A Baltimore entrepreneur plans to open a venture studio at the Village of Cross Keys that will focus on helping companies quickly launch products.
Jason Goldsmith, the former CEO of Baltimore County car warranty company Carchex, is raising a $3 million fund and will launch B'More Venture Studio later this year. The company is currently negotiating a 1,000-square-foot office sublease in the Cross Keys development. Goldsmith plans to use a different strategy from the traditional venture capital investor. Similar to the StarTUp at the Armory's Tiger Fund, B'More Venture will focus on getting businesses ready to enter the commercial market and get acquired without years of development time.
“You don't have to raise a ton of capital,” Goldsmith said. “Not everything has to be a unicorn. There's lots of different ways to get there, especially for first-time founders.”
Most venture capital firms use an 80/20 model, which relies on a few massive acquisition deals to make up for most startups that fail. Goldsmith hopes to turn that model on its head by having a lot of companies get acquired at smaller dollar amounts instead of relying on a single large deal.
The key to this rapid acquisition strategy is having businesses that generate cash quickly without relying on too much outside investment. Goldsmith is partnering with 9point8collective, a consulting group focused on launching venture studios, on the project. His goal is to create companies that make money after 18 months.
Unlike most venture capital firms that invest in existing companies, B'More Venture Studio will be a vessel for the ideas of Goldsmith and his investors. The group will come up with ideas and then look for co-founders and other C-suite executives who are experts in the field. The venture studio is not Goldsmith’s first time investing in startups. He is one of the lead investors in CraniUS, a company that raised $19.4 million in 2022.
The studio will launch with three of Goldsmith’s companies later this year. Each company is in a different industry, hinting at the range of businesses Goldsmith hopes to create.
Red Tower Media focuses on creating videos like short horror films on YouTube or managing other companies' presence on the platform. B’More Brands sells a range of consumer goods, including wedding and home goods, on Amazon. The final company Goldsmith is working on is a digital ad agency. An advantage of Red Tower and B’more Brands is that they have distribution through companies that already have millions of users instead of having to build out their own websites and software.
"The audience is already there, the marketplace is there," Goldsmith said. "You just have to create products that have a product fit."
