The studio build pipeline has two new ventures in active development. Both are AI-native, which is to say: the operating thesis only works because the cost of running AI in the operating layer has dropped to where it is now.
We are not publishing details yet. Founders are still being hired, theses are being stress-tested. But the shape of how a venture gets into the pipeline is worth explaining, because we get the question often.
Where ideas come from
Three sources, in rough order of frequency.
First, the operating teams in the existing ventures notice an adjacent problem. The DevCode Identity team sees a category of customer asking for something the platform was not built for, and the question is whether that something is a feature, an extension, or a new venture. Most of the time it is a feature. Once or twice a year it is a new venture.
Second, partners and former colleagues bring us a thesis. Someone who has been operating in a category for ten years has a sharper view of where the next opportunity is than anyone reading market reports. The trust loop is short. Decisions can be fast.
Third, our own scanning of categories where AI changes the operating layer in a way that an incumbent will struggle to copy.
What gets built
A venture passes the studio gate when three things line up. The thesis is sharp enough that we can describe what we are building in one sentence. The founder, internal or external, can plausibly run the operating layer for the first year without studio life-support. And the unit economics, even in a sketch, do not require a miracle to work.
Most ideas die at one of those three. The two in the pipeline now made it through. We will publish more when they are ready.
— The studio