A new venture-based studio is launching in Pittsburgh to help scale and launch local startup companies focused on providing software, AI and other technology-related innovations.
Hooman, the studio's working name, will be led initially by a trio of those immersed in Pittsburgh's startup ecosystem, though it'll look to add additional founding members in the coming weeks and months to further build out its expertise and offerings for local founders.
Leading those efforts is Lynsie Campbell — startup czar at the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, founder of ShowClix and LaneSpotter and a founding general partner of The Fund Midwest. She'll be joined by Nathaniel Minto, the former vice president of product from ShowClix before it was acquired as well as the founder of health care regulations startup New Ambit. Alejandra Rovirosa, an investor with The Fund Midwest as well as Illuminate Ventures, 99 Tartans and Ernst & Young, will also help launch the studio.
According to Campbell, the studio is looking to offer a more hands-on approach for founders than a traditional accelerator program, with the studio's organizers acting as co-founders to the startups that enroll in the studio. In return, the startups will receive help with initial market analysis, revenue modeling, marketing and branding and the building out of their go-to-market strategy up until the startup is ready to raise its first seed-stage fund.
"We'll take them through our process of trying to figure out is there a market for this, is there a customer for this and do we think we have the skills to make this successful with you," Campbell said.
Campbell said founders can embark on the studio route with just an idea formed following some initial research in which Hooman will then pair them with one of its co-founders who can help to take the concept to reality. The studio might also identify ideas of its own to build out and will tap into the ecosystem's pool of founders to help spearhead such an initiative.
"Really, the core of this is all people, it's finding the best founders, the best mentors, building really for the customer and the consumer and keeping in mind that at the other end of your software is people, and, ultimately, we have to be solving a problem and doing something good for people," Campbell said. "I think really building that into the culture of the studio and every company we spin out as being really a positive impact in some way, shape or form."
Campbell said she hopes the studio will be able to spin out at least one company a year but potentially could launch as many as four depending on funding and resources, both of which are still being secured. It's partnering with the Global Startup Studio Network to help with that, partaking in its eight-week bootcamp with others who have been successful at running studios around the country to better refine Hooman's playbook and to decide what makes the most sense to offer the region and its founders.
"We're going to hustle, we're going to move as fast as we can," Campbell said. "I think there's a big opportunity to do something in Pittsburgh right now. I think the region is hungry for it, I think the founders are hungry for it and I'm excited to really expand the offering of early stage in Pittsburgh and continue to establish us as a tech hub and a place where you can really start and grow a startup, you don't have to leave, you can do it here."
Building on that momentum, Campbell also announced the close of funding for The Fund Midwest and said she plans to announce the first six investments the fund has made since its close soon, none of which are in Pittsburgh but that too could be changing in the near future, Campbell said.
Each spun-out company, Campbell estimated, could see anywhere between $250,000 to $500,000 in funding while in the studio before the startup goes on to the seed stage level of funding. The studio's website, found here, offers scant details for now, but Campbell teased there's plenty of new information to come soon.
