies/projects:
Nobody Studios — Founded by Mark S. McNally, 2020
Location: Laguna Beach, CA
Nobody Studios, a globally distributed high-velocity venture studio at the forefront of innovation and impact, brings together investors, founders, and creatives to forge companies with purpose, real-world value, and a human connection.
Notable companies/projects:
*Note: The following businesses are still in the incubation phase
- Ovationz
- OurHomeowners
- PrehabLife
- Espionage.biz
- SweatOptions
- FreakishData
- ggigg
Pioneer Square Labs — Founded by Ben Gilbert, Mike Galgon, Greg Gottesman and Geoff Entress, 2015
Location: Seattle
Pioneer Square Labs builds the next generation of world-changing companies, bringing together exceptional founders, big ideas, and investment capital.
Notable companies/projects:
Rocket Internet — Founded by Marc Samwer, Oliver Samwer, Alexander Samwer, and Fabio Tran, 2007
Location: Berlin
Rocket Internet builds and invests in internet companies that take proven online business models to new, fast-growing markets.
Notable companies/projects:
Science — Founded by Greg Gilman, Michael Jones, Mike Macadaan, Peter Pham, and Tom Dare, 2011
Location: Santa Monica
Science brings together the best ideas, talent, and financing through a centralized platform that helps uncover trends to be shared and tested across their entire portfolio.
Notable companies/projects:
Wilbur Labs — Founded by Phil Santoro and David Kolodny, 2016
Location: San Francisco
Wilbur Labs identifies large pain points and builds businesses to solve these problems, through shared resources, funding, and operational support.
Notable companies/projects:
Zuma Ventures — Founded by Allen Hurf and David Carter, 2014
Location: Santa Monica
Zuma Ventures functions as a dynamic technology studio working on several projects simultaneously with the ultimate goal of creating successful stand-alone companies.
Notable companies/projects:
Our Prediction
As you may realize by now, the core function of startup studios is to turn smart and innovative solutions into great businesses with significant growth potential.
Over the last few years, the nature of creating businesses has drastically changed with the introduction of high-tech, social media, and e-commerce platforms. Startup studios help founders navigate through all these kinds of roadblocks and unexplored territories, and offer compelling advice and resources. With just the snap of a finger, founders can dodge common obstacles and challenges to determine the shortest distance to success with the help of startup studios.
There’s never been a better time to get involved with these top startup studios. With the ever-growing digital landscape ahead of us and the never-ending opportunities for entrepreneurs to experiment with new business ideas and unexplored concepts, startup studios will most likely become the norm for launching more innovative companies in the years to come.
While this is an abbreviated list of startup studios from all around the world, there is a broader spectrum of studios out there that are helping thousands of ideas advance and flourish in the space. If you have a suggestion for additional top startup studios to include in this list, please drop us a line in the comments below!
